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India’s <keyword id="23445999" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="carbonated-soft-drinks" source="keywords">carbonated soft drinks</keyword> (CSD) segment has hit a roadblock, unable to expand and reach its full potential, largely due to the high tax burden under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. A recent report from PTI, originally attributed to the economic think tank ICRIER says that despite the government’s initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, the CSD industry is struggling to scale up due to the steep taxation. According to the report, India imposes one of the highest tax rates on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), with a total tax rate of 40% as of 2023. This figure is significantly higher than that of over 90% of the countries that tax SSBs, based on comparative data compiled by the World Bank. The report also added that global and domestic consumers are increasingly opting for low-sugar and zero-sugar varieties. Manufacturers around the world are reformulating their products to cater to health-conscious consumers, offering options like low-sugar, fruit-flavored, and zero-calorie drinks. In India, however, companies face an uphill battle. The high tax of 40%, irrespective of sugar content, is preventing firms from innovating and scaling their low-sugar or fruit-based CSD offerings. The report also highlighted that India, a leading global producer of fruits like mangoes and bananas, has untapped potential for incorporating these ingredients into the CSD sector. Yet, the country’s CSD industry lags behind other developing nations, such as Thailand and the Philippines, in terms of product variety and revenue generation. Despite generating $18.25 billion in revenue in 2022 and growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8% from 2017 to 2022, the sector remains underdeveloped. The report also underscored that India’s CSD market could be a major driver for investment and job creation, particularly in Tier 2 and 3 cities. However, the high tax rates, seen as a lucrative source of revenue for the government, are acting as a deterrent to the sector’s growth, preventing it from becoming a global competitor and unlocking its full economic potential. (With PTI inputs)

Indian consumers shifting towards low-sugar beverages, high GST rates stalling growth in carbonated soft drinks market

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Adventurer Benjamin Parent is preparing to cycle around the world for three years.</li><li>He wants to encourage people to slow down, embrace low-carbon travel, and connect with locals.</li><li>Parent plans to meet impact entrepreneurs along the way and document what he's learned.</li></ul>Benjamin Parent has worked at Tesla, on ships, and as a part-time tennis coach.Now, he's trying his hand at documentary filmmaking as he travels around the world on a bicycle to tout the benefits of slow travel and raise awareness about the climate crisis.The 35-year-old Frenchman plans to cover 50,000 kilometers and pass through 44 countries on the three-year adventure, beginning at the Sophia Antipolis technology park, which he characterized as France's equivalent of Silicon Valley.Parent wants to promote a more sustainable way of living and traveling. He plans to set off on September 22, which is also <a target="_blank" href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/world-car-free-day-22-september-great-opportunity-reduce-air-pollution">international car-free day</a>, and return via Norway in 2026. "Traveling is not going to one place, taking a picture, and leaving," Parent told Insider. It's meeting people and experiencing new cultures, he said.Slow travel typically refers to longer stays in destinations and a focus on the journey itself — ideally a low-carbon one. It <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211973623000284#s0005">emphasizes more sustainable travel and consumption practices</a>, as well as a more mindful approach. "There is no other option. We have to slow down. We have to sink more into solidarity, into human relationship," Parent said.Travel and tourism account for up to <a target="_blank" href="https://wttc.org/Portals/0/Documents/Reports/2021/WTTC_Net_Zero_Roadmap.pdf">11% of global greenhouse-gas emissions</a>, a 2021 report by the World Travel and Tourism Council found.More people have taken to slow travel in recent years, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/iceland-wants-to-promote-sustainable-tourism-by-encouraging-fewer-visitors-to-take-longer-trips/#google_vignette">including Icelandic tourism officials,</a> who are encouraging fewer tourists to take longer trips to the country. Parent's journey comes amid widespread backlash from European locals as record numbers of tourists <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2023/07/31/tourists-go-home-fed-up-with-over-tourism-european-hotspots-impose-bans-fines-taxes-and-traps/">flock to hot spots across Europe</a>.Along the way, Parent plans to meet with entrepreneurs who are working on solutions to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. He doesn't have a set itinerary; he knows where he needs to be and when, but he'll mostly use a physical map and follow waterways, he said. He aims to show others that slow-paced travel and traveling long distances by bicycle is possible.He plans to document the journey, the entrepreneurs' stories, and best practices for building sustainable businesses. He hopes to make a film and write a book about the trip. Parent is fundraising for the project, which he expects to cost 180,000 euros, or about $194,000, or 115,000 euros without including the costs of making the documentary.Parent is part of a WhatsApp group of other cyclist adventurers and expects to bump into his peers on the road. He's hoping that will combat what he expects to be one of the trip's biggest challenges — staying positive.Much of his preparation has been to get into the right mindset, given the potentially long stints he will face alone. "The 'why' is so important," he said. "Why do you want to do it?"For anyone wanting to undertake their own adventure, Parent suggested avoiding negativity and writing their motivation and values down on paper.<div type="image" title="Benjamin Parent in the south of France" height="1537" width="2049" msid="103516655" hostid="261"></div>Ever since traveling across Australia after university, Parent has been keen to get back on the road and has wanted to undertake a "world tour" for a decade. Still, being mostly alone for three years will be tough, he said. The longest cycling trip he has been on so far was about three weeks, covering 900 kilometers.Other than mindfulness, Parent isn't training particularly hard. He goes out on his bike "once or twice" a week, covering about 50 kilometers. His bike, packed with everything he will need for three years, including a tent and camera equipment, weighs about 30 kilograms.The good thing about slow travel is that he doesn't need to train to cover crazy distances every day — it's not performative, he said.A typical day will consist of putting his tent away, finding somewhere to eat or food to cook on a camping stove, and jumping on his bike based on planning from the previous evening. He expects to cover 50 to 60 kilometers a day.In addition to camping gear, Parent has a long list of items he needs based on the length of the trip and the different environments he will encounter. His kit includes waterproof pants, a gadget that charges his phone as he pedals, and basic bike parts in case something breaks. He will also have conventional items like gloves, water, and a first-aid kit.For safety, he has a tracker that can be pressed if there is an issue. "Ninety-nine percent of the time, it's not an issue with people, it's just an issue with the road and bicycle," he said. He is worried about wild dogs, which "are very aggressive with bicycles," he added.He's determined to get on the road, but so far, the trip is keeping Parent indoors, huddled over his laptop. "Don't underestimate the work with planning, the time to plan everything," he said. "Having a dream and realizing it, there is a huge gap in between. This is not to be underestimated."

