A virtual workshop on the
The global production of cement reached 4.2 Gt in 2019. The market is expected to grow in the coming decades reaching up to 12–23% by 2050, as a result of the increasing global population and urbanization trends, coupled with infrastructure development needs.
On the backdrop of the emission intensity of the cement industry and value CCS will play in decarbonising the industry, ADB established the
Tony Zhang, CO2 Utilization Specialist, stated that he was honoured to support ADB in its prefeasibility study on CCUS in India and Devika Wattal, Innovation Consultant at GCCA presented some techno-economic findings, the main body of which are currently private and confidential. She further presented a schematic of the Ariyalur plant process (including the process parameters and emission profile) which is planned to be integrated with the designed 0.5Mtpa amine-based capture plant (located on a 100m2 plot within close proximity to the Dalmia Ariyalur Cement Mill). She further recognised that close collaboration between the government, industry and finance community was critical to successful deployment. An example of such collaboration manifested into the launch of the Indian Cement Sector
It is worth noting here that the weightage suggested by DCBL to TRL is highest at 40%, followed by economic parameters at 30 %, thus totalling 70% weightage towards the overall score. The results of the analysis carried out on the aforementioned six products is provided in table 2.
Taking into account the results from table 2, urea and soda ash are top-ranking options for short term implementation. Ramesh also presented the CO2 (captured from the Ariyalur plant) to urea cost sensitivity analysis where he reported that ammonia is the main cost determinant, contributing to about 70% towards the operating expenditure (OpEx) of urea production. A detailed financial analysis and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been carried out by financial and environmental experts, respectively.
B. C. S Baliga, a finance analyst, provided a summary of the findings of the financial assessment. He reported that with urea selling at a price of $330/tonne and an electricity tariff of $0.04 per unit, the project yields a return on equity (ROE) of 20%. At a lower selling price of urea, viability gap funding will be required to achieve an ROE of 20%. Further, he stated that the impact of reduction in CapEx on the ROE is comparatively marginal and the rate of interest on debts does not have a significant impact on the ROE. Baliga also reported that the reduction in electricity tariff can significantly improve ROE. He concluded his presentation by revealing that the conceptual design for an amine-based solvent carbon capture plant was complete, with major equipment sizing and costing.
The last item on the agenda was the panel discussion chaired by Mayank Choudhary, Principal Investment Specialist, Private Sector Operations Department, ADB. Members of the panel include Ashwani Pahuja, Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Director, Manufacturing at DCBL, Claude Lorea, Executive Director at the GCCA, Juho Lipponen, Co-ordinator of the Clean Energy Ministerial CCUS Initiative, Virendar Kumar Duggal, Principal Climate Change Specialist, Sustainable Development and Climate Change (SDCC) Department, ADB and Tongbo Sui, Vice President, Simona International, China National Building Material Group Co., Ltd. (CNBM). The panel discussion covered a broad spectrum of issues ranging from the contribution of renewables in decarbonisation of the cement industry, favourable regulatory provision, making CCUS an investable technology, stakeholders' partnership and project scale-up to financing models that de-risks decarbonisation deployment. At the end of the panel discussion, the key take-away was that, without CCUS, decarbonisation of the cement industry, with the cement sector accounting for 8% of the global CO2 emissions, is inconceivable .
Darshak Mehta thanked participants for attending the meeting and closed the workshop.
Abdul'Aziz A. Aliyu
15th October 2021