TRL 7. Cost falling rapidly. Strategic importance for India's Net Zero 2070 commitment.
Direct Air Capture (DAC) systems use chemical processes to extract CO₂ directly from ambient air — at 420 parts per million CO₂ concentration — rather than from concentrated industrial flue gas. Because atmospheric CO₂ is uniform globally, DAC systems can be sited anywhere, independent of where emissions occur. This makes DAC uniquely valuable as a "negative emissions" technology that can offset emissions from sectors where elimination is impossible or prohibitively costly.
Two principal DAC technology pathways have reached demonstration and early commercial scale: liquid solvent DAC (LDAC), pioneered by Carbon Engineering (now Oxy Low Carbon Ventures), uses a potassium hydroxide solution to capture CO₂ followed by a calcination and slaking cycle to regenerate the solvent; and solid sorbent DAC (SDAC), pioneered by Climeworks, uses temperature-swing adsorption on solid amine materials in modular units. Both approaches produce a concentrated CO₂ stream suitable for geological storage or utilisation.
Current DAC costs range from USD 300–1,000 per tonne CO₂, depending on technology maturity and energy source. This is significantly higher than industrial point-source capture (USD 50–150/t) but the cost curve is expected to follow the same trajectory as solar PV and wind power — declining rapidly as deployment scales and manufacturing matures. For India, the strategic question is not whether DAC will be cost-competitive but when — and how to position India's industrial and geological assets to benefit from that cost trajectory.
India's trajectory to the world's lowest-cost renewable electricity — with solar PV costs already below USD 0.02/kWh in Rajasthan and Gujarat — creates a unique opportunity for energy-intensive DAC deployment. The two principal DAC technology pathways both require either heat (LDAC) or electricity (SDAC) as their primary energy input. As India's renewable energy continues to scale, the marginal cost of this energy will approach zero during periods of oversupply, dramatically improving DAC economics.
India's Deccan Traps — a 500,000 km² basalt province covering Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, and parts of Madhya Pradesh — is one of the world's most significant geological assets for DAC-coupled permanent CO₂ mineralisation. When CO₂ is injected into basalt formations, it reacts with the silicate minerals to form stable carbonate solids within 1–2 years — providing a form of permanent CO₂ storage with essentially zero leakage risk. The CarbFix project in Iceland demonstrated this mineralisation process at pilot scale, and NCM is assessing the Deccan Traps as a potential large-scale Indian analogue.
For India's Net Zero 2070 accounting, DAC plays a specific role: offsetting the residual emissions from sectors that cannot be fully abated by other means — aviation, shipping, agriculture, and certain industrial processes. A national DAC programme, supported by government carbon removal obligations and international Article 6 carbon market revenue, is likely to be a necessary component of India's 2070 carbon balance. NCM is working with government stakeholders to develop the policy and commercial framework for India's first DAC deployments.
Atmospheric CO₂ concentration — the feedstock for DAC, uniform globally
Deccan Traps basalt area — world-class geology for CO₂ mineralisation storage
Current DAC cost range per tonne CO₂ — on a steep downward cost trajectory
India's Net Zero target year — DAC essential for residual emission offsets
The global DAC industry is small but growing rapidly. NCM monitors all major deployments for lessons applicable to India.
World's first commercial SDAC plant with geological storage. CO₂ mineralised in basalt in under 2 years. Iceland's basalt geology is the closest global analogue to India's Deccan Traps. Provides direct design reference for Indian basalt mineralisation.
World's largest operational DAC plant. 500,000 t/year when fully operational. LDAC technology. Provides cost and performance data for large-scale deployment. NCM uses Stratos operational data as the primary reference for LDAC feasibility in India.
Next-generation solid sorbent DAC plants under development in the US — demonstrating the modular, rapidly deployable SDAC pathway that could be replicated in India's solar-rich northwestern states.
NCM's DAC advisory is currently focused on two tracks: policy and framework development, and pre-feasibility site assessment. On the policy track, we are contributing to India's National Carbon Market framework to ensure that DAC and BECCS credits are properly recognised and incentivised — without which the commercial case for DAC investment does not close.
On the site assessment track, NCM is conducting pre-feasibility evaluations of DAC deployment in two contexts: large-scale LDAC at industrial sites in Maharashtra and Gujarat with access to process waste heat and proximity to Deccan Traps storage; and modular SDAC in Rajasthan and Gujarat solar zones, where low-cost renewable energy is available and saline aquifer storage has been identified through preliminary geological survey work.
NCM is also developing India's first BECCS project pipeline — identifying sugar mills, agricultural biomass processors, and municipal solid waste facilities where biogenic CO₂ capture can generate net-negative carbon credits. These projects, structured under India's Carbon Market and Article 6 bilateral agreements with Japan and Australia, represent the most commercially advanced segment of India's near-term DAC/removal portfolio.
Whether you are a government body seeking policy advice, an industrial company facing CBAM exposure, or an investor seeking CCUS project opportunities — our team is ready to engage.