Welcome initiatives to curb emissions

Welcome initiatives to curb emissions

It is welcome and notable that India is stepping up moves to make gainful use of its carbon emissions, even as it is on track to reduce the emissions intensity of its economic output by 33-35% by 2030.

Engineering specialist Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and power major NTPC have joined hands to commercialise output of methanol, a single-carbon compound, using carbon dioxide from thermal plants.

Methanol is an efficient fuel — octane number well over 100 —that releases no SOx, and less NOx, or particulate matter (PM), than petrol, with which it can well be blended. The idea: reduce tailpipe emissions from methanol usage, even as we proactively bring down carbon emissions from thermal plants. Also notable is the recent US-India Strategic Energy Partnership ministerial meet on advanced, high-efficiency coal technologies for low-to-zero emissions.

The US department of energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, under its coal FIRST (Flexible, Innovative, Resilient, Small, Transformative) initiative, reckons that a new coal plant with pollution control measures would reduce nitrogen oxides by 83%, sulphur oxides by 98% and PM by 99.8%.

Further, oil major IOC’s recent initiative to blend hydrogen with compressed natural gas (CNG) for CNG bus fleets in the National Capital Region makes perfect sense. The blended product, HCNG, reduces the already low emissions of CNG fuelled buses by at least 20%, and improves fuel efficiency, too.

In oil refineries, hydrogen is produced by the reaction of hydrocarbons with steam, and IOC reportedly uses compact reforming and catalysts to further bring down costs. The bottomline is that carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies hold much promise, particularly with national and international collaboration.