Government & Institutions

Policy studies on carbon capture, energy transition economics and clean energy initiatives; grant-funded applied research and systems engineering in energy systems

The Biden administration, as indeed the governments of most other major governments of the world have rightly accorded the highest priority and strategic focus to climate change & its mitigation through transitions to clean energy systems. Along with renewables, GT scale deep carbonization of the world’s energy and industrial systems at a commoditized cost of carbon capture, processing and disposition is the order of the day to achieve substantial GHG reductions by 2030-2035 and the ambitious goals of net-zero by 2050. Global leadership in clean energy technology and building the worldwide clean energy systems of tomorrow also holds the promise of creating significant economic opportunities, advancing environmental equality, and creating a large number of job opportunities in the organized sector.

Fossil fuels will continue to be the major source of meeting the primary energy demands of the world in the foreseeable future, especially for hard to decarbonize everyday materials like steel, cement, chemicals, and petrochem based plastics. Hence there is an urgent need to accelerate transitions to clean, reliable, flexible and affordable (at sub-US$ 30/tonne of CO2) fossil fuel-based energy and industrial systems. What we have is a giga-tonne or GT scale challenge compounded by the inherently slow nature and inertia of energy transitions. Governments and institutions need to provide the required policy, adoption and deployment incentives along with the necessary fiscal and investment support mechanisms for the adoption of clean energy systems and for ensuring the development of GT scale common carbon disposition, management & storage infrastructure.  In particular, the role of the government and institutions is critical in the following areas:

  • Acceleration of large scale clean energy transformation for the industry through support for commercial-scale deployments of deep decarbonization

  • Infrastructure investments in CO2 transport and management at GT scale

  • Policy initiatives on carbon credits and investment incentives for deep decarbonization.

  • Policy plan for environmental justice so that nobody is left behind, tax incentives, redistribution of income, reskilling and redeployment of people. Creating large scale opportunities in rural and minority tribes for new energy-based industrial investments.

  • Developing countries will be the greatest emitters of the future, as they continue their economic growth and rise up the economic ladder. No decarbonization plan can succeed without supporting the mitigation plans for developing nations in terms of investment, technology and policy support

Solutions

Dastur Energy is working on US Federal Government funded projects for developing integrated carbon capture and utilization solutions for some of the hardest to decarbonize industries, such as steel and oil & gas refineries. Our business-driven and systems engineering approach is distinct from a piecemeal project-based approach. Rather than focus on only the carbon capture technology, we focus on the entire value chain, spanning carbon capture, transportation, the viability of business models through utilization in EOR and F&B uses, appropriate infrastructure for the disposition of CO2 as well as the extant policy & regulatory frameworks, thus enabling cost-effective carbon abatement at scale.

We are also closely working with the Niti Aayog, the apex policy think tank of the Government of India. We are advising the Niti Aayog in the areas of gasification (coal, petcoke and biomass) and methanol-based energy systems in India and a carbon capture policy framework that would be appropriate for a developing nation like India.

Industry Solutions