India’s First Integrated CCUS Field Lab Opens at IIT Bombay
Why in the news
In May 2026, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan opened a first-of-its-kind carbon management facility at IIT Bombay, Mumbai. It forms part of the Bharat Innovates 2026 showcase and marks a step forward for Indian climate technology.
Key facts
- Facility: India’s first Integrated CCUS field laboratory, an end-to-end pilot-scale platform.
- It joins Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) with Geological CO2 Sequestration (GCS) in basalt formations.
- Includes India’s first pilot-scale scientific drilling to test CO2 storage in the Deccan Traps.
- Technology scaled up by UrjanovaC, a deep-tech venture incubated at SINE (Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship), IIT-B.
- Capture method: aqueous-based, pulling CO2 from ambient air and industrial emissions.
- Water used: non-potable sources such as industrial effluents and seawater, saving fresh water.
- Output: high-purity carbonate and bicarbonate salts for steel, cement, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, so CO2 is recycled into value.
Why the Deccan Traps
- Among the largest basalt provinces on Earth, covering parts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
- Basalt reacts with CO2 in water to form stable carbonate minerals that lock carbon away permanently.
- Iceland’s CarbFix project showed CO2 injected into basalt can turn into carbonate minerals in under two years, much faster than ordinary sedimentary storage; the Deccan offers a similar chance on a bigger scale.
Background
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| CCS | Capturing CO2 and storing it underground |
| CCUS | CCS plus a utilisation step turning CO2 into products such as chemicals, fuels or building materials |
| Direct Air Capture | Removal of CO2 straight from ambient air, possible at any location |
| Mineralisation | CO2 reacting with calcium, magnesium and iron silicates in rock to form stable carbonates |
| Deccan Traps | Basalt province from lava flows about 66 million years ago, roughly 500,000 km2 in central and western India |
- SINE, IIT Bombay’s technology incubator, was set up in 2004 and has incubated over 150 start-ups.
- Hard-to-abate sectors (steel, cement, fertilisers, petrochemicals, aviation and shipping) cannot cut emissions by renewables alone because of high-temperature or chemical processes.
Significance
- Supports India’s targets of net-zero by 2070, a 45% cut in GDP emissions intensity by 2030 (over 2005) and 50% non-fossil installed power by 2030.
- Shows how academia, incubators and start-ups can build commercially viable climate solutions.
Exam angle
- Net-zero pledge by 2070 was made at COP26, Glasgow (2021).
- Paris Agreement (COP21, 2015): hold warming well below 2 degrees C, pursue 1.5 degrees C, with NDCs from each country.
- Related terms: CCUS, DAC, basalt mineralisation, hard-to-abate sectors.