Carbon reduction from coal power plants is a key challenge and co-firing of low carbon fuel will facilitate the transition towards a low carbon energy economy and subsequent to ‘Net Zero’ emissions. In its efforts to adopt advanced powering technology to decarbonize power generation in India, NTPC Ltd., the country’s largest power generating utility, and GE Power India Ltd., a listed company of GE Steam Power in India have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for feasibility to demonstrate technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of NTPC’s existing coal fired power plants.
This first of a kind MOU aims at partnering on research, development and engineering of technologies that will enable NTPC to reduce the amount of coal fired in their units and gradually replace it by co-firing alternative fuels in the boilers – both carboneous (methanol, carbon neutral fuel such as agricultural waste, biomass, etc.) and non-carboneous (such as ammonia). This will make use of the huge existing infrastructure and require less new investments as compared to other decarbonisation options. Furthermore, as in India coal is the only widely available option for baseload power generation, it will help in reducing the carbon footprint of this source of reliable power, for decades in future.