Meet the ex-Tesla staffer cycling across the world to encourage people to embrace low-carbon slow travel 

<keyword id="6357147" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="tata-steel" source="Orion">Tata Steel</keyword> has partnered with <keyword id="87" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="germany" source="Orion">Germany</keyword>'s SMS group to explore development of low carbon steel making process. As part of the MoU, both companies shall undertake further technical discussions and initiate actions for conducting Joint Industrial Demonstration of the EASyMelt technology developed by SMS group, Tata Steel said in a statement. "The demonstration will be executed at <keyword id="17711230" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="e-blast-furnace" source="Orion">E Blast Furnace</keyword> in Tata Steel's Jamshedpur plant with an objective to reduce CO2 emission by more than 50 per cent from blast furnace's baseline operation," it said. The EASyMelt (electric-assisted syngas smelter) technology is an iron-making solution that can be implemented in existing integrated steel plants to accelerate decarbonisation. <keyword id="1441007" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="t-v-narendran" source="Orion">T V Narendran</keyword>, CEO &amp; MD, Tata Steel, said "We actively look for solutions to facilitate the transition to green steel production, and thus contribute to a sustainable future. Further, <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> being the second largest steel producer in the world also places a huge responsibility on large manufacturers like Tata Steel to lead the country's decarbonisation journey." Tata Steel intends to take this association ahead with a deeper collaboration to access better technologies and processes to reduce the carbon footprint in a meaningful and consistent way, he said. Tata Steel is prioritising decarbonisation and has set a goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2045. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/google-bard-cool-things-you-can-do-with-the-ai-chatbot/articleshow/101012445.cms">Google Bard: Cool things you can do with the AI chatbot</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/ev-stocks-on-the-radar-these-five-rode-the-electric-vehicle-rally-in-the-last-year/slidelist/101011986.cms">EV stocks on the radar – These five rode the electric vehicle rally in the last year</a>

