CARBON CAPTURE, USAGE AND STORAGE

Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage – in short CCUS, is not a new term in the current industrial environment. It is being discussed widely at all industrial forums, across all countries, big or small, to control pollution to ensure a healthy and happy life for all. There have been attempts and studies over last 50 years to capture carbon dioxide from the environment to avoid pollution and control global warming scenario. Many technologies have been in use for carbon capture, across the globe, some in large scale and others confined to local areas. It is expensive but very much essential – it is a goal set by WHO/UNO/European Commission – to clean the environment off CO2 gases, use it for alternative purposes or store it for future action. According to International Energy Agency (IEA), we must capture around 100 billion tons of CO2 by 2060 to meet International Global Warming and Energy goals. It is a huge goal and is a very expensive goal to achieve. All big countries who impact the environment in a huge way through their industries shall come forward for a collaboration to prepare a robust plan, pump-in money, monitor and control the processes, to achieve the goal. There is an estimate that US emitted around 5,1 mln t of CO2 in 2019 whereas Global estimate emitted around 33 mln t. These are very huge numbers and hence Global monitoring is very essential to control emission and safe storage and disposal. It is important to understand that Carbon Capture (CC), Carbon Capture and Use (CCU) and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) are three different terms. CC, CCU and CCS are combinedly termed as CCUS. CC is to capture carbon from various sources – fuel gas, fossil fuels, petroleum products, flares from refineries and power plants etc. Usage of the captured carbon in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) is CCU and this is an important long-term vision by any government to ensure it is being used meaningful to avoid negative impact on climate. CCS is storage of the captured carbon quickly so that it does not impact the environment as a greenhouse gas and at the same time, it can be used later. Another term which is frequently used is Net Zero CO2. It is defined as follows: Any CO2 released into the atmosphere from a human activity shall be balanced by an equivalent amount being removed, either by nature-based solutions (including afforestation, reforestation or other changes in land use) or technological solutions that stores CO2 captured directly or indirectly, permanently. Net Zero CO2 is very important, unless this is achieved, CCUS goal cannot be achieved to control climate change. This write-up provides an insight into the following topics:  What is CCUS?  Why is it important?  Steps to CCUS;  CAPEX and OPEX involved.