Mains Marathon

Approach

• Give Brief Introduction about Carbon Capture and Utilization and Storage (CCUS)
• Mention some technologies to capture carbon and store it.
• Discuss the contribution of the CCUS to achieve net zero emission by 2070.
• Conclude suitably.

Answer

Carbon Capture and Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technologies:

• Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) encompasses methods and technologies to remove CO₂ from the flue gas and from the atmosphere, followed by recycling the CO₂ for utilization and determining safe and permanent storage options.
• CO₂ captured using CCUS technologies is converted into fuel (methane and methanol), refrigerants and building materials.
  • The captured gas is used directly in fire extinguishers, pharma, food and beverage industries as well as the agricultural sector.
• CCUS technologies can play an important role in meeting net zero targets, including as one of few solutions to tackle emissions from heavy industry and to remove carbon from the atmosphere.
• CCUS is considered an important tool to help countries halve their emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050.
  • These goals are crucial to meet the Paris Agreement targets for restricting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (°C), and preferable to 1.5°C, over pre-industrial levels.

Applications of CCUS:

• Mitigating Climate Change: Despite the adoption of alternative energy sources and energy efficient systems to reduce the rate of CO₂ emissions, the cumulative amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere needs to be reduced to limit the detrimental impacts of climate change.
• Agriculture: Capturing CO₂ from biogenic sources such as plants and soil to boost crop growth in a greenhouse could work.
• Industrial Use: Combining CO₂ with steel slag - an industrial byproduct of the steel manufacturing process — to make construction materials compatible with the Paris Agreement goals.
• Enhanced Oil Recovery: CCU is already making inroads into India. For instance, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation signed a MoU with Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) by injecting.

Net Zero Emission:

• Global CO₂ emissions from the energy sector fall to zero on a net basis by 2070, CCUS accounts for nearly 15% of the cumulative reduction in emissions compared with the Stated Policies Scenario. The contribution of CCUS grows over time as the technology improves, costs fall and cheaper abatement options in some sectors are exhausted. In 2070, 10.4 Gt of CO₂ is captured from across the energy sector.
• The initial focus of CCUS is on retrofitting existing fossil fuel-based power and industrial plants as well as lower-cost CO₂ capture opportunities such as hydrogen production. Over time, the focus shifts to bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) and direct air capture (DAC) for carbon removal and as a source of climate-neutral CO₂ for use in various applications, particularly synthetic fuels.
• Global hydrogen use increases seven-fold to 520 Mt by 2070 and contributes to the decarbonisation of transport, industry, buildings and power. Around 6% of the cumulative emissions reductions in the Sustainable Development Scenario are from low-carbon hydrogen, with 40% of hydrogen demand met by fossil-based production equipped with CCUS in 2070.
• Carbon removal is required to balance emissions across the energy system that are technically difficult or prohibitively expensive to abate. It can also help offset emissions from outside the energy sector, should progress there be lacking. DAC technologies can play an important role alongside BECCS: the challenge will be to lower the cost of DAC, which today is very high due mainly to the large amounts of energy needed.

Challenges associated with CCUS:

• Expensive: Carbon capture involves the development of sorbents that can effectively bind to the CO₂ present in flue gas or the atmosphere, which is expensive.
• Lesser Demand for Recycled CO₂: Converting CO₂ into useful chemicals of commercial importance, or utilizing CO₂ for oil extraction or remediation of alkaline industrial wastes, would add economic value to this greenhouse gas.
• However, the demand for CO₂ is limited compared to the vast amount of CO₂ that needs to be removed from the atmosphere, to reduce the detrimental environmental impacts of climate change.

Any viable system for storing carbon must be effective and cost competitive, stable as long-term storage, and environmentally benign.

Countries should narrow down on the handful of technologies that show more promise and channel investment in them.