Revision summary
CCUS is capture of carbon dioxide, then use in products or storage in deep rock. It is most justified in cement, some steel and fertiliser, where electrons cannot easily replace the process. The IPCC counts it in net-zero pathways, including possible negative emissions with bioenergy. Costs, energy penalty and unproven large Indian stores are the brakes. Using CCUS to justify endless new coal is a climate risk, not a climate policy.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) is a set of technologies that captures carbon dioxide (CO₂), converts it into useful products or transports it for permanent geological storage. It is particularly relevant for reducing emissions from sectors where direct electrification is difficult, while complementing broader decarbonisation efforts.
Body
What is CCUS?
CCUS involves three interconnected stages:
- Capture: CO₂ is separated from industrial emissions, particularly from sources such as cement, steel, chemical and power plants. Direct Air Capture can also remove CO₂ directly from ambient air.
- Utilization: Captured CO₂ is converted or incorporated into useful products such as synthetic fuels, chemicals, building materials, plastics and fertilisers. It can also be used for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), although the overall climate benefit depends on the emissions associated with the additional oil produced.
- Storage: Captured CO₂ is transported and injected deep underground into suitable geological formations such as saline aquifers or depleted hydrocarbon fields, where it is intended to remain stored over the long term.
Potential Role in Tackling Climate Change
- Decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors: CCUS can reduce process and industrial emissions from sectors such as cement, steel and fertilisers, where complete electrification is difficult.
- Enabling negative emissions: When combined with bioenergy, as in Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), CCUS can potentially remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and generate negative emissions.
- Supporting industrial transition: CCUS can help reduce emissions from existing industrial systems while cleaner technologies and alternative processes are developed and scaled.
- Supporting net-zero pathways: CCUS forms part of several deep-decarbonisation pathways because residual emissions from certain industrial processes may remain difficult to eliminate completely.
- Potential relevance for India: Given India's substantial industrial and coal-based energy base, CCUS can have particular relevance for reducing emissions from industrial clusters, especially cement and other hard-to-abate sectors.
- Important limitations: CCUS involves significant energy requirements and costs, and large-scale geological storage requires suitable sites, infrastructure and long-term monitoring. It should therefore complement—not substitute for—renewable energy, energy efficiency and direct emissions reduction.
Flow diagram
Conclusion
CCUS can serve as a targeted decarbonisation tool for hard-to-abate sectors and potential negative-emission pathways. For India, it can complement the transition towards Net Zero emissions by 2070, particularly in industrial sectors where complete electrification remains difficult. However, its high cost, energy penalty and storage requirements mean that CCUS should complement—not substitute—renewables, energy efficiency and direct emission reductions.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Seawater intrusion in the coastal aquifers is a major concern in India. What are the causes of seawater intrusion and the remedial measures to combat this hazard?
Next question on this syllabus topic (2025 · Q8). View answer →
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Is a tree the same as CCUS?
A tree stores carbon in biomass and soil. CCUS is an industrial chain. Both can count; they are not the same machine.
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Should India wait for cheap CCUS?
India should not wait to build solar. It should research storage geology for the residual industrial tonnes.
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