Tata Steel, Germany's SMS group to explore low carbon steel making technology

New Delhi, Exposure to <keyword id="55910" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="air-pollution" source="Orion">air pollution</keyword>, even at relatively low levels, is associated with women giving birth to smaller babies, according to a study. The research, to be presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Milan, Italy from September 9-13, also shows that women living in greener areas give birth to bigger babies and this may help counteract the effects of pollution. There is a strong relationship between birthweight and lung health, with low birthweight children facing a higher risk of asthma and higher rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) as they grow older, the researchers said. There is a need to reduce air pollution and make towns and cities greener to help protect babies and their developing lungs from potential harm, they said. The study was based on data from the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe (RHINE) study and presented by Robin Mzati Sinsamala, a researcher at the University of Bergen (UiB), Norway. It included 4,286 children and their mothers living in five European countries -- Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Estonia. The researchers gauged the greenness of the areas where the women were living during pregnancy by measuring the density of vegetation on satellite images. This vegetation includes forests and farmland as well as parks in urban areas. They also used data on five pollutants: nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone, black carbon, and two types of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10). The average levels of air pollution were within European Union standards. Researchers compared this information with the babies' birthweights, taking account of factors that are known to affect birthweight, such as mother's age, whether the mothers smoked or had any other health conditions. They found that higher levels of air pollution were linked with lower birthweights, with small particulate matter PM2.5, relatively bigger pollution particles PM10, NO2 and black carbon associated with average reductions in birth weight of 56, 46, 48 and 48 grammes, respectively. When researchers took greenness into account, the effect of air pollution on birthweight was reduced. Women who lived in greener areas had babies with slightly higher birth weight -- 27 grammes heavier on average -- than mothers living in less green areas. "The time when babies are growing in the womb is critical for lung development. We know that babies with lower birthweight are susceptible to chest infections, and this can lead on to problems like asthma and COPD later on," Sinsamala said. "Our results suggest that pregnant women exposed to air pollution, even at relatively low levels, give birth to smaller babies. They also suggest that living in a greener area could help counteract this effect," the researcher added. The team noted that it could be that green areas tend to have lower traffic or that plants help to clear the air of pollution, or green areas may mean it is easier for pregnant women to be physically active.

