The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay has announced the establishment of a new centre - National Centre of Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilization (NCoE-CCU), with support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology. The new centre, as per an IIT Bombay statement, is the country's first such center funded by the Government of India. It was formally sanctioned in December 2021.

The Director of IIT Bombay Professor Subhasis Chaudhuri said that the decarbonization of 'hard-to-abate' industries would require outstanding efforts to achieve the net-zero goals.

“IIT Bombay has undertaken leadership to address several science and engineering grand challenges and develop their end-to-end solutions. The National Centre shall explore and unlock the potential of CCU technologies to lead India in this potential sunshine industrial sector to evolve as a circular carbon economy. Last year, the IIT Bombay team brought laurels to the country by winning the prestigious X-PRIZE Award, supported by the Elon Musk Foundation for 'demonstration of carbon dioxide removal', announced at the Sustainable Innovation Forum at COP-26,” he said.

The National Center, the IIT Bombay statement said, will act as a multi-disciplinary, long-term research and development, collaboration and capacity-building hub in the area of carbon capture and utilization.

The NCoE will be nodal for state-of-the-art research and application-oriented initiatives in the field of CCUS. The cross-disciplinary training through the NCoE will develop a deep understanding and problem-oriented approach in next-generation researchers through outreach and capacity building programmes, the statement added.

The National Centre seeks to facilitate capturing and mapping current research and development and innovation activities in the domain and develop a network of researchers, industries and stakeholders in the domain with co-ordinated and synergized research between partnering groups and organizations. The NCoE has founding partnerships with several academic and research institutes (such as other IITs, universities, and CSIR labs) and industries including petroleum, cement, power and steel.

The Centre's primary focus of research will involve understanding the role of CO2 in the global climate and mitigation strategies of the CO2 emitted from the industrial and energy sector, ranging from advances in capture technologies to subsequent utilization of captured CO2. Priority case studies, experimental investigation and simulation in different aspects of CCU, as well as decision-making tools for process optimization and policy development, will be an essential part of the Centre's activities.