FEASIBILITY OF CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE IN INDIA

Abstract

India is a nation with a rapidly growing economy. This rise in economic growth increases the country's energy demand, which is currently, mostly, met by fossil fuels. Coal is the dominant commercial fuel in India, accounting 70% of the total energy consumption. These rises in energy demand also increase India's overall CO2 emissions. Over 70% of India's carbon emissions are associated with the burning of fossil fuels, with a significant proportion of these associated with coal-fired power plants. If India has to reduce its CO2 emissions considerably, then it has either to reduce the use of coal or find ways to reduce CO2 emissions from coal-fired plants. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is used to reduce the CO2 emissions. CCS is a technology which is used for capture of carbon dioxide emissions which is generated by fossil fuel combustion and the captured CO2 is separated from capturing media to obtain pure CO2. The pure CO2 is transported in supercritical state to the geological site for storage. This report focus on whether CCS could be technically and economically feasible in India and evaluates that how much extra energy is required if CCS is applied to existing coal fired power plant in India and how much CO2 emissions could be reduced with the use of CCS. This report also analyses the availability of suitable geological formations to store CO2 in India. .In this report, CO2 emissions from existing coal power plants in India are calculated based upon characteristics of coal. Energy penalty to capture CO2 and capture cost from these plants are analyzed using Integrated Environmental Control Model (ICEM). Also, distance of suitable CO2 storage sites from the existing coal power plants and hence the cost of CO2 transport is evaluated using Geographical Information System (GIS). The results show that energy penalty to capture CO2 from Indian coal power plants is 25-30% if we use amine based capture system and if 90% of the CO2 emissions are captured, several suitable storage basins are available for storage of CO2 emissions in India and the cost of CO2 transport is 0.014 — 5.31 US$/tCO2. Keyword: Carbon capture and storage (CCS), Climate change, Coal Power Plants, Greenhouse gas mitigation