IIT Bombay sets up first national centre in carbon capture

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has established the National Centre of Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilization (NCoE-CCU), with support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology, New Delhi.

The NCoE is India’s first such centre funded by the Government of India, formally sanctioned in December 2021. Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) is a crucial climate change mitigation solution that is constantly advancing in its technology readiness levels for operational feasibility and economic viability. A co-benefit application of CCUS is enhanced oil and gas recovery, whereby CO2 is used to increase natural resource production while a good part of the CO2 is stored in the subsurface.

Centre to focus on understanding role of CO2 emissions

Its primary focus of research will be understanding the role of CO2 in the global climate and mitigation strategies of the CO2 emitted from the industrial and energy sector, ranging from advances in capture technologies to subsequent utilisation of captured CO2.

IIT Bombay Director Subhasis Chaudhuri said the decarbonisation of ‘hard-to-abate’ industries would require outstanding efforts to achieve the net-zero goals. “IIT Bombay has undertaken leadership to address several science and engineering grand challenges and develop their end-to-end solutions. The centre shall explore and unlock the potential of CCU technologies to lead India in industrial sector to evolve as a circular carbon economy,” he said.

The centre will act as a multi-disciplinary, long-term research and development, collaboration and capacity-building hub in the area of carbon capture and utilisation. It will be nodal for state-of-the-art research and application-oriented initiatives in the field of CCUS. The cross-disciplinary training through the NCoE will develop a deep understanding and problem-oriented approach in next-generation researchers through outreach and capacity-building programmes.

The centre will facilitate capturing and mapping current research and development and innovation activities in the domain and develop a network of researchers, industries and stakeholders in the domain with coordinated and synergised research between partnering groups and organisations.

Read more:

• 4 IIIT Naya Raipur students get internship offer from Goldman Sachs
• IIT Madras sets up centre to solve India’s water problems
• HM Suryavanshi joins as NIT Hamirpur Director