Air pollution linked to lower birth weight in babies, says new European study

<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/one-planet"></a><div type="image" title="The Seabound team inside one of its containers part way through the first onboard installation." height="786" width="1000" msid="102914885" hostid="261"></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Shipping produces about 3% of the world's annual greenhouse-gas emissions.</li><li>The UN's International Maritime Organization has set a 2050 target for the industry to get to net zero.</li><li>The Y Combinator-backed Seabound believes its on board carbon-capture tech can play a key role.</li></ul>Alisha Fredriksson didn't expect to be living on a cargo ship this summer. Luckily, she and her team are taking the three-month stints in turns.Fredriksson is the cofounder and CEO of Seabound, a climate-tech startup that aims to lower the greenhouse-gas emissions produced by the shipping industry.Seabound, backed by the famed accelerator Y Combinator, has built a carbon-capture machine that can be retrofitted onto ships. It absorbs CO2 from the exhaust gas and turns it into limestone pebbles, which can then be sold as a building material.From avocados to clothing, about <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/board-of-trade-report-maritime/embracing-the-ocean-a-board-of-trade-paper-web-version#:~:text=Global%20maritime%20sector%20trends,-While%20sometimes%20overlooked&amp;text=Approximately%2090%25%20of%20traded%20goods,countries'%20trade%20costs%20and%20competitiveness." target="_blank" rel="noopener">90% of traded goods</a> are carried on the ocean. As the backbone of global trade, shipping is responsible for <a href="https://theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/Global-shipping-GHG-emissions-2013-2015_ICCT-Report_17102017_vF.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3% of annual greenhouse-gas emissions</a> — a figure the industry must slash. The UN's International Maritime Organization recently set a goal for the sector to reach <a href="https://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/PressBriefings/Pages/Revised-GHG-reduction-strategy-for-global-shipping-adopted-.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">net zero "by or around"</a> 2050. Net zero means to balance out the amount of emissions that are emitted with those that are removed from the atmosphere. Shipping, along with aviation and steelmaking, is considered a hard-to-abate industry because of its global complexities and reliance on fossil fuels.It could cost up to<a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/energy/news/2020/jan/decarbonisation-shipping-will-take-place-land-well-sea#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20study%2C%20the,total%20to%20%241.4%20%2D%201.9%20trillion." target="_blank" rel="noopener"> $1.9 trillion</a> to decarbonize shipping, a 2020 study by University College London and the environmental consultancy University Maritime Advisory Services found. "Shipping now faces a much harder challenge than it would have done had it been better at adapting and improving over the last 10 to 20 years. It's become very urgent now," said Stephen Turnock, the head of the engineering school at Southampton University, of the International Maritime Organization's latest guidance. Some form of carbon capture will be needed for shipping to "keep the world spinning" as it moves toward more sustainable practices, said Ed Phillips, a partner at the impact-investment fund Future Planet Capital.<div type="image" title="Seabound cofounders Alisha Fredriksson and Roujia Wen" height="480" width="640" msid="102914887" hostid="261"></div><h2>Piloting the technology on board </h2>Seabound's end goal is to capture 95% of the carbon produced by a ship, though its current prototype captures only a small fraction of that. Having tested it on land, Seabound is now using a commercial container ship as its lab in a pilot project with the London-based shipping company Lomar Shipping.Seabound moved the prototype from its London research-and-development facility to a shipyard in Yalova, Turkey, where it has been installed on a midsize ship that can carry about 3,200 containers, Fredriksson said. Her team will take turns living on board to test the equipment in a real maritime environment. The equipment connects to the ship's exhaust, which flows through a reactor full of pebbles made of calcium-oxide – otherwise known as quicklime, limestone without the CO2. Then a mineralization process takes place where carbon dioxide binds to the pebbles to essentially become limestone. The fumes, now cleaner, are released through an outlet pipe. The limestone is temporarily stored on board and replaced with fresh calcium-oxide pebbles when the ship docks. The startup's opportunity is threefold: Seabound sells the carbon-capture device to ship owners, runs a subscription service for pebble collections to make it easy for shipowners to source new pebbles and offload used ones, and then sells the limestone pebbles to be used as a building material or to be sequestered.If the pilot goes well, the team will start designing and testing a new, bigger version of the device that will be its first product. "We will need some time to basically build that first product, so we want to move out of prototyping land and into actually having a product at a meaningful scale for our customers," Fredriksson said. "Then once we have really tested that on land, that's when we put the first full-scale version on a ship again." <div type="image" title="The Seabound team installing their equipment inside a shipping container onboard." height="1024" width="768" msid="102914888" hostid="261"></div><h2>Energy and weight challenges </h2>Ships usually get lighter through their voyage because they use up fuel, but capturing carbon means storing it on board in some form, which adds weight, according to Turnock. "It might need a little more power to go through the water," he said. It's likely a small amount of power, he added, but it's compounded by the weight and size of the carbon-capture device itself. "If it's quite heavy, then it usually has to be low down on the ship, and then there might be difficulty to find the necessary volume to actually fit the system in without losing cargo capacity.""Shipowners are loath to lose cargo-carrying capacity because that's what makes them their money," Turnock said.In its first pilot, Seabound placed its equipment into five shipping containers stacked on top of each other on the ship. It may require owners to sacrifice "a little bit of cargo" within the ship's max capacity, and "fuel consumption is relative to that capacity," Fredriksson said. Fredriksson added that Seabound's reaction was exothermic, meaning it needed an injection of heat to get started but then was self-sustaining. It has a "very negligible energy consumption on board," she said. <div type="image" title="The ship that Seabound has installed its pilot equipment onto." height="769" width="1024" msid="102914890" hostid="261"></div><h2>Decarbonization requires all hands on deck</h2>There are a handful of other approaches to maritime carbon capture, such as using the captured carbon to <a href="https://valuemaritime.com/videos/#:~:text=Value%20Maritime%20has%20developed%20an,can%20be%20charged%20and%20discharged." target="_blank" rel="noopener">charge a CO2 battery</a>, but overall it's a very nascent space. "It's not an industry, it's an emerging category," Fredriksson said. "What's interesting is that we're actually all trying different approaches," she added. "It's our responsibility as technology innovators or developers to figure out how we can work strategically or creatively within existing infrastructural constraints."Fredriksson said there were a host of creative ways being pursued to address the shipping industry's emissions. "If we were all trying the same thing, it would be kind of silly."Carbon capture aside, electric ships or alternative fuels are favored by others. Maersk, one of the largest container carriers in the world, is <a href="https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/2022/11/16/maersk-and-carbon-sink-sign-strategic-partnership" target="_blank" rel="noopener">betting on green methanol as a fuel,</a> while other startups hope <a href="https://www.axios.com/pro/climate-deals/2023/06/01/acel-power-candela-x-shore-big-electric-boat-investment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">electrification will take off</a>. "We're focused more on the opportunity with e-methanol, with ammonia, hydrogen, and electrification; it's just avoiding being leapfrogged," said Future Planet Capital's Phillips. "As an investor with a long-term view, sometimes backing a technology that solves an issue in the short-term can be a risk in itself." Still, Seabound's tech looks "pretty elegant" to the outsider. Leapfrogging doesn't make sense when <a href="https://www.globalmaritimeforum.org/content/2023/04/the-shipping-industrys-fuel-choices-on-the-path-to-net-zero_final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">most ships today run on </a>fossil fuels and are still being ordered, Fredriksson said. Ships typically have a 30-year lifespan, she added. The cost of a complete overhaul to an electric fleet or one that runs on alternative fuel would be "prohibitively expensive" while the technologies themselves are still immature, she added. At scale, Seabound intends to retrofit ships when they are in dry docks for routine maintenance. Turnock expects to see a patchwork of technologies emerge. The best solution will depend on whether it's a short-distance ferry or a cargo ship sailing the high seas, he said. "I don't think there's a magic bullet out there.""We should be thinking about solutions which are overall good for the environment and make sense, not just ways of bookkeeping CO2 so we're just displacing the problem," he added.

