How Y-Capita is relentlessly pursuing R&D & commercialising localised solutions to address urgent environmental management issues

Headquartered in Mumbai, Y-Capita has consistently been advancing technology and commercialising sustainable solutions across environment, mobility, water, and biotech segments.

Y-Capita has based its business model on patented products, which address critical environmental issues and are a strictly commercial venture, not reliant on CSR funding. The products have been developed by founders and inventors Kaushik Palicha and Harinipriya Seshadri, with 121 patents either granted or in the grant stage. These patents cover a range of innovative technologies, from processes and formulations to product designs.

Each technology is strategically licensed to Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) primarily owned by Y-Capita and its key employees to bring the products to the market.

Since 2016, the promoters of Y-Capita have been developing technologies to process various streams of waste, which has led to new business opportunities. With big-ticket deals for its waste-to-energy units with companies in and outside India, Y-Capita is also looking at Carbon Capture & Utilisation as a critical business opportunity.

Guiding Principles

Two business principles guide the R&D and product development efforts at Y-Capita that make it unique in its approach towards solving for the environment:

• The goal is to create sustainable products and solutions that generate revenue rather than adding to costs.

• The industry needs solutions that don’t hinder production and consumption. Discover and tend to business opportunities in managing discharges.

One question Y-Capita gets asked very often is why the steel industry believes in their reactors, with sizeable volumes of MoUs being signed. Steel has always been a capital-intensive industry, and investments in carbon capture have led to high costs with minimal substantial results. One of the key successes that Y-Capita see in their reactors is that from a cost centre – carbon capture & utilisation becomes a profit centre, with all the emissions being converted into value-added products. This adds significant revenue to the customer from their emissions, which were earlier just released as per guidelines.

Effectively, the customer is investing in hardware with an IRR of 25% & a break-even point of less than 3 years, making it a viable proposition.

Solving for the Environment

Y-Capita is addressing environmental challenges through various innovative solutions.

1. Carbon Capture and Utilization — The company has engineered equipment to capture Greenhouse Gases and convert them into usable material or fuel without residue. These solutions have applications in carbon-intensive industries such as Steel, Petroleum, Power Plants, Mines, Distilleries, and Chemical Industries. www.entity1.in

2. Electrocatalytic Reactors to Manage Industrial Waste — These reactors are designed to clean and recycle industrial waste, separate materials and minerals, and return a large quantity of material to the original supply chain. They are used in areas such as steel slag and mining residue. The reactors also clean impurities in water and convert unsegregated waste into low-cost energy and establishing a constant material supply chain with low energy and zero carbon footprint. These reactors are applied in industrial water discharge, water effluent management systems, and municipal waste management.

3. Developing Next-gen Energy Storage Devices using Completely Recyclable Earth-Abundant Materials — These devices find applications in clean mobility and stationary storage.

4. Creating Environmentally Friendly Materials — These materials can store more energy per square unit and are completely recyclable.

Relevance of Y-Capita’s Environment Solutions

Major contributors to GHG emissions in India include steel production, distilleries, oil & gas, coal/lignite, thermal power plants, and the automobile sector. As the world’s second-largest steel producer, India aims to triple its production capacity by 2030, with the steel industry contributing approximately 7% of the country’s GHG emissions. Similarly, distilleries emit about 2.4 kg of CO2 per liter of alcohol produced.

The increasing necessity for carbon capture and sequestration has driven Y-Capita to develop affordable technology to convert waste & emissions into value-added products and generating carbon credits.

Flow Chart

Electrocatalytic Reactors by Y-Capita

Y-Capita has developed electrocatalysis-based reactors that operate on the principle of asymmetric C-C coupling to capture GHG emissions [consisting of Carbon Di Oxide, Sulfur & Nitrogen Oxides and Carbon Soot] at the source and convert them into alcohols and acetates.

80% of the carbon source in the GHG are converted to Fuels, such as ethanol. For customers who would like to use other material, the technology can produce ethylene, butadiene and the entire carbon chain from C1 to C9 for them to use as either fuel or raw material.

The other 20% turns into solids—acetates—which are further used as raw material by the speciality chemical industry. The reactors can process flue gases from various industries, converting CO2 and CO-rich emissions into ethanol and N2-rich emissions into ammonia. There is no residue.

• CO2 or CO-rich Flue Gas: The reactors can produce ethanol, a valuable fuel that can be blended with fossil fuels and used in automobiles. Ethanol is also a key precursor in the chemical, medical, and food industries. This innovative approach can supplement the current method of ethanol production through biomass fermentation.

• N2-rich Flue Gas: Electrochemical reduction of nitrogen leads to the formation of ammonia, a crucial energy carrier for hydrogen storage. Ammonia can be stored as ammonium hydroxