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• Advanced clean coal technologies and CCS could provide promising solutions for reducing CO 2 emissions up to 45% in comparison to BAU by 2050. • Coal demand changes to 1100-1400 Mt in 2030 and 1132-2200 Mt in 2050 under alternate future scenarios • CO 2 emissions from coal changes to 45-69% in 2030 and 34-67% of the total emissions in 2050 under alternate future scenarios. • Mitigation measures first decarbonize the power sector due to availability of flexible choices. Simultaneously it decarbonizes the other economic sectors. • Analysis shows that energy security and deep GHG emission mitigation is possible. Rapid shift from traditional energy intensive pathways is required to pace-up economic growth before exhausting remaining carbon budget under 2 °C global stabilization target. Within this larger context, in this paper we have used AIM/End-use, a bottom-up, techno-economic model to analyze India's energy security and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the year 2000 to 2050 with a focus on possibilities of coal continuance in India. Our analysis shows that by adopting advanced coal technologies and carbon dioxide capture and sequestration (CCS) options, up to 45% CO 2 emission reduction can be achieved over business-as-usual scenario (BAU) by 2050. This is possible even when coal use would increase to nearly 2200 Mt in 2050 as against 870 Mt in 2017-18. Without CCS, coal use could peak at 1200 Mt with 22% CO 2 reduction over BAU in 2050 but in that case nuclear and renewable energy would become pivotal in meeting energy demand. The paper concludes that a win-win integration of energy security and deep GHG emission mitigation is possible through a large-scale integration of advanced coal technologies and CCS in Indian energy systems. We have also provided a brief PESTLE analysis for finding the enabling environment necessary for achieving the results discussed in various scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental impact assessment of a process over its entire operational lifespan is an important issue. Estimation of life cycle emission helps in predicting the contribution of a given process to abate (or to pollute) the environmental emission scenario. Considering diminishing and time-dependent effect of emission, assessment of the overall effect of emissions is very complex. The paper presents a generalized methodology for arriving at a single emission discounting number for a process option, using the concept of time value of carbon emission flow. This number incorporates the effect of the emission resulting from the process over the entire operational lifespan. The advantage of this method is its quantitative aspect as well as its flexible nature. It can be applied to any process. The method is demonstrated with the help of an Intermediate Pyrolysis process when used to generate off-grid electricity and opting biochar route for disposing straw residue. The scenarios of very high net emission to very high net carbon sequestration is generated using process by careful selection of process parameters for different scenarios. For these different scenarios, the process discounting rate was determined and its outcome is discussed. The paper also proposes a process specific eco-label that mentions the discounting rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Coal is the abundant domestic energy resource in India and is projected to remain so in future under a business-as-usual scenario. Using domestic coal mitigates national energy security risks. However coal use exacerbates global climate change. Under a strict climate change regime, coal use is projected to decline in future. However this would increase imports of energy sources like natural gas (NG) and nuclear and consequent energy security risks for India. The paper shows that carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) can mitigate CO2 emissions from coal-based large point source (LPS) clusters and therefore would play a key role in mitigating both energy security risks for India and global climate change risks. This paper estimates future CO2 emission projections from LPS in India, identifies the potential CO2 storage types at aggregate level and matches the two into the future using Asia-Pacific Integrated Model (AIM/Local model) with a Geographical Information System (GIS) interface. The paper argues that clustering LPS that are close to potential storage sites could provide reasonable economic opportunities for CCS in future if storage sites of different types are further explored and found to have adequate capacity. The paper also indicates possible LPS locations to utilize CCS opportunities economically in future, especially since India is projected to add over 220,000MW of thermal power generation capacity by 2030. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The “4 per Thousand” initiative was launched at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) in December 2015 to address global climate change through the aspirational goal of increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) stock of the world to 40-cm depth by an average annual rate of 4%. Small landholders (SLHs), often faced with difficult bio-physical and socio-economic conditions, are the principal managers of soil in India. There are 117 million SLHs representing 85% of the total operational holdings, cultivating over 72 million ha of land, and meeting 50–60% of India's food requirement. The agricultural soils of SLHs are strongly depleted of SOC and nutrient reserves. Therefore, the challenge of feeding 1.7 billion people in India by 2050 will depend on increasing the current productivity levels by restoring the depleted soils of SLHs. According to our estimates, soils of SLHs currently contain 1370–1770 Tg C and, which can be increased to 2460–2650 Tg C by 2050 through large-scale adoption of best management practices (BMPs) including balanced application of nutrients, compost, agroforestry, and conservation agriculture. A wide spread adoption of these practices can enhance C sequestration by 70–130 Tg CO 2 e per annum and produce 410–440 million Mg of food grains accounting for 80–85% of the total requirement by 2050. In this paper we propose strategies for achieving the dual objectives of advancing food security, the “4 per Thousand” target and mitigating climate change in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since coal will be widely used in the next decades, mainly in the developing countries such as China and India, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies will have a key role in the containment of global warming. This paper presents a techno-economic comparison between the most promising power generation technologies for a CO 2 -free power generation in a short-term future. In particular, three different power generation technologies have been considered in their conventional (without CCS) and CO 2 -free configurations: (a) ultra supercritical (USC) pulverized coal combustion, (b) oxy-coal combustion (OCC) and (c) integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC). Process simulation, based on Aspen Plus and Gate Cycle commercial tools, allows to calculate plant performance, including the energy penalty due to the CCS system (10.9% points for USC and 8.7% points for IGCC). In parallel, a detailed economic assessment shows that, among the commercial-ready technologies, USC could be the most convenient solution for power generation without CCS (presenting a levelized cost of electricity – LCOE – of 38.6 €/MW h, significantly lower than 43.7 €/MW h of IGCC), whereas IGCC becomes competitive for CO 2 -free systems (with a LCOE of 59.6 €/MW h, to be compared with 63.4 €/MW h of USC). Moreover, oxy-coal combustion, which is currently not mature enough for commercial-scale applications, promises to become strongly competitive for CCS applications due to its relatively low levelized cost of electricity (62.8 €/MW h). This kind of analysis typically presents strong uncertainties, due to the variability of several key parameters (e.g. fuel and CCS prices, determined by the fluctuation of the international markets, or an improvement of the technologies). Therefore, a sensitivity analysis has been done to determine the effects of these potential fluctuation or the improvement on the economic performance of the plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian tropical deciduous forest due to higher species richness, irregular stem densities and stem cover, multistoried canopy and microclimate, offers dynamism to the understanding of the spatial patters in aboveground biomass (AGB) and carbon (AGBC) within different plant functional types (PFTs). Field-based AGB and AGBC estimates are vital for carbon cycle study and provide inputs for data-deficit regional and global carbon and climate models. In this paper we generated the primary baseline data on tree composition, species richness (SR), AGB and AGBC gathered from nine 10,000 m 2 long-term ecological research (LTER) plots in three distinct PFTs {dry mixed (DM), sal mixed (SM) and teak plantation (TP)} within an Indian tropical deciduous forest along Himalayan foothills during 2009–2012. The functional relationship of PFT structural attributes i.e. SR, density, basal cover, leaf area index and litter fall on AGB was investigated. PCA was applied to study the relationship between PFT microclimate, structural attributes and diversity vs. AGB. A total of 22, 22 and 6 tree species were found in DM, SM and TP PFT, respectively. Shannon's diversity index was highest (2.46) in DM, whereas Simpson's dominance index was maximum (0.85) in TP. AGB (Mg ha −1 ) ranged from 290.82–455.99 among all PFTs. AGBC (Mg ha −1 ) ranged between 207.52–220.34, 215.58–228.87, and 125.94–141.18 in DM, SM and TP respectively. AGB observed strong positive correlation with tree density and cover. PCA revealed humidity and air temperature as the major microclimatic variables, leading to higher AGB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate opportunities to mitigate CO 2 emission from the power and industry sectors of India by carbon capture and storage. Results show that the total CO 2 emission from 630 power and industrial plants is 1.7 Gtpa. Of this, 0.9 Gtpa comes from power plants and 0.8 Gtpa from industry plants. There is 416.2 Gt of CO 2 storage capacity (mid case scenario) in India, enough to store 237 years of emission. Of this, 412.7 Gt (99%) comes from saline aquifers in 22 sedimentary basins, 1.9 Gt (0.44%) from six major gas fields, and 1.7 Gt (0.41%) from 37 major oil fields. The total mid CO 2 -enhanced oil recovery potential in India is 500 × 106 m3 with the biggest potential found in the following oil fields: Mumbai High (231 × 106 m3), Gandhar (13 × 106 m3), Mangala (17 × 106 m3) and Nahorkatiya (24 × 106 m3) in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Assam, respectively. Results of a CO 2 source-sink mapping exercise show that in most cases, CO 2 source-sink distance is less than 500 km, and many cases less than 100 km. • India's CO 2 emission is 1.7 Gtpa from the power and industry sectors. • There is 416.2 Gt of subsurface CO 2 storage capacity in India. • There is a total of CO 2 -enhanced oil recovery potential of 5.01 × 108 m3. • A CO 2 -EOR pilot is recommended for the offshore Mumbai High oil field. • Most CO 2 sources can be stored in sinks within a 500 km distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The permeability of coal is one of the most critical parameters in estimating the performance of coal seams as methane reservoirs or carbon dioxide sinks. The reservoir behaviour of coal offers many challenges for the long-term planning of gas production performance and the drainage of water from reservoirs. Moreover, heterogeneity in coal from basin to basin, from seam to seam and within parts of the same seam makes the process more complex. Reservoir-specific understanding is needed for the best possible estimation of its behaviour. Factors such as shrinkage/swelling of coal matrix, gas flow and slippage, geomechanical changes, cleat anisotropy and effective stresses control the flow behaviour of gases in coal. Studies of these aspects have gathered momentum in recent decades for different basins across the world. However, no research is available on swelling-induced permeability characteristics or the role of effective stresses for Gondwana coals in India. Considering the fairly high CO2 storage potential of Indian coals, bituminous coals of the Barakar Formation in Jharia basin, India were tested using gas phase CO2 under triaxial conditions. This paper presents the results of changing effective stresses, in terms of confining stresses and pore pressure, incorporating the role of coal swelling with time on the flow pattern of gaseous CO2. Corresponding to different depths of target coal seams, coal was subjected to different confining stresses in a newly-developed triaxial cell. For each confinement, CO2 was injected at different injection pressures. To minimize the effects of temperature on the characteristics of the gas phase, it was kept constant at 26°C throughout, while use of the drained method of testing maintained the downstream pressure equal to one atmosphere. The results showed that at low confinement, increase in gas injection pressures leads to an initial decrease in permeability of coal, which then becomes almost constant. However, at higher confinements, the permeability increases with increasing injection pressure. Swelling in coal contributes to reduction of permeability. The volumetric expansion in coal reduces the permeability with changing gas injection pressure during the initial confinement. As the confining pressure is increased, coal permeability reduces by one to two orders of magnitude. Finally, an empirical relation accounting for the role of effective stresses and swelling on coal permeability is proposed for Indian coals. At lower effective stresses, the logarithmic decline model is better suited, while the exponential decline relationship fits the data better at effective stresses >12MPa. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents an overview of the current status of the main CCS initiatives in the major emerging economies: China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. This study first covers all six countries as a group and describes their natural resources. The second part of this study embraces each country individually and includes current initiatives and current legal and technological status of CCS. At the end, this study summarizes the main findings in the emerging economies and the potential of including CCS as part of the CDM. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Carbon sequestration in tropical soils has potential for mitigating global warming and increasing agricultural productivity. We analyzed 26 long-term experiments (LTEs) in different agro-climatic zones (ACZs) of India to assess the potential and cost of C sequestration. Data on initial and final soil organic C (SOC) concentration in the recommended N, P and K (NPK); recommended N, P and K plus farmyard manure (NPK+FYM) and unfertilized (control) treatments were used to calculate carbon sequestration potential (CSP) i.e., capacity to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) by increasing SOC stock, under different nutrient management scenarios. In most of the LTEs wheat equivalent yields were higher in the NPK+FYM treatment than the NPK treatment. However, partial factor productivity (PFP) was more with the