Carbon Capture and Structure Process
Carbon Capture and Structure defines the separation of carbon dioxide from energy-related and industrial sources, transporting to a location where it is stored and thus providing long-term isolation from the atmosphere. It is one of the strategies and measures that is used in that is taken into consideration as being able to reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions aimed at mitigating climate change (Dabbousi, 2011, p.122). In as much as there is no single measure that can be on its own sufficient in addressing the changes in climate and thus mitigating climatic changes, Carbon Capture and Structure in conjunction with renewable energy, improvements in energy efficiency and enhancement of the biological sinks among other strategies may prove successful when it comes to reducing emissions that are needed in the realization of climate stabilization.
Carbon capture generates a concentrated stream of carbon dioxide that is capable of being compressed, transported and finally stored. While some of the technologies for capturing are feasible in economic terms under certain conditions, others are still undergoing research and extensive and elaborate information about them is yet to be made public. It is estimated that the price of electricity may go up by up to 30% through carbon capture for units of an integrated gasification combined cycles. This price can even go as high as 80% if the units are retrofitted to existing pulverized coal which may also have an effect on the net generation of electricity by about 25%. This is because the power that would be generated would be used by the same plant in capturing and compressing carbon dioxide (Anandajit, 2016, p.215).
It is predicted that India will feature among the three leading emitters of the world by 2030 with reference to the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted every year. As at the moment, India is ranked sixth globally. Going by the information from the World Coal Association, it is estimated that the use for coal with an increase by 60% over the same time in which developing countries will contribute up to 97% of this increase mainly to meet rates of electrification that have greatly increased.
At a population of 1.2 billion, India stands as the second most populous country in the world with the largest democracy. This means the large population has the freedom of choice on most of the various undertakings in the country as long as they are within the confines of the Indian constitution. There has been a rapid growth in the economy of India over the past two decade witnessed but due to the large human population, eradication of poverty remains big challenges (Johansson, 2012, p.177). As at 2007, India produced to the tune of 1727.71 million tines of carbon dioxide emissions from land use, change in land use and forestry. The gross production during that year was 10797.03 million tones which meant that the carbon dioxide generation per capita at the time was 1.3 tones. About 66% of this emission was from the energy sector in which electricity alone contributed 48% of the gross emission. The industrial sector as well had a chunk share of the emissions, accounting for 27% of the total emissions.
India’s Carbon Emissions
A very small proportion of the industrial sector emissions of India is from ammonia. This is attributed partly to the existing utilization of carbon dioxide. This is because urea forms the main nitrogenous fertilizer that is being manufactured in India. In the natural-gas based plants which are mostly used in the production of ammonia have very limited volumes of carbon dioxide generated from the process streams which is insufficient on the production of urea. This inadequacy is solved by either substituting a portion of the natural gas using naphtha or obtained some carbon dioxide from the combustion of the fuel flue gas stream. To this extent, the net emissions are about 0.7 MT CO2/MT urea from the Indian urea sector (Karimi, 2012, p.189). This value is much lower than the average net emissions of the world which stands at 0.95 MT CO2/MT urea.
Going by the statistics on greenhouse emissions experienced in the past years, India’s Integrated Energy Policy gives a projection of between 3.9 and 5.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2032. These figures will hover be dependent on the economic growth of India, the share of renewables in India’s energy mix as well as the carbon intensity of the economy among other factors. When combined with projected India’s population of 1468 million at the time, it will mean that India will have a per capita carbon emission ranging between 2.6 and 3.6 tons by 2032 (Bradbrook, 2009, p.194). Despite the concise proportion of the emissions generated by the various sections depending on the assumptions that will be followed in arriving at a particular scenario at the time, in every case the share of generation from electricity will still be expected to be responsible for the majority of the carbon emissions.
India imports both natural gas and oil and is the third largest producer of coal in the world. This is despite the fact that the coal generated from India is of very low quality which then leads to the need to import metallurgical coal that is used for making steel. There are 114001.6 million tons of coal reserves as per the information from the Indian Ministry of Coal. The actual amount of coal that can be extracted from these coal resources are however lower and ranges between 56 and 71 billion tonnes. It is estimated that the coal reserves for India to the depth of 1200 meters are about 276.81 billion tonnes. From this information, it is crystal clear that in comparison to other fossil fuels, India has relatively plentiful resources of coal reserves. This makes coal a very integral aspect of the energy portfolio of India from the perception of energy security (Johansson, 2012, p.166).
