Carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) is becoming one of the most desired technologies in the cement industry. But how easy is it to get started on the route to having a commercial carbon capture plant? We ask Aniruddha Sharma, co-founder and CEO of carbon capture start-up company Carbon Clean, how he sees CCU in the cement sector developing and what his advice is for producers looking to start carbon capture planning.
ICR: What is the history of Carbon Clean as a carbon capture start-up company?
Aniruddha Sharma (AS): I co-founded Carbon Clean with Prateek Bumb in 2009. Carbon Clean started by looking at reducing carbon emissions for a couple of companies that we were interacting with. In our university days we were members of a working and supporting policies group advocating action on climate change.
Prateek came up with the idea that he could capture the CO2 from the emissions stack of industrial plants and could do it cost effectively. We researched whether anyone was already doing this and when we found that no one was, we decided to go ahead and develop this solution.
The idea was that we work with one power company and one steel company at that time. We began by working to decarbonise a power company and a steel company. We did not expect that 10 years later we would be providing solutions for the decarbonisation of entire industries.
