What Are Carbon Capture and Utilisation Technologies? India’s Pathway to a Circular Carbon Economy
Carbon Capture and Utilisation refers to a set of technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources or directly from the air and convert them into useful products. This process removes carbon from the atmosphere and puts it into the economy as inputs for fuels, chemicals, building materials, or polymers. Unlike carbon capture and storage, where captured CO₂ is permanently stored underground rather than reused, CCU uses up the captured carbon.
This distinction is crucial. Storage is about disposal; utilisation is about transformation. In a circular economy, waste becomes resource. CCU embodies that principle.
Why India Needs CCU
India has consistently been the world’s third-largest emitter of CO₂, with emissions driven largely by power generation, cement, steel, and chemicals. While renewable energy may reduce future emissions, many industrial processes are inherently carbon-intensive and difficult to decarbonise.
The cement industry, for example, releases CO₂ not just from energy use but from the chemical process of converting limestone to clinker. Steelmaking requires coke as both fuel and reducing agent. These are “hard-to-abate” sectors where emissions are intrinsic to the production process.
CCU offers a pathway to reduce emissions from these sectors while simultaneously creating new industrial value chains. It also aligns with India’s net-zero target for 2070 and its push to build a circular, low-carbon economy.
Where India Stands Today
India has begun supporting CCU through research funding from the Department of Science and Technology, which has created a specific research and development roadmap for these technologies. The draft 2030 roadmap for Carbon Utilisation and Storage presented by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has identified projects that can be used for CCUS purposes.
This is not just policy rhetoric; it is concrete planning. The roadmap identifies specific technologies, sectors, and pathways for deployment.
In the private sector, Ambuja Cements (Adani Group) is working on an Indo-Swedish CCU pilot with IIT Bombay to convert captured CO₂ into fuels and materials. This collaboration brings together Indian industrial experience, Swedish technology, and academic research.
JK Cement is collaborating on a CCU testbed to capture CO₂ for applications such as lightweight concrete blocks and olefins. These are not laboratory experiments; they are pilot projects moving toward commercial viability.
Beyond cement, Organic Recycling Systems Limited is leading India’s first pilot-scale bio-CCU platform, valorising CO₂ from biogas streams into bio-alcohols and specialty chemicals. This demonstrates that CCU can work with biological as well as industrial sources.
What Other Countries Are Doing
The EU Bioeconomy Strategy and Circular Economy Action Plan explicitly supports CCU as a way to turn CO₂ into feedstocks for chemicals, fuels, and materials, linking it to circularity and sustainability targets. Europe sees CCU not as an optional add-on but as an integral part of its climate strategy.
ArcelorMittal and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are working with a climate tech company, D-CRBN, to trial a new technology to convert CO₂ captured at ArcelorMittal’s plant in Gent, Belgium, into carbon monoxide which can be used in steel and chemical production. This is significant because steel is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise. If CCU can work here, it can work anywhere.
The U.S. uses a combination of tax credits and funding to scale CCUs, particularly for CO₂-derived fuels and chemicals. The 45Q tax credit provides a financial incentive for carbon capture and utilisation, making projects more economically viable.
The UAE’s Al Reyadah project and planned CO₂-to-chemicals hubs leverage CCU with green hydrogen. In a region rich with hydrocarbons, the UAE is investing in the technologies that will be valuable in a decarbonising world.
The Risks Ahead
The foremost risk in scaling CCU in India is cost competitiveness. Capturing, purifying, and converting CO₂ is energy-intensive and expensive. Without policy incentives, CCU-derived products will struggle to compete with cheaper, fossil-based alternatives.
A second risk lies in infrastructure readiness. CCU requires transport of CO₂, and integration with downstream manufacturing, all of which are unevenly developed across Indian states. Pipelines, storage facilities, and processing plants cannot be built overnight.
Finally, the absence of clear standards, certification, and market signals creates uncertainty for investors and limits demand for CO₂-derived products. If buyers cannot be sure that a product is genuinely low-carbon, they will not pay a premium for it.
The Way Forward
India has taken positive steps through the development of roadmaps to achieve CCU, and their appropriate implementation will be necessary for achieving India’s goals. But roadmaps are not enough; they must be backed by sustained policy support, public investment, and private sector engagement.
Policy incentives could include carbon pricing, mandates for low-carbon products, procurement preferences, and tax credits. Public investment could fund demonstration projects, infrastructure development, and research. Private sector engagement could bring capital, expertise, and commercial discipline.
Conclusion: From Waste to Wealth
Carbon capture and utilisation embodies a fundamental shift in thinking about industrial emissions. Instead of treating CO₂ as a waste to be disposed of, it treats it as a resource to be used. Instead of seeing industry as a problem, it sees industry as part of the solution.
India has begun this journey. Pilot projects are underway. Policy frameworks are being developed. Research is being funded. The next step is scale—moving from pilots to commercial deployment, from individual projects to systemic change.
The technology is ready. The need is urgent. The opportunity is immense. What remains is the will to act.
Q&A: Unpacking Carbon Capture and Utilisation
Q1: What is the difference between CCU and CCS?
Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) captures CO₂ and converts it into useful products like fuels, chemicals, building materials, or polymers. The carbon is put back into the economy. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) captures CO₂ and permanently stores it underground. CCU is about circularity; CCS is about disposal. Both reduce atmospheric emissions, but through different pathways.
Q2: Why is CCU particularly important for India?
India is the world’s third-largest emitter, with emissions concentrated in “hard-to-abate” sectors like cement, steel, and chemicals where process emissions are intrinsic. Renewable energy can’t eliminate these emissions. CCU offers a pathway to reduce them while creating new industrial value chains. It aligns with India’s 2070 net-zero target and circular economy goals.
Q3: What CCU projects are underway in India?
Ambuja Cements is working on an Indo-Swedish CCU pilot with IIT Bombay to convert captured CO₂ into fuels and materials. JK Cement is collaborating on a CCU testbed for lightweight concrete blocks and olefins. Organic Recycling Systems Limited is leading India’s first pilot-scale bio-CCU platform, converting CO₂ from biogas into bio-alcohols and specialty chemicals.
Q4: What are other countries doing on CCU?
The EU’s Bioeconomy Strategy and Circular Economy Action Plan explicitly support CCU. ArcelorMittal and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are trialing CCU in steelmaking in Belgium. The US offers tax credits through 45Q. The UAE has the Al Reyadah project and planned CO₂-to-chemicals hubs leveraging green hydrogen. A global race to commercialise CCU is underway.
Q5: What are the main risks for scaling CCU in India?
Three main risks: cost competitiveness (CCU is expensive without policy incentives); infrastructure readiness (transport and integration unevenly developed); and absence of clear standards, certification, and market signals creating investor uncertainty. These risks require sustained policy support, public investment, and private sector engagement to overcome.