Role of Ammonia in India’s Carbon Emissions
Despite India acknowledging the significance of the threat to climate change, a challenge comes in where the country has to ensure it attains the socio-economic development aimed at improving the living conditions of its population. That notwithstanding, it should be noted that mitigating climate change and raising the living standard are not mutually exclusive aims as the accompanying energy growth that is used in meeting the needs of improved living standards should be based on options that tend to be low carbon energy.
Still, it is acknowledged that the economy of India may be negatively impacted by the impacts of climate change, for example, climate change will have negative effects on agriculture production which is the main source of livelihood for a significant fraction of the population (Helm, 2009, p.562). It is for this reason that the government of India had adopted an approach in which development is given priority to ensure that the developments undertaken in the country are not only climate-friendly but also sustainable.
Numerous research and development activities that are in line with Carbon Capture and Structure take place under the Department of Science and Technology which is part of the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology. The Department of Science and Technology launched the National Program on carbon sequestration Research in the year 207 to aid in competing with other countries in the area of carbon capturing and storage in relation to industrial applications and pure/applied research (Goel, 2014, p.142). The program identified four thrust areas of research among them carbon dioxide sequestration using Micro-algae Bio-fixation Techniques, policy development studies, carbon capture process development as well as network terrestrial agro-forestry sequestration modeling. Among the projects, Department of Science and Technology projects that are related to Carbon Capture and Structure include:
- Carbon sequestration using mineral carbonation in cement kiln dust
- Development of composites of the carbon material for capturing carbon dioxide
- Aqueous mineral carbonation of silicates and capturing carbon dioxide in the tholeiite
- A study on the stock of carbon and estuarine phytoplankton response to iron fertilization
- Sequestration of mineral carbon dioxide using industrial alkaline solid residues(Evar, 2012, p.369)
- Conversion of carbon dioxide using chemosynthesis into algae biomass that has biotech potentials
- Screening criteria development for saline aquifers as well as other geological sinks
- Sequestration of carbon dioxide using anoxic microbial consortium which is used in the production of methane fuel and oxygen microbial consortium that is used in the bioconversion of methane to methanol.
- Simulation and experimental studies on sequestration of carbon dioxide using chemical or solar methods
- Prediction of the changes in soil carbon under various bioclimatic systems in India
- Analysis of the technology Carbon Capture and Structure in the contest of the power sector of India(Dabbousi, 2011, p.121)
- Sequestration of carbon dioxide using the culture of micro-algae that is medically useful in photo-bio-reactor which is linked to gas outlets of the various industries.
- Sequestration of carbon dioxides into the geological environment
- Simulation and modeling of carbon recycling technology through changing carbon dioxide into a useful multi-purpose fuel
- Improvements in the sequestration of nitrogen and carbon: A transgenic approach to reducing greenhouse gas
- Establishment and characterization of solid adsorbents that are porously used in sequestration of carbon dioxide
- Using chemical and biological carbon dioxide sequestration of pilot bio-reactor
- The potential of carbon sequestration in wetlands of Vedaraniam
- The mycorrhizal symbiosis that is used in promoting sequestration of carbon aimed at sustainable fertility and safety of the environment(Evar, 2012, p.203).
- Sequestration of carbon through afforestation aimed at mitigating carbon dioxide emission from the various power stations.
- Propagating Bamboo plantation for monitoring carbon sequestration in the Himalayan region
- Strategies and the dynamics of carbon storage in the Sunderland Mangrove
Carbon capture and storage increase the cost of electricity as it reduced the net power output. This makes the technology very challenging to adopt as it will lead to an increase in the expenditure and thus a barrier to its acceptability in India. Deployment of CCS technology has been established to be running in the counter direction with the ambitious goals of India for electrification (Helm, 2009, p.190). This is mostly due to the current deficit in electricity and the overall energy situation in the country. It is estimated that the price of electricity may go up by up to 30% through carbon capture for units of an integrated gasification combined cycles. This price can even go as high as 80% if the units are retrofitted to existing pulverized coal which may also have an effect on the net generation of electricity by about 25%. This is because the power that would be generated would be used by the same plant in capturing and compressing carbon dioxide.
Impact of Carbon Capture on Electricity Prices
The Department of Science and Technology which falls under the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology took the initiative of looking after Research and Development activities that have a close connection with carbon capture and storage in India. The Department of Science and Technology established the National Program on Carbon Sequestrations Research in the year 2007 in a bid to develop pure and applied research as well as industrial applications. An agreement named the Agreement of Cooperation in Science and Technology, a consensus was arrived at between the Government of Norway, the Government of India, the Department of Science and Technology and the Research Council of Norway to have a program set up that was jointly funded (Hou, 2010, p.120).
