Accelerating Net Zero

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ACCELERATING NET ZERO

E1-05, First Floor, Block E

IIT Madras Research Park

32, Kanagam Rd, Tharamani,

Chennai 600113, Tamil Nadu

ACCELERATING NET ZERO

SHORT

SERIES

JUNE 2024

deep

dive into

CARBON CAPTURE | GREEN FUELS |

SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS | CLIMATE FINANCE

ENERGY CONSORTIUM IS AN INSTITUTE OF EMINENCE CENTER

ACCELERATING NET ZERO

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ENERGY CONSORTIUM IS AN INSTITUTE OF EMINENCE CENTER

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systems

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ACCELERATING NET ZERO

ENERGY CONSORTIUM IS AN INSTITUTE OF EMINENCE CENTER

ACCELERATING NET ZERO

SHORT

SERIES

ACCELERATING NET ZERO

he Energy Consortium was founded in December 2021

with a bold vision: to enable India’s journey towards a

low-carbon energy future. In this short span, we have

10 global energy majors, including those in hard-to-

abate and hard-to-electrify sectors as well as those at

the forefront of leveraging digital means for energy transition,

collaborating with us. We are now participating heavily in two major

alliances, one focused on energy storage and another on green fuels.

We are actively partnering and advising government agencies

on topics of national and international importance and have

represented the cause at the COP28 in Dubai. This has allowed us to

drive collective action at scale and emboldens us to contribute more

assertively towards the Net-Zero journey of India.

As per the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy data, India, at

the end of 2023, became 4th globally in Renewable Energy Installed

Capacity, 4th in wind power capacity and 5th in solar power capacity.

We recognize that the time has come to elevate our mission. We must

transition from just enabling progress to actively accelerating the

realization of a Net Zero future.

Together with our partners in industry and government, we

can ensure that Net Zero is not just an aspiration, but an imminent

reality for India and the world. Building on our vision, we are

now in mission mode, fully dedicated to Accelerating Net Zero at

the Energy Consortium. This commitment is reflected in our new

mission statement and our revised strategy of advancing research

in clean energy sources, including offshore wind, green hydrogen,

green fuels, and large-scale industrial electrification, while

intensifying our efforts in carbon capture, utilization and storage

(CCUS).

In this short series, we bring together four seminal topics that

are going to shape how we accelerate achieving net zero. We explore

through two topics the role that carbon dioxide capture technologies

will play and its centrality in achieving net zero, as well as the role of

green ammonia in this journey.

In addition to the role played by technology, it is also

important to unlock the decarbonization potential through

a critical analysis of the various GHG contributors and

systematically reducing not just Scope 1 & 2 emissions but

also Scope 3 emissions. Therefore, one topic specifically

explores the strategies required for addressing Scope 3

emissions. Finally, in this short series, we also explore

the key enablers for financing climate change and the

role of public-private partnerships in our fifth topic.

The global transition to a net-zero carbon

economy is not just an environmental imperative but

also an economic opportunity. By leading the charge

in clean energy innovation and carbon capture,

we are paving the way for a sustainable future that

benefits our planet and future generations.

Dr. Nikhil Tambe

CEO – Energy Consortium, IIT Madras

Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Applied Mechanics, &

Biomedical Engineering, IIT Madras

avigating net-zero is often a journey of two

steps forward and one step back. Conflicting

requirements, short-termism and despondence

over the unknowable and unplannable future

often leads to inaction on our long-term goals.

Goals are clear; however, it is the path that needs to be shown.

The Path to Decarbonization special issue by the Energy

Consortium at IIT Madras was launched during the Energy

Summit 2023 to throw some light on this journey that every

individual, organisation and country should undertake for the

sake of humanity. It talked about some of the actions leading

corporates are taking and the pathways to do more. However,

we find that we need faster action. Planet will survive and

find a new-normal, however it is humans that needs it to be in

perfect balance to avoid a pernicious fate.

Accelerating Net Zero is the second edition from the

Energy Consortium, where an attempt is made to address

critical technology and policy elements that could accelerate

this transition to net-zero. Though net-zero is a state point,

the journey is a path function that needs to be traversed with

minimal entropy generation. In this journey, there are many

solutions, which may not be clear and some, where the choices

are hard.

In this edition, a few such examples such as the role of

CCUS in net-zero or the understanding of scope 3 reporting

are explored in detail. The role of capital as a catalyst in this

acceleration is presented as a framework to be built. Now, the

pathways are becoming visible and with other ingredients

falling in place, we wish the acceleration towards net-zero hits

escape velocity. Happy reading!

Dr. Satyanarayanan Seshadri

Faculty Head, Energy Consortium, IIT Madras

Associate Professor, Dept. of Applied Mechanics &

Biomedical Engineering, IIT Madras

FOREWORD

PREFACE

ACCELERATING NET ZERO

CONTENTS

Role of CCUS in net-zero transition

Rajnish Kumar

Advances in Ammonia and its role as a

green fuel for net zero

Kothandaraman Ramanujam

Unlocking India’s decarbonization potential through a

critical analysis of scope 3 emissions

Rahul Muralidharan and Nikhil S Tambe

Public private partnership: a key enabler for financing

climate change

Ajay Patil and Aayushee Singh

Hari J Subramani, Chevron Tech Ventures

Arun Ranganathan, Infosys

M. Venkatachalam, NLC India Ltd.

INDUSTRY

ADVISORS

Dr. Nikhil S Tambe

Srivatsan S

EDITORIAL

BOARD

Authors

iStock/Getty Images

PHOTOS

Francis J

CREATIVE

HEAD

ACCELERATING NET ZERO

ClimeWorks carbon

dioxide direct air capture

facility in Reykjavik,

Iceland.

Picture courtesy:

Nikhil S Tambe

CARBON CAPTURE

ACCELERATING NET ZERO

Role

of CCUS in

Net Zero

Transition

Prof. Rajnish Kumar

Department of Chemical Engineering,

IIT Madras

hile role of renewables, solar, wind, hydro/waves,

hydrogen etc. including nuclear would ensure a cleaner

future. Current energy need, and proposed GDP growth

in many parts of the world could not be achieved without

ensuring implementation of CCUS. In general, people

around the world are aware of the effect of rising CO2 in the atmosphere

and resulting global warming. Prime challenge for the scientific

community is to educate people that the scale at which CCUS has to be

implemented has no parallel in the history of human kind. Significant

effort is required to identify a solution which is not only economical but

also sustainable at the scale it has to be delivered.

In 2023, not a single electricity producing commercial plant around the

world has been able to demonstrate CCUS in its entirety.

CCUS is essentially a three-step process, the first step is to capture the

carbon dioxide at its source;

1. Point source capture (or separation) of CO2 from its associated

gases (mostly N2, as the other toxic gases which are at a much lower

concentration has already been captured) from industries like steel

manufacturing, cement manufacturing, electricity production etc.

For CO2 capture the most mature process is use of mono-ethanol amine

(MEA, or a derivative of this molecule) for CO2 capture. An alternate route

which uses solid adsorbent/absorbent like, carbon nanotubes (CNT), metal

organic framework (MoF) etc. has not been proven at this scale. Some

Innovative solutions also exists (hydrates, ionic liquids etc.) which are being

tested at lab/pilot scale. If one talks about the most mature process which

utilizes a chemical solvent (like MEA) to capture CO2 from its associated

gases, the biggest challenge is in recycling and regeneration of MEA,

assuming that the corrosion issues could be handled appropriately. Some

of the major concerns are regeneration cost, loss of active material during

regeneration, and significantly large losses of water from cooling towers

and other operations. If one talks about CNT, and MoF like materials for

CO2 capture, corrosion is not an issue, however, generation of such

material itself at such a scale is a big challenge. MEA based processes are

being implemented for demonstration around the world, with a typical cost

of USD 30-50 per ton of CO2 captured. This only captures the process cost

of CO2 capture from using MEA based solvent. However, if one looks at the

raw material (i.e. MEA itself) it has its own CO2 footprint. MEA is produced

from reacting ammonia and ethylene oxide, thus, production of these two

chemicals should also be decarbonised and the cost of the same should

appropriately be added in the overall CO2 capture cost.

Direct air capture (DAC) is a technology which many believes is a way

to go, the proponent of this approach takes a futuristic view. It is argued

that producing fossil fuels and capturing CO2 from its utilization is an

endless trap, rather one should stop using fossil fuels all together! This

approach ensures no anthropogenic CO2 emission into the atmosphere (at

least not from use of fossil fuel). Sometime in future when there is no CO2

emission from point source, DAC would ensure that all the CO2 which has

been emitted by humans (so far) could be captured directly from air, and

its concentration could be brought down to 350-400 PPM level. However,

capture of PPM level CO2 from a gas stream is not going to be trivial, and

this process could be prohibitively expensive, current cost is close to 200

USD per ton for captured CO2. Further, the material/chemical required to

capture PPM level CO2 (from air) is currently quiet immature, and actual

cost of the process will not be evident unless one does a proper life cycle

analysis of this approach.

The second step in CCUS involves utilization of captured CO2.

Here one has to realise that an electricity production plant or a cement

manufacturing unit produces tonnes of CO2 every day!

2. Transporting the captured, relatively purer CO2 (which comes

from step 1) to the utilisation site where CO2 could be processed (with a

hydrogen rich source, or H2) and converted to a liquid chemicals. Some of

the typical chemicals are methanol, dimethyl ether, formic acid, aviation

fuels etc.

However, if one looks

at the raw material

(i.e. MEA itself) it has

its own CO2 footprint.

MEA is produced from

reacting ammonia

and ethylene oxide,

thus, production of

these two chemicals

should also be

decarbonised and

the cost of the same

should appropriately

be added in the overall

CO2 capture cost

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In principle, the captured CO2 could be converted into fuels or

chemicals which would help cut down the requirements of fresh fossil

fuels. And if all the emitted CO2 is captured, one day there would be

no requirement of fossil fuel exploitation. Gaseous fuels to liquid fuel/

chemical (GTL) has been an age old research topic, idea of GTL was to

convert methane rich natural gas to liquid fuel like gasoline which could

be transported easily thus cutting down on CO2 emission associated with

natural gas storage and transport. However, challenge in conversion of CO2

to a fuel or chemical has one additional bottleneck, fresh source of green

hydrogen which could technically convert CO2 into a useful hydrocarbon

for utilization as a fuel. One has to thus identify what works better, a pure

hydrogen economy (where no hydrogen would be wasted on CO2 to create

a circular economy), or integrate hydrogen economy to circular economy

where captured CO2 is converted back to a value-added chemical or fuel.

Hydrogen for both these economies will essentially come from the same

source, a possible solution is simultaneously running both the economies.

As of today, there are many demonstration plants which exist around

the world to convert CO2 (or CO) to methanol and DME, or aviation fuel.

However, production cost is prohibitively high and these plants operates

for demonstration purpose alone.

Tons of CO2 however being captured in step-1 can’t be converted

into useful chemicals, one has to look at the thermodynamics of the

conversion process to understand the energy requirements to convert

all these CO2 into a chemical. Further, the cost of CO2 coming out of DAC

could be as high as 200 - 1000 USD per ton and considering that when one

adds similarly priced green hydrogen in the mix to produce a commodity,

the end product can’t be used for mass market application. This perhaps

suggests that it could be more economical to sequester the captured CO2

rather converting the same to a chemical/commodity.

3. Majority of the CO2 which could not be converted (in step-2) has to

be transported to the sequestration sites. While this step may look costly

as there is no value addition, it is a fact that there is no use of such a large

quantity of CO2 and one has to invest in CO2 pipelines for transportation of

these to sequestration sites.

The sequestration sites could be one of these; deep coal bed

reserves, depleted oil and gas field, saline aquifers, basalt rocks under

the earth or unconsolidated sediments deep inside the sea-bed where the

existing water in the pores of these sediments would convert into solid

CO2 hydrates making it thermodynamically stable for geological time

scale. Each of these sites have certain advantages and disadvantage and

a significant research efforts and field trials has to be done to identify

the challenges which would allow one to come-up with a well-informed

solution. Any solution should be full proof (with continuous monitoring of

sequestered CO2) and should have sufficient capacity to sequester billions

of tons of CO2 for geological time scale. Currently most of the CO2 pipelines

are being used to transport CO2 for EOR application which basically

allows one to scale-up the process for sequestration of tons of these CO2 in

geological sites.

PATH FORWARD:

Since the amount of CO2 utilized and sequestrated is directly proportional

to the amount of CO2 captured. Thus, the first step i.e. CO2 capture should

be the prime focus and looking at the scale, measuring sustainability of the

process should be the prime importance. The materials/chemicals which

are supposed to capture tons of these CO2 are very few, one such molecule

mono-ethanolamine (MEA, or a variation of this material), which has been

proven at large scale through demonstration units, industries who have

implemented these solutions for demonstration should come out with a

report on challenges which were faced. Other processes which are directly

or indirectly not related to MEA have only been demonstrated at lab scale.

