What is Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS)? What is the potential role of CCUS in tackling climate change?
Subtopic: Sustainable Development · Carbon capture & climate mitigation
How to structure your answer
Introduction: Define CCUS as the chain of capturing CO2, using it, and storing the rest.
Body: (1) the three steps; (2) role in hard-to-abate sectors; (3) link to net-zero and carbon removal.
Conclusion: a bridge technology, not a substitute for emission cuts.
Written within the word limit
145 words · target 150 words · 9 min
What is CCUS: Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage is a set of technologies that capture carbon dioxide at its source — power plants, steel, cement, refineries — or directly from air, then either use it to make fuels, chemicals and building materials, or inject it into deep geological formations for permanent storage.
Potential role in tackling climate change:
- Decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors: cement, steel and fertiliser have process emissions that renewables alone cannot remove; CCUS offers a route to cut them.
- Reaching net-zero: by abating residual emissions and converting captured CO2 into useful products, it supports India's 2070 net-zero goal.
- Carbon removal: paired with bioenergy or direct air capture, it can deliver negative emissions to offset what cannot be eliminated.
Conclusion: CCUS is a vital bridge for industries that are otherwise difficult to clean up, but it complements rather than replaces the core task of cutting emissions at source.
What an examiner expects to see
- CCUS = capturing CO2 at source or from air, utilising it, and storing the remainder
- Sources include power, steel, cement, refineries and direct air capture (DAC)
- Utilisation: synthetic fuels, chemicals, building materials, enhanced oil recovery
- Storage: injection into deep saline aquifers and depleted reservoirs
- Key for hard-to-abate sectors with unavoidable process emissions (cement, steel, fertiliser)
- Supports India's net-zero-by-2070 commitment
- Enables negative emissions when paired with bioenergy (BECCS) or DAC
- A bridge technology that complements, not replaces, emission reduction
Concrete cases, schemes and judgments
- NITI Aayog CCUS policy framework study report
- Cement-sector CCUS as a hard-to-abate use case
- BECCS — bioenergy with carbon capture and storage
- Direct Air Capture (DAC) for atmospheric removal
- Captured CO2 used in synthetic fuels and building aggregates