The program dubbed Indian-Norwegian cooperation was to conduct joint research on issues such as climate research that was inclusive of carbon capture and storage. A pilot experimental EOR project located in Gujarat was to be set up by ONGC Ltd. in this project; the carbon dioxide that was generated from the gas processing plant located in Hazira was to be directed to Ankleshwar oil field. The aim of this arrangement was to generate a gas stream of high purity from the onshore Hazira plant. Hazira plant is a processing plant that processes up to 40 MMSCMD of sour gas each day through the use of amine absorption that is followed by the removal of hydrogen sulfide, dehydration, and compression of the gas at Hazira. After processing, the gas is transported using pipes to the onshore reservoirs located at Ankleshwar (Kulichenko, 2012, p.258). At this place, the gas is recompressed and injected to facilitate recovery of crude oil. It is reported however that ONGC has opted to rethink about by project citing its costs being a capital-intensive investment.
National Aluminum Company, which is a company owned by the government has laid down plans of setting up a carbon capture unit at the core-fired plant that s located in Angul in Orissa state. The company has earmarked 0.18-acre area at be used as the project site. The project is to make use of the latest advances and innovative technology which would be achieved by involving the firm M/s Indo-Can Technology Solutions (Zillman, 2014, p.204). M/s Indo-Can Technology Solutions is a pioneer in solutions of biotechnology, provision of the necessary services as well as offering technical consultancy that would guide and see the National Aluminum Company successfully complete the project within a span of 18 months.
India’s Initiatives on Carbon Capture and Structure
In this project, algae will be planted in shallow ponds and carbon dioxide generated by a thermal power plant captured and introduced into the pond. The algae have numerous applications among them generation of biofuel, aquaculture feeds, poultry and cattle feed as well as pharmaceutical products among other applications. Some research of CCS has also been going on and is spearheaded by NTPC Ltd which is largest power company in India owned by the government. The company has got into partnership with national Geophysical Research Laboratory India as part of the Carbon sequestration Leadership Forum and the Battelle Pacific North-West National Laboratory (Markandya, 2011, p.158). The partnership is aimed at examining the Deccan basalt formation in India as a probable long-term storage option for carbon dioxide. In collaboration with the Ministry of Power, NTPC arranged for a national workshop on CCS in 2014 that was meant to be informative and educative on CCS technology.
Work is going on in the development of new adsorbents for post-combustion carbon dioxide capture. This is an undertaking by the Indian Institute of Petroleum. In this light, a three column Pressure Swing Adsorption/Vacuum Swing Adoption unit has been set up in by the institute in their laboratory located in Dehradun (Rand, 2010, p.278). Testing is being undertaken in these columns under flue gas conditions as is available in power plants. The work is being done in conjunction with IIT Bombay that performs the simulation and process design aspects, National Environmental Engineering Institute and the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute who are handling adsorbent development as well as NTPC which is in charge of operation of the power plants.
An engineering and manufacturing enterprise that is owned by the government named Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd. in collaboration with APGENCO which is the company that generated power in Andhra Pradesh is establishing a demonstration plant. The plant which operates at 125 W is located in Andhra Pradesh. This plant is however not directly related to CCS even though it has been found to one of the most affordable options for capturing carbon. Deployment of this technology has challenges when it comes to implementing it for Indian coal as there are arguments that the development may finally lead to the deployment of pre-combustion capture technology in India’s power sector (Schuler, 2014, p.234).
Besides establishing the first IGCC plant in India, Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd is also working in collaboration with India Gandhi Center for Atomic Research and NTPC. The collaboration is aimed at design, developing and construction boilers which are ultra-super-critical in nature. The boilers will be supplementary to the supercritical technology boilers that are already being manufactured (Cook, 2018, p.184). There is also collaboration between Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd and TREC-STEP aimed at adopting a set of initiatives in CCS and CCT to be part of the European Union three year funded project.