NPK treatment. Average SOC concentration of the control treatment was 0.54%, which increased to 0.65% in the NPK treatment and 0.82% in the NPK+FYM treatment. Compared to the control treatment the NPK+FYM treatment sequestered 0.33MgCha−1 yr−1 whereas the NPK treatment sequestered 0.16MgCha−1 yr−1. The CSP in different nutrient management scenarios ranged from 2.1 to 4.8MgCha−1 during the study period (average 16.9 yr) of the LTEs. In 17 out of 26 LTEs, the NPK+FYM treatment had higher SOC and also higher net return than that of the NPK treatment. In the remaining 9 LTEs SOC sequestration in the NPK+FYM treatment was accomplished with decreased net return suggesting that these are economically not attractive and farmers have to incur into additional cost to achieve C sequestration. The feasibility of SOC sequestration in terms of availability of FYM and other organic sources has been discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Energy is essential and vital for development, and the global economy literally runs on energy. The use of fossil fuels as energy is now widely accepted as unsustainable due to depleting resources and also due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the environment. Renewable and carbon neutral biodiesel are necessary for environmental and economic sustainability. Biodiesel demand is constantly increasing as the reservoir of fossil fuel are depleting. Unfortunately biodiesel produced from oil crop, waste cooking oil and animal fats are not able to replace fossil fuel. The viability of the first generation biofuels production is however questionable because of the conflict with food supply. Production of biodiesel using microalgae biomass appears to be a viable alternative. The oil productivity of many microalgae exceeds the best producing oil crops. Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms which convert sunlight, water and CO2 to sugars, from which macromolecules, such as lipids and triacylglycerols (TAGs) can be obtained. These TAGs are the promising and sustainable feedstock for biodiesel production. Microalgal biorefinery approach can be used to reduce the cost of making microalgal biodiesel. Microalgal-based carbon sequestration technologies cover the cost of carbon capture and sequestration. The present paper is an attempt to review the potential of microalgal biodiesel in comparison to the agricultural crops and its prospects in India. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In developing countries like India, migration of people from rural to urban areas is responsible for ever expanding urban boundaries. This trend is exerting significant pressure on unprotected natural forests located near urban centers. This paper highlights the case of Kerwa Forest Area (KFA), located at about 10km from the city of Bhopal, capital of Madhya Pradesh state. The objectives of this study are to quantify the extent of disturbance faced and ecosystem services provided by the KFA. Suitable spatial technologies and forest sampling techniques have been used to achieve the objectives of the study. It was found that the KFA is currently facing severe anthropogenic pressure. Parts of the KFA, located close to the settlements, were found more disturbed than the parts which were located far from the settlements. In spite of disturbances, KFA is a habitat for many threatened and endangered plant, animal, and bird species. KFA also plays a critical role of a carbon sink with a total storage of about 19.5 thousand tons of aboveground carbon. Immediate precautionary measures are required to prevent further degradation of the KFA for ensuring better environmental quality for the residents of Bhopal city in the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper analyses the prospects for establishing afforestation and reforestation Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in Karnataka State, India. Building on multi-disciplinary fieldwork, the aim is to: (i) establish what type of plantations and forests that would best suit a forest-based project activity, considering global climate benefits and local sustainable development objectives; (ii) identify the parameters that are important for ensuring sustainable development at the local level and (iii) develop a transparent ranking tool for the assessment of possible forest-based project activities. Using equal weights for the ranking parameters and a 30-year time horizon, the ranking shows that plantations managed with the shortest rotation period (5 years) would be most suitable for forest-based project activities. However, the performance of individual forest-based project activities will depend on local conditions, which need to be reflected in the weighting procedure. Sensitivity analysis shows that when weights are varied, other forest types can become the preferred option. Based on a combination of the sensitivity analysis and results from the fieldwork, it can be concluded that successful implementation of forest-based project activities will require local participation and are likely to involve multiple forest products and environmental services demanded by the local community. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]