How Y Combinator-backed Seabound is using carbon-capture tech to tackle the shipping industry's problematic emissions

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Exxon Mobil this week announced plans to acquire oil producer Denbury.</li><li>Denbury also has a business of capturing carbon-dioxide emissions.</li></ul>Exxon Mobil is trying to position itself for a low-carbon world by buying a company that stores planet-warming emissions.The largest US oil major <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://investor.exxonmobil.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1144/exxonmobil-announces-acquisition-of-denbury">said Thursday</a> it would acquire Denbury, which has the largest network of carbon dioxide pipelines in the country, for $4.9 billion. Denbury is also in the business of what's called enhanced oil recovery, which involves using carbon dioxide to collect more oil from wells.Exxon's move follows the passage last year of the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes tax breaks for companies that <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://apnews.com/article/exxon-mobil-denbury-carbon-capture-acquisition-e88462a294693e4139b24d6030ac3c2d">capture and store carbon dioxide</a> — injecting new life into the nascent and controversial industry.The IRA is set to pump <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/inflation_reduction_act_one_page_summary.pdf">almost $370 billion</a> over a decade into a range of efforts to help fight the climate crisis and put the US on a path to slash carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, a goal set by President Joe Biden.What is carbon capture, utilization, and storage?Carbon capture, utilization, and storage, or CCUS, refers to technologies that trap carbon-dioxide emissions, often from large industrial sources like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage">power plants or factories</a>.Most of the carbon dioxide being captured today is used to pump more oil from wells, a process known as enhanced oil recovery, or to make fertilizer. The gas can also be piped underground into geological formations, including oil-and-gas reservoirs or salty aquifers, according to the International Energy Agency.Why is Exxon buying Denbury?Denbury gets most of its revenue from enhanced oil recovery, a technique that Exxon has a long record of using. But for Exxon, the acquisition is <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/-/media/global/files/advancing-climate-solutions-progress-report/2023/2023-advancing-climate-solutions-progress-report.pdf">part of a larger strategy</a> to stay profitable as countries try to meet global climate targets.Rather than diversifying into producing solar and wind power, Exxon <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/what-we-do/delivering-industrial-solutions/carbon-capture-and-storage/ccs-in-action">is betting that it can keep pumping oil and gas so long as</a> it caps emissions flowing out of smokestacks at power plants and factories.Some of that captured CO2 could be put to use by other industries, including makers of fertilizers and other chemicals. Most of the captured carbon dioxide will likely be stored underground, however.The IEA estimates that if the world achieves net-zero emissions by 2050, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage/co2-capture-and-utilisation">less than 5% of the carbon captured would be used</a>, while the rest would need to be stored.Transporting CO2 requires pipelines, and Denbury has 1,300 miles of carbon dioxide pipelines; much of its network spans Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi. Denbury also already has 10 sites where it stores carbon.The purchase would help Exxon go deeper into this business."If we're able to acquire a really significant piece of existing infrastructure, that allows us to move much more quickly than if we were to try and build and replicate that infrastructure ourselves," Dan Ammann, president of Exxon's Low Carbon Solutions business, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://twitter.com/business/status/1679508792512327686">told Bloomberg on Thursday</a>.The deal with Denbury is one of several carbon-capture and storage deals Exxon has made in less than a year, including <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/news/news-releases/2023/0601_lcs-nucor-agreement">a plan to capture, transport, and store carbon emissions from a steelmaking plant</a> in Louisiana by 2026.What is the state of CCUS today?CCUS is still a nascent industry with a troubled track record, but there's been a lot of momentum in recent years.Around 40 commercial sites are operating around the world, with another 50 capture facilities expected to come online by 2030, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage">according to the IEA</a>.For its part, Exxon <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/what-we-do/delivering-industrial-solutions/carbon-capture-and-storage/ccs-in-action">has carbon-capture and storage facilities</a> in the US, Qatar, and Australia, and at least 10 more have been announced around the world.Is carbon capture a solution to the climate crisis?Oil companies certainly think so, though the technology is still a major flashpoint. Many climate advocates argue that CCUS is too expensive to develop and the money is better spent on technology already proven to slash emissions at scale: solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles, to name a few.Even though the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/carbon-emissions-2022-record-renewables-growth-solar-wind-iea-2023-3">renewable energy transition is speeding up</a>, the pace isn't fast enough yet. A United Nations panel of climate scientists earlier this year warned that <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/03/20/climate-change-ipcc-report-15/">the world is still way off track</a> in achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 — a key target to avoid global temperatures from rising above catastrophic levels.Without a more rapid shift away from fossil fuels, technology like carbon-capture and storage is critical, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.globalccsinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/CCS-in-the-IPCC-Sixth-Assessment-AR6-Synthesis-Report-2-4.pdf">the scientists said</a>.Still, there's no guarantee that CCUS will scale up in time, either. The <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage">IEA said that even if all the planned sites come online</a> by 2030, the entire industry combined would only be capturing about one-third of the carbon dioxide needed to hit net-zero emissions by midcentury.