Conclusion
A study on Cyanobacteria has been going on in the Department of Chemical Engineering which falls in the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. The study is to explore cyanobacteria that can be advanced to serve as an ideal microbial cell factory used for harvesting solar energy and changing the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to useful products. The department is undertaking the construction of cyanobacteria genetic regulatory network and using these networks in predicting and maximizing production of biofuel and sequestration of carbon. The department is as well undertaking a study on carbon sequestration with the use of carbon dioxide absorption in aqueous mineral suspensions (McKibben, 2015, p.250). This is a joint project with Washington University. Still, IITB is a member of Consortium for Clean Utilization with WUStL in which work is done on numerous projects among them:
- Capturing and conversion of carbon dioxide in various modalities of combustion systems of coal
- Development of microalgae systems that are used in sequestration of carbon dioxide
- Multiphase fluid formation mineral reaction mechanisms and kinematics in geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide(Bradbrook, 2009, p.246)
India has maintained a cautious approach when it comes to adopting the CCS technology. There has been minimal interest indicated by the government in demonstrating the technology in its domestic markets. This is attributed to the concerns of the reaction of the public on storage of carbon dioxide underground. Another reason for the reluctance from the government is the findings from research which revealed that the carbon dioxide geological capacity of India could be very limited. In order to achieve a full adoption and implementation, India needs a more refined characterization of the probable storage sites (McKibben, 2015, p.189). Consideration should also be given to the economic feasibility as the current CCS technology in more of impractical since the potential investors may be realizing an acceptable return.
The understanding of the public of CCS technology in India is quite low which may lead to powerful civilian opposition and hence the need to conduct public education on the issues around greenhouse emissions (Cook, 2018, p.356). Such public education will play a role in getting CCS technology off the ground. In as much as India currently supports sustainable development and is interested in adopting countermeasures to mitigate the development of global warming, capture and store method still faces strong opposition and criticism due to lack of the necessary technical parameters. Economic feasibility is yet another drawback on this as there is a considerable potential to lower the demand and cost of the processes of capturing and compressing carbon dioxide by advancements in technology and investment in development and research.
Other barriers include:
- CCS is still at the demonstration stage globally. This leaves investors and stakeholders with very little levels of confidence which only upon being gained in the technology through large-scale deployment across the world will it be possible to consider CCS technology as a serious affair for India(Johansson, 2012, p.201).
- There are no accurate data on geological storage sites in India. It is a requirement that the capacity, location, permeability among other features of the sinks be established before the installation of a power plant can proceed.
- Carbon capture and storage increase the cost of electricity as it reduced the net power output. This makes the technology very challenging to adopt as it will lead to an increase in the expenditure and thus a barrier to its acceptability in India. Deployment of CCS technology has been established to be running in the counter direction with the ambitious goals of India for electrification. This is mostly due to the current deficit in electricity and the overall energy situation in the country(Evar, 2012, p.212).
- Lack of funds is yet another barrier to implementation of CCS technology in India. Access to fiancé from the financing agencies among the World Bank and Asian development bank calls for additional governance requirement besides the existing requirements. Such requirements may be dependent on the availability of the specific clearances of the CCS as availed by the Ministry of Power and/ or the relevant Government agencies(Nautiyal, 2013, p.132). Clearances are also required to get access to such funds. These numerous procedures act to derail and slow the rate of implementation of CCS technology as most of the implementers may be discouraged by the lengthy procedures which are themselves not a guarantee of the financial assistance.
- Meeting the purpose of CCS implementation calls for monitoring of the stored carbon dioxide to ensure there are no leakages. Rigorous monitoring over long periods calls for techniques which are not readily available within the territorial boundaries of India.
- Highly skilled and trained manpower is needed for the execution of CCS technology on a large scale. Still, elaborate and suitable infrastructure is required. All these are not readily available in India as at present since this is a new technology whose implementation is not yet any achieved(Karimi, 2012, p.115).
- Carbon dioxide storage is easily done using Enhanced Oil Refinery as the storage cost is offset by the revenue collected from the oil that is recoverable from the exhausted oil fields through this procedure. For the case of India, there are very few oil fields of which are considerably depleted for Enhanced Oil Refinery to be needed at present. Also, EOR depends on the characteristics of mixing of the oil with the fluid used in extracting it. This may not be suitable for all the extracting fluids.
- Clarification is sought on how the implementation of CCS through retrofit of the capture equipment to the already existing plants may alter the terms of reference to the plant. This calls for spelling out and standardization off fresh environmental clearances should they be needed to receive the consent of implementation of CCS technology.
Below are the capacity development needs which relate to CCS and need to be addressed in order to establish a conducive environment for implementation of CCS technology in India
Capacity development for operation, verification, assessment of storage site, development, and monitoring
Assessment of the possible storage sites remains one of the greatest challenges to the adoption of CCS technology in India. Two long-term approaches may be used in remedying this: involving Indian agencies in any potential easement world that is being conducted elsewhere and offering training to geologists on techniques of advanced assessment. As soon as the storage sites have been identified, plans should be set in place to ensure these sites are viable for injection and storage of carbon dioxide (Dabbousi, 2011, p.218). This may include such things as an understanding of advanced techniques in drilling or even capacity to assess data on permeability and hence knowledge and expertise in such areas. This is achievable through offering training to the operators in the natural gas and petroleum sectors to be acquainted with the specific needs of CCS operation.