Due to lack of investment and insufficient focus, scale-up of the material

synthesis has not been demonstrated, this is perhaps the other bottleneck

of step-1 as far as point source capture is concerned.

Any solution should

be full proof (with

continuous monitoring

of sequestered CO2)

and should have

sufficient capacity

to sequester billions

of tons of CO2 for

geological time scale

Talking about step-2, public perception for CO2 utilization is very

positive, this makes one to believe that we can emit as much CO2 as we

want, all of these could be converted into useful products. In reality,

90% of CO2 utilization solution has been demonstrated to work with

pure CO2, and pure CO2 could only be made available once it has been

captured from point sources (or directly from the air) as discussed in

step-1. CO2 utilization if possible could lead to a circular economy where

CO2 being emitted from industries would be converted to make chemicals

and fuels, thus, reducing the demand of fresh fossil fuel. A mature

circular economy envisions that all the process energy requirements

for conversion of CO2 to hydrocarbon would come from solar or other

renewable energy resources. In theory this is possible, however, in

reality, time and investment required to achieve renewable energy based

economy may not be realistic. Step-3, CO2 sequestration has very poor

public perception, significant work is required to build a positive public

perception for this step. Even in industry, sequestration is looked upon as

money down the drain, and industries are reluctant to invest sufficient

money on this crucial step of CO2 sequestration without which net zero

by 20XX would remain a dream. In absence of positive public perception,

and poor encouragement from industry (and government) around

the world, research on CO2 sequestration has suffered significantly.

Further, not many field trial has been done to study CO2 sequestration,

as investment is prohibitively high and land lease or site lease for such

activities are mired with multi-level govt. and non-govt. clearances. In

short, a holistic road map to achieve mini targets are necessary, and a

significant investment in all the three steps discussed at the start of this

document would be necessary.

IITM EFFORTS FOR CCUS:

IITM has been working with solid adsorbent as active ingredient for

the removal of CO2 from flue gases, basically from a point source which

typically is 10-15% CO2 mixture along with N2 and O2. Such point source

capture of CO2 is relevant for coal fired power plants, cement industries,

steel manufacturing etc. One of the focus of such studies are the kinetics

of CO2 capture and separation efficiency of carbon dioxide from flue gas

mixture. Kinetics of such capture does not get much attention; however,

this is one of the biggest bottlenecks in scale-up of any laboratory process

to pilot plant scale and eventually for commercialization. Next biggest

challenge which pertains to regeneration of the absorber/adsorber has

been studied in detail using state of the art analytical facilities like SEM,

PXRD, and FTIR spectroscopy to gain mechanistic insights. Such detailed

analysis on regeneration and reusability of active ingredient is essential

for a robust process. Some of these active ingredients were eventually used

for a pilot scale demonstration which is currently running.

A number of methods can be used to capture carbon dioxide (CO2)

from its mixture; adsorption, absorption, and membrane separation etc.

However, when it comes to capturing CO2 from a rich mixture of CO2 (more

than 25% CO2 in the stream), such mixtures are typically available after

gasification of coal, in bio-methane production and could also be very

relevant to future cement industries, one prefers a physical absorption/

adsorption. One such physical and novel process is gas separation using

gas hydrates formation and dissociation cycle. One of the major advantages

of using gas hydrates process is use of water as a working medium

to separate gases. Water needed in this process could be saline water,

effluent water or fresh water. Hydrate based process for CO2 separation

from its mixture has been studied extensively. However, a commercially

viable hydrate based CO2 separation process demands a rapid hydrate

formation rate. Higher solubility of hydrate forming guest in water and

larger contact area between the hydrate formers and water. These factors

reduces the mass transfer resistance, resulting in faster hydrate formation

rate (faster kinetics) and allows one to scale-up the process for pilot plant

demonstration. Research groups at IITM has given new patented reactor

designs and suitable additives to ensure scale-up of the process of gas

One of the major

advantages of using

gas hydrates process

is use of water as

a working medium

to separate gases.

