India Commits ₹20,000 Crore to CCUS Across Five Industrial Sectors

India has allocated ₹20,000 crore over five years to carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) in five industrial sectors: power, steel, cement, refineries and chemicals. The figure appears in the Union Budget 2026–27 and forms the financial anchor of a national push to decarbonise industries that electrification alone cannot reach. The government targets Net Zero by 2070.

The scale of the problem is quantified. An official press release estimates emissions from hard-to-abate sectors and thermal power generation will reach nearly 2,300 million tonnes per annum by 2030. NITI Aayog identifies steel, cement, oil and gas, petrochemicals, chemicals and fertilisers as the sectors where CCUS can play a decisive role, because these processes demand very high temperatures or carbon-based raw materials.

What is actually operating?

The project portfolio as of April 2026 separates built capacity from announcements. Three Carbon Capture and Utilisation projects are operational, in Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Six more are under construction or execution: three in Andhra Pradesh, two in Telangana and one in Maharashtra.

Sixteen projects remain proposed. Assam and Odisha account for four each, followed by Gujarat and Rajasthan with two each; Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Tamil Nadu have one each. The release cautions that proposed projects should not be read as operational facilities or confirmed emission reductions.

What does the Field Laboratory add?

India's first integrated CCUS Field Laboratory at IIT Bombay was inaugurated in May 2026. The facility combines capture, utilisation and permanent geological storage on a single pilot-scale platform. It can capture up to three tonnes of carbon dioxide per day from industrial emissions and ambient air, using non-potable water, and convert the gas into carbonate and bicarbonate products.

Scientific drilling in the basalt formations of the Deccan Traps will assess the potential for safe, permanent storage. The laboratory exists to test indigenous technologies before wider industrial deployment.

Which policy instruments back the build-out?

The Department of Science and Technology launched its CCUS R&D Roadmap 2025 in December 2025, setting priorities for research, technology development, funding and deployment. Two National CCUS Centres, established in 2022 at IIT Bombay and the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bengaluru, handle research, pilot-scale demonstrations and industry collaboration.

The cement sector gained its first cluster of five Carbon Capture and Utilisation testbeds on May 11, 2025. The initiative pairs industry with research institutions to develop capture, mineralisation and conversion into concrete products.

Where will the clusters sit?

The Department of Science and Technology's roadmap maps candidate industrial and geological regions for shared infrastructure. Hubs and clusters connect multiple emitters to common transport networks and storage sites, cutting per-facility infrastructure risk and improving economies of scale. The backgrounder names three candidate regions:

• Gujarat coast: refineries and chemical industries.
• Odisha–Jharkhand belt: steel and cement industries.
• Northeast India: opportunities linked to oil and gas resources.

How does CCUS connect to hydrogen?

CCUS underpins India's blue hydrogen pathway. Blue hydrogen uses fossil-fuel feedstocks with carbon capture managing associated emissions; one route combines coal gasification with capture. Gasification converts coal into syngas through controlled reactions with oxygen and steam at high temperatures, yielding a feedstock for hydrogen and other industrial products. Green hydrogen, by contrast, uses renewable-powered electrolysis of water. The net climate benefit of blue hydrogen depends on the capture rate, residual emissions and storage effectiveness.

What could stall deployment?

Capture, transport and storage costs remain the central question for industrial adoption. Secure geological storage requires site assessment, containment measures and long-term monitoring. Utilisation pathways vary in permanence: some applications, such as concrete mineralisation, can retain carbon dioxide for long periods, while others release it back to the atmosphere.

The three-stage process itself is straightforward. Capture systems separate carbon dioxide from combustion or process gases, then purify, dry and compress it. Transport runs by pipeline, ship or other modes depending on distance and volume. The gas then feeds applications including concrete, urea, green methanol, chemicals and certain food and beverage products, or enters depleted oil and gas reservoirs, deep saline aquifers and basaltic formations.

The milestone that decides what happens next is execution: converting the sixteen proposed projects and the ₹20,000 crore allocation into operating capture capacity before hard-to-abate emissions hit the projected 2,300 million tonnes per annum in 2030.