Capacity development of financial institutions
The norms and practices in CCS implantation are different from those that are applicable for the normal power plants. Bringing to the information of the financial institutions of the country the global practices with regard to the evaluation of CCS projects may serve to be a step in the forward direction.
Sharing and transfer of technology
As CCS is still a developing technology that is at the demonstration stage, India should not be left behind in this development. Despite the existence of significant work done domestically, a lot still needs to be accomplished and hence the need for knowledge and collaborations sharing and transfer (Cook, 2018, p.260). Among the areas that should be given focus in the research include changing of carbon dioxide into useful products, device of new adsorbents and better process integration of the various capture equipment.
Building of knowledge and capacity development of regulators and policymakers
There tends to be very little knowledge if any of the decision-making levels. This calls for the need to get into the finer details of the various elements of CCS, the accompanying benefits, and risks. The present study has made a significant effort in attempting to bring to the knowledge of the relevant stakeholder but still more systematics and the sustained task is left that needs to be addressed to position India as one of the countries in the second stage of the development lifecycle of CCS. This capacity development is achievable through arranging for events that are mainly targeting policymakers and regulators in the relevant sector among them the environment, electricity, oil, and gas.
Sharing of knowledge among various CCS groups
CCS is an activity that cuts across the board and brings on board, numerous divergent stakeholders. This makes it necessary to conduct knowledge sharing sessions at frequent intervals that will see improvements in the quality of information that is availed to every stakeholder. The overall impact will be more informed decision making based on expansive, elaborate and extensive information at all levels.
Public engagement
The success of any CCS project depends on public acceptance as there is a need for consensus from either end on where the storage would be done. Different civil society groups should be involved in different aspects of the interest of the public. Involving these groups at early stages in discussions on CCS and related topics may enhance better and easy acceptability of the CCS technologies to be implemented (Rand, 2010, p.283).
Conclusion and view
Climate change is a global problem that no single country can solve on its own and thus the need for cooperation between India and other countries across the globe to meet her sustainable development goals. Over the past few years, India has experienced a high trajectory movement of a high economic growth which is important in the achievement of its inclusive growth goal. Energy remains the main driver of the engine of the country’s growth not only from the economic point of view but also from a social perspective. In as much as it coal is expected to be the dominant energy in India in the predictable future, the country is exploring every possible opportunity of reducing the levels of the resultant greenhouse emissions. For example, the future capacity is expected to be based majorly on super-critical technology.
Moreover, India is in full support of the global efforts into CCS technologies by R & D. Concerns of the stakeholders still remains on the capital and operation costs, social acceptance of CCS technology, the energy penalties as well as safety and integrity of potential storage. CCS is associated with high costs of electricity as well as reduces net electricity production which forms hurdles to the country’s electricity goals to all at affordable prices. Following its wide applicability, the purpose of CCS is not just limited to the production of power but as well extends to different other industrial sectors among them algal biofuel, mineralization, use of captured carbon dioxide for Enhanced Oil Recovery, manufacture of fertilizers and manufacture of substitutes to cement. There is a need to explore finer details and extensively the role of CCS as an option for potential climate change mitigation in order to fully address the issues addressed in this research paper.
Despite India acknowledging the significance of the threat to climate change, a challenge comes in where the country has to ensure it attains the socio-economic development aimed at improving the living conditions of its population. The government of India had adopted an approach in which development is given priority to ensure that the developments undertaken in the country are not only climate-friendly but also sustainable
India is faced with numerous challenges and barriers when it comes to adopting the CCS technology Major investments are required in the realization of the deployment of CCS technologies in s country of the same stature as India. These investments may not be handled even by OECD countries. Carbon capture and storage increase the cost of electricity as it reduced the net power output. This makes the technology very challenging to adopt as it will lead to an increase in the expenditure and thus a barrier to its acceptability in India. The understanding of the public of CCS technology in India is quite low which may lead to powerful civilian opposition and hence the need to conduct public education on the issues around greenhouse emissions. There the capacity development needs which relate to CCS and need to be addressed in order to establish a conducive environment for implementation of CCS technology in India. Options for CCS technologies will change from one region to another but the baseline is the need for a rigorous analysis of the entire chain. For success to be realized in the deployment of CCS technology, international cooperation is not a choice but rather the only way to go.
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