Water needed in

this process could

be saline water,

effluent water or

fresh water. Hydrate

based process for

CO2 separation from

its mixture has been

studied extensively

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hydrate based process. Currently, a large 30 litres demonstration of this

process is operational at IITM which has demonstrated a modular design

for separation of CO2 from a rich gas mixture with reasonable kinetics

which operates in continuous mode like a PSA approach. Talking about

PSA, IITM has done extensive work on carbon dioxide capture using

MoF/ZIF, activated carbon-based adsorbents, Zeolite materials etc. for

adsorption of CO2 rich and CO2 lean gas mixtures. Further, solid materials

which chemically binds to CO2 has also been studied in detail for direct air

capture application. An end to end solution for direct air capture has been

demonstrated and an operational pilot plan exist in the campus.

As discussed above, captured carbon dioxide needs to be either

utilized or sequestrated. CO2 utilization is a very rich research field,

and IITM has developed quiet a number of such processes where at

laboratory scale CO2 to methanol, formic acid, methane and other higher

hydrocarbon through carbon -carbon coupling has been demonstrated.

CO2 utilization processes have difficulty in scale-up and IITM is looking

forward to demonstrate such processes at large scale, however, this

is still on going. However, a significant work on fundamental science

and demonstration of CO2 sequestration demonstrations have been

done at IITM. Carbon dioxide sequestration is defined as storage of

anthropogenic CO2 in geological formations either permanently or for

geologically significant time periods. Depleted oil and gas reservoirs,

saline aquifers, unmineable coal beds and deep-sea beds are geological

formations that can be used for long-term CO2 sequestration. India has a

complex and diverse geology. Much of the geology of present-day India is

a result of volcanic eruptions dating back to prehistoric eras. The Indian

subcontinent is mantled with the remnants of at least five continental

flood basalt provinces that occurred between the middle Proterozoic to

the late Cretaceous-early Tertiary eras. The geographical land area of

India can be divided into three parts: The Deccan Trap (youngest of the

five continental flood basalt provinces), Gondwana and Vindhayan. The

Deccan Trap is acknowledged to be one of the largest volcanic features

on Earth. It presently occupies around half a million square kilometers

of western and central India and southernmost. Such sediments are

also prominently found under the sea-bed and could be a rich source of

CO2 sequestration. An alternative solution exist in the form of injecting

CO2 in either gaseous or liquid form 100-500 m beneath the seabed and

sequester it in the form of clathrate hydrates within the bounds of

the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ). CO2 storage in the form of solid

hydrates under the sea-bed is promising, as 1 m3 of CO2 hydrate can store

120–160 m3 of CO2 gas at STP. Studies like, effects of water salinity and

clay on CO2 hydrate formation to comprehend the effect of electrolyte and

capillary effects on the interlayer pores have been studied in laboratory

scale at IIT Madras. These studies have also helped in determining

the appropriate CO2 injection depth for hydrate formation in such

unconsolidated sediments in the deep sea. Further, IITM researchers

have investigated different kinetic promoters with porous silica gel, silica

sand, pumice stone etc. to concluded that certain additives could improve

the efficiency of such sequestration by influencing the induction time and

in improving the degree of hydrate formation. A pilot scale demonstrator

for CO2 sequestration was developed at IIT Madras which is equipped

with mild fracking setup, injection wells (both vertical and horizontal)

for liquid/gaseous CO2 injections. This unit not only the measures the

rate and quantity of CO2 sequestrated at conditions similar to sub-

sea environment, it also could study the stability of sequestered CO2.

Multiple options for efficient CO2 sequestration was demonstrated and It

was also identified that the sequestered CO2 could be stable upto 10-12 oC

rise in sub-sea temperature.

FIGURE 1. Demonstration of a multi-bed reactor for CO2 capture using Gas-Hydrates Formation and Dissociation Cycle

FIGURE 2. Demonstration of point source CO2 capture in a mobile container unit

The Deccan Trap

(youngest of the five

continental flood

basalt provinces),

Gondwana and

Vindhayan. The

Deccan Trap is

acknowledged to be

one of the largest

volcanic features on

Earth. It presently

occupies around

half a million square

kilometers of western

and central India and

southernmost

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FIGURE 3. Direct Air Capture Demonstration at IIT Madras

FIGURE 4. Demonstration of CO2 sequestration 100-500 m below the sea-bed.

*The longer version of this document has been published elsewhere, please follow the DOI link

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsengineeringau.4c00013

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