Why Exxon Mobil is spending $4.9 billion on a company that pumps carbon dioxide back into the earth

<keyword id="6368035" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="essar" source="Orion">Essar</keyword> Oil UK Limited has announced its plan to build a 360 million-pound major new carbon capture plant at its <keyword id="505019" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="stanlow" source="Orion">Stanlow</keyword> refinery in line with its ambition to become a leading low-carbon refinery by 2030. Essar is investing over 1 billion pounds into a range of energy efficiency, fuel-switching, and carbon capture initiatives, designed to decarbonise its production processes significantly by 2030 and put Essar at the forefront of the UK's shift to low-carbon energy. Essar's energy transition strategy is based on five principles: running the core Stanlow refining processes as efficiently and safely as possible; decarbonising Stanlow's operations; building a hydrogen future through the launch of <keyword id="13037257" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="vertex-hydrogen" source="Orion">Vertex Hydrogen</keyword> ("Vertex") and as a key part of the HyNet consortium; developing green fuels (including Sustainable Aviation Fuels); and establishing the UK's largest biofuels storage facility through Stanlow Terminals Limited. Essar will achieve its decarbonisation targets through a combination of incremental (energy efficiency and operating improvements) and transformational projects, including the 360 million-pound carbon capture plant announced, but also as a result of the significant investments, Essar is making into hydrogen and biofuels. Kent plc has been awarded a pre-FEED engineering contract to develop the facility that will take the CO2 emitted from one of <keyword id="28249" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="europe" source="Orion">Europe</keyword>'s largest full-Residue Fluidised Catalytic Cracking units, located at the Stanlow refinery. The gas will be permanently sequestered into depleted gas fields under the sea in Liverpool Bay, as part of the HyNet cluster infrastructure in the northwest of England. Once complete in 2027, the plant will eliminate an estimated 0.81 million tons of CO2 per year -- the equivalent of taking 400,000 cars off the road, eliminating nearly 40% of all Stanlow emissions. The project has been selected by BEIS as a Phase-2 winner in the CCUS cluster sequencing process earlier this summer, and as such, is currently progressing through the due diligence stage. <keyword id="1598500" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="deepak-maheshwari" source="Orion">Deepak Maheshwari</keyword>, CEO of Essar Oil UK said: "This new carbon capture plant is the single biggest initiative to decarbonise our processes and a core element to our hugely ambitious decarbonisation strategy. Our ambition is to become a leading low-carbon refinery. This is a massive undertaking, but it is a journey we are fully committed to. Not only is it the right environmental thing to do, it will future-proof the critical Stanlow refinery for the long term, protecting jobs and industry, while also placing Stanlow at the very centre of the UK's energy transition." Essar is already making rapid progress against its broader decarbonisation targets. In September, EOUK announced it had signed a 'Heads of Terms' offtake agreement with Vertex, a joint venture with Progressive Energy, for the supply of 280MW+ of hydrogen. The hydrogen will be used to help decarbonise Essar's existing production facilities including the new hydrogen-powered furnace which was delivered in August this year. The 45 million-pound furnace is the first of its kind in the UK, capable of running on a 100 per cent hydrogen source and will replace three existing furnaces at Stanlow. Vertex is developing the first large-scale, low-carbon hydrogen production hub in the UK, as part of the HyNet cluster. This will produce (in its initial phases) 1GW of hydrogen (the equivalent energy use of a large UK city like Liverpool) and capture some 1.8 million tonnes of carbon per annum. By 2030, Vertex expects to deliver nearly 4GW of low-carbon hydrogen, equivalent to 40 per cent of the UK government's national target. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/uber-passengers-now-connect-with-city-police-in-case-of-emergency-with-the-sos-button/articleshow/95879290.cms">Uber passengers now connect with city police in case of emergency with the SOS button</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/samsung-india-will-hire-1000-engineers-from-top-institutes-for-rd-units/articleshow/95882077.cms">Samsung India will hire 1,000 engineers from top institutes for R&amp;D units</a>

