Draft CCUS Roadmap 2030: India’s Plan to Scale Carbon Capture & Utilisation for Hard‑to‑Abate Sectors
India has begun laying out a national-scale approach for Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS)—a set of technologies that capture CO₂ from industrial and energy sources and then either store it underground or use it as a feedstock to make products. The policy push has two visible tracks: (1) a Draft 2030 Roadmap for CCUS (circulated for stakeholder comments) focused on building a practical deployment ecosystem, and (2) a Budget-backed scale-up direction with a proposed ₹20,000 crore outlay over the next five years to accelerate CCUS readiness in key end-use sectors.
What’s in the news?
A Draft “2030 Roadmap for Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS)” has been issued to guide CCUS adoption in India, with emphasis on developing source–sink mapping, transport infrastructure, storage frameworks and enabling policy/finance. Separately, Budget-related reporting quotes the Finance Minister announcing an outlay of ₹20,000 crore over five years to support scaling CCUS technologies and improve readiness across power, steel, cement, refineries and chemicals.
CCU vs CCS vs CCUS: the basics (clear definitions)
- CCU (Carbon Capture and Utilisation): CO₂ is captured and then used—for example, in chemicals, fuels, building materials, or other industrial products.
- CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage): CO₂ is captured and then stored long-term, typically by injection into deep geological formations.
- CCUS: The umbrella term covering both utilisation and storage pathways.
A typical CCUS chain has four steps: capture → compression → transport → utilisation and/or storage.
Why CCUS is being prioritised: “hard-to-abate” sectors
India’s heavy industries and fossil-based energy systems will remain important for growth, but they also create significant emissions. In many industrial processes—especially cement and steel—CO₂ is produced not only from burning fuel but also as a process emission (for example, chemical reactions during production), which makes it difficult to eliminate emissions only by switching to renewable electricity.
That is why CCUS is increasingly seen as a “bridge” technology: it can reduce emissions from existing and near-term industrial assets while cleaner production routes mature and become affordable.
What the Draft 2030 CCUS Roadmap covers (key focus areas)
The Draft 2030 Roadmap is framed as a roadmap for adoption of CCS/CCUS in India (with a specific lens on upstream E&P companies), and it explicitly states that the proposals are indicative and subject to changes. It highlights the need for building the ecosystem around CCUS, including technology choices, transport, storage, safety and economics.
1) Mapping “sources” and “sinks”
A central operational challenge is matching where CO₂ is produced (sources) with where it can be stored (sinks), and the Draft Roadmap emphasises clustering and source–sink matching as a systematic approach. It notes that detailed assessment of India’s storage potential is needed using geological and geophysical data, and suggests steps to reduce uncertainty and enable precise source–sink matching.
2) Transport infrastructure (pipelines, ships, road/rail)
The Draft Roadmap calls transport a mature step globally and discusses pipeline, marine shipping, and road/rail transport, noting that pipelines are typically lowest-cost for large volumes, while shipping can provide flexibility in early hub development. It also flags that public confidence depends on strong health and safety regulations, especially since CO₂ pipelines have specific rupture/failure dynamics that require safeguards.
3) Geological storage (EOR and dedicated storage)
The document explains geological storage options and notes that many operating projects worldwide inject CO₂ into oil-producing reservoirs for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), while others use dedicated geological formations such as saline aquifers. It highlights the need for suitable seals/porosity/permeability and stresses the importance of storage resource classification, risk management, and robust monitoring.
4) Technology choices for capture
It describes common capture system types—post-combustion, pre-combustion, and oxy-combustion—and lists families of technologies such as absorption, adsorption, membranes and cryogenic approaches, also referencing emerging biological pathways. It notes that post-combustion capture is often most amenable to retrofit for existing plants, which matters for India’s installed industrial base.
Budget push: ₹20,000 crore for scaling CCUS (2026–31 direction)
Budget reporting quotes the Finance Minister stating that aligning with a roadmap launched in December 2025, scaled CCUS deployment will improve readiness across five industrial sectors—power, steel, cement, refineries and chemicals—and that an outlay of ₹20,000 crore over the next five years is proposed. This matters because CCUS projects are capital-intensive, and the “valley of death” between pilot projects and commercial-scale facilities often requires catalytic support and shared infrastructure.
R&D and testbeds: building India’s innovation base
India’s science ecosystem has also been moving toward translational demonstrations. The Department of Science & Technology (DST) launched an R&D Roadmap for CCUS on 2 December 2025, noting that CCUS is essential for decarbonising sectors where alternatives are limited and highlighting the need for supportive frameworks such as skilled human capital, regulatory and safety standards, and early shared infrastructure. DST also highlights its role in creating CCU test beds in real industrial environments using public–private partnership models, especially for hard-to-abate sectors like power, cement and steel.
CCU pathways: turning CO₂ into value
One reason CCU is attractive is that it can convert CO₂ from a “waste” into a “resource” through mineralisation (building materials), chemicals and fuels—though economics and scale vary by pathway. India’s testbed approach in the cement sector, for example, explicitly connects capture with downstream utilisation routes, aiming to reduce costs through R&D and real-plant demonstrations.
Challenges India must solve for large-scale CCUS
- High costs and energy penalty: Capture is typically the most expensive step, and project economics depend on cheap energy, large volumes and reliable offtake/storage.
- Shared infrastructure: Hubs and common-carriage CO₂ pipelines/storage can reduce unit cost, but need coordination and regulation.
- Liability and safety regulation: Long-term storage requires rules for monitoring, leak prevention, and responsibilities across decades.
- Public acceptance: CO₂ transport and storage safety assurance is critical for trust and permitting.
FAQs
Q1. What is CCUS?
CCUS means Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage—capturing CO₂, compressing it, transporting it, and then either using it in products or storing it long-term underground.
Q2. Why does India need CCUS for “hard-to-abate” sectors?
Because in sectors like cement and steel, a large portion of emissions is process-related and difficult to remove using renewable electricity alone, making CCUS a key mitigation option.
Q3. What does the Draft 2030 Roadmap emphasise?
It emphasises building the CCUS ecosystem: source–sink mapping, transport infrastructure, storage frameworks, technology options, safety, and enabling policy/finance.
Q4. What is the ₹20,000 crore announcement linked to CCUS?
Budget reporting quotes the Finance Minister proposing an outlay of ₹20,000 crore over the next five years to scale CCUS and improve readiness across power, steel, cement, refineries and chemicals.
Q5. What role is DST playing in CCUS?
DST launched an R&D roadmap for CCUS (Dec 2, 2025) and highlights translational R&D through CCU test beds in real industrial environments using PPP models, especially for power, cement and steel.
Q6. What is “source–sink matching”?
It is the process of linking CO₂ emission sources to suitable storage sites (sinks) or utilisation hubs, often through clustering and shared transport/storage infrastructure.
