Power Minister for improving carbon storage technology

New Delhi, Apr 3 (UNI) With coal emerging as the mainstay for generation of electricity in the country, India will have to gear up for developing futuristic technologies like carbon capture and storage, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said here today.

''Safe and irreversible storage of carbon dioxide will be a great concern particularly for India due to its complex topology, extensive mineral excavation activity and dense population,'' Mr Shinde said in his address at the Meeting of Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) here.

Carbon sequestration is essentially capture of Carbon (Co2) from thermal power plants and disposing it in such a manner that it never re-enters the earth's atmoshphere.

The currently available processes suffer from several technological limitations like high level of energy consumption, corrosion, solvent degragation etc.

''Any major breakthrough in capture technologies which is two-third of total sequestration cost, can dramatically change the economy of carbon sequestration,'' Mr Shinde said.

The Minister said leakage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and ground water may jeopardise local ecology and can have a great impact on the local population. Serious concern has also been expressed about the impact of CO2 on marine life in case of deep oceanic storage.

Even though India has not undertaken any commitment to reduce green house gas emissions, the country has joined CSFL to become a partner in collaborative research and development efforts aimed at technological development.

At present, 26 per cent installed capacity for electricity generation in India is from hydro power and about 66 per cent from thermal including gas. Nuclear energy constitutes about three per cent and non-conventional energy is about five per cent.

UNI/RT SS BST1640