Essar Oil UK to build carbon capture facility

<div type="image" title="One Planet Banner Test" height="138" width="1100" msid="101402909" hostid="261" sizebytes="5076"></div>Do you remember your very first cellphone?Where is it now? Maybe you passed it on to a friend, traded it in for an upgrade, or sold it. Maybe it's still lurking somewhere in your home, abandoned in a drawer.It takes a lot of resources to make a smartphone. It's estimated that the production of a typical smartphone uses around <a href="https://www.twosides.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/mind-your-step-report-76803.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">12,760 liters of water,</a> which is equivalent to around 160 bathtubs full of water. The manufacturing process is energy-intensive, too, with the production of an average smartphone emitting 60 kilograms of carbon dioxide, <a href="https://green-alliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Design_for_a_circular_economy.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to Green Alliance</a>, an independent think tank focused on environmental policy. It's not just smartphone manufacturing that has a big environmental impact. <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to the Environmental Protection Agency,</a> manufacturing is the third-largest contributor to US greenhouse-gas emissions, after transportation and electric power. The sector also accounts for 25% of the nation's energy consumption.More often than not, the products we consume have been made from newly extracted materials. The amount of resources that we extract has <a href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/global" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than tripled since 1970</a>, with global material consumption totaling <a href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than 100 billion tons every year.</a> But while consumption rates have shot up, recycling rates have remained low. Just <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/22/worlds-consumption-of-materials-hits-record-100bn-tonnes-a-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">8.6% of the materials that we consume each year are recycled.</a><h2>Could a circular economy make a difference?</h2>Some industry leaders think there's a solution for cutting down on waste and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions at the same time: the circular economy. Try to visualize it. Right now, we have a linear system. We extract materials, make them into products, use the products, and then dispose of them. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity committed to creating a circular economy, calls this a <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"take-make-waste" system</a>. Think back to your first cellphone: It's probably at the "waste" stage right now.The idea of a circular economy is to take that "straight line" system and turn it into a closed loop. The basic idea is to keep materials in the loop for as long as possible. Imagine if components from your first cellphone were extracted and used in your current one, or if it was easy to upgrade and repair your first cellphone so you could still use it today.<a href="https://www.circularity-gap.world/global" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Research by the Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative</a> found that only 7.2% of the global economy is currently circular.There are several ways to create a circular economy. It starts with designing products that last as long as possible and are easy to repair. Once a product can no longer be repaired, it can be remanufactured — which is when you disassemble a product and make a new version of the product with used parts. Recycling — when materials are repurposed into a new product and put back together again — is the final step. When you recycle, you are using waste as a resource.Alice Bodreau, the partnership lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, said that there are three pillars of a circular-economy strategy: developing products that don't create waste and pollution, circulating the materials that you put on the market, and regenerating nature.Anne Velenturf, a senior research fellow at the University of Leeds, told Insider that adopting a circular economy does not mean that consumers lose out. "Research has shown that we can all still live a good-quality life when resources are better shared across society," she said.<h2>Waste is a resource</h2>Recycling doesn't just tackle our waste problem; it helps to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. That's because recycled materials skip a large part of the energy-intensive extraction and manufacturing process. The production of recycled steel, for instance, requires <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/completing-the-picture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10% to 15% of the energy required to produce new steel.</a>The issue, though, is that not everything is easy to recycle. Think about the phone or computer that you're reading this article on. It's made up of lots of different materials and minerals.This problem is something that Peter Afiuny was thinking about when he cofounded the magnet-manufacturing company <a href="https://noveon.co" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Noveon</a>. "In the late '80s and early '90s, all of the stuff that we were consuming as a society started to become more complex in its product, in terms of the components that are used," Afiuny told Insider. "The waste industry didn't really catch up to how to extract the more critical components."Afiuny, who had previously worked in the recycling industry, wanted to find an efficient way to "surgically extract" components that would otherwise be discarded.Cue the creation of Noveon, a company that manufactures rare-earth magnets from recycled materials. According to Afiuny, postconsumer recycling rates for rare-earth magnetic materials are less than 3%. The traditional "mine-to-magnet" process consists of a lot of energy-intensive and waste-intensive steps and uses potentially dangerous chemicals. "We essentially invented a process that bypassed all of these upstream methods," Afiuny said.Many things need permanent magnets, including products that are essential for the green transition such as electric vehicles and wind turbines."Most of our magnetic materials come from end-of-life channels, so that includes motors, energy systems, medical devices, data-storage devices like hard disk drives," Afiuny said.Afiuny told Insider that he saw Noveon's manufacturing approach as part of a wider shift in the industry. "I think that there is just more generally a trend towards developing regional supply chains, especially as companies are becoming global entities and they're looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint," he said.<h2>Design matters</h2>Bodreau said that there's more to the circular economy than recycling."Recycling is like you have a water leak in your house and you just go and directly mop it up and try to mop everything up before doing anything else," she said. "While the circular economy is about putting the tap off and actually addressing the leak itself, and not just mopping the floor and keeping on mopping the floor forever and ever."One way to "turn the tap off" is through design. Bodreau said it's about "redesigning the way you operate and the way your product is designed that it will never end up as a leak in the world."That's the principle the electronics company <a href="https://www.fairphone.com/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fairphone</a> is putting into practice. Based in Amsterdam, the company manufactures just two types of products: smartphones and headphones. Their smartphones aren't glued shut and are easy to disassemble, which makes them much easier to repair."Seventy-five percent of the emissions connected to a smartphone occur during production," Anna Jopp, Fairphone's press officer, told Insider. "To us, this means that the most efficient way to reduce the emissions caused by smartphones is to produce less phones. And the way to achieve this is to use the phones we already have for as long as possible."If you keep your phone for five years instead of three you could reduce the phone's annual carbon footprint by 31%, Jopp said.Since phone longevity is key, Jopp said Fairfone tries to encourage people to keep their phones as long as possible by making products that are modular by design and easily repairable. "The longer a product is used, the fewer new products we need to manufacture and the less resources we use," she said.<h2>The renewable challenge</h2>The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that there will be <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/articles/we-need-to-talk-about-renewables-part-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">43 million tons of wind-turbine blade waste by 2050.</a> Meanwhile, the Renewable Energy Agency estimates that there will be up to <a href="https://www.irena.org/publications/2016/Jun/End-of-life-management-Solar-Photovoltaic-Panels" target="_blank" rel="noopener">78 million tons of solar-panel waste</a> by 2050. The renewable-energy industry presents a new challenge for the circular economy, and the UK company ReBlade is trying to get ahead of the game. ReBlade's cofounder Fiona Lindsay told Insider that the team wanted to stop material from wind turbines from going to landfills. While many parts of wind turbines can be recycled, the wind-turbine blades are made from fiberglass, a nonbiodegradable manufactured composite that is extremely difficult to recycle. The company is working on solutions to repurpose wind-turbine blades when they can no longer be used to generate power. Their flagship project uses decommissioned blades to create canopies that provide shelter at electric-vehicle charging points.Lindsay said that the "newness" of the sector was a big obstacle. "Until now, blades have only needed to come down in tiny numbers, perhaps because of damage," she said."In the years ahead, blades will come down in their thousands as whole wind-farm sites are repowered with bigger turbines," she said. "What that means is that the owner-operators of sites don't, as of yet, have standardized approaches to procurement or blade-removal operations.""It takes a tremendous amount of energy and resources to produce the blades in the first place, so we believe reusing them is a better option," Lindsay said.<h2>A 'win-win' solution</h2>Velenturf said that there were many benefits for companies adopting circular-economy principles, including accessing new markets and customers and increasing the security of material supplies, which reduces risks and costs.Policymakers are starting to catch on to circular solutions, too. In June, representatives from 180 countries met in Paris and discussed a global treaty to regulate plastics. Bodreau described the meeting as a "big, big way forward." Meanwhile, New York state's recent <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-signs-digital-fair-repair-act-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Fair Repair Act</a> aims to make it easier for consumers to access the parts and information needed to repair their electronic devices.For Lindsay, the circular approach is a no-brainer. "We have a finite amount of resources so we need to find innovative new ways to reuse resources through second- or even third-life uses after they have been used in their initial applications — a win-win for everybody."This article is part of "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/the-great-transition" rel="">The Great Transition</a>," a series covering the big changes across industries that are leading to a more sustainable future. For more climate-action news, visit Insider's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/one-planet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">One Planet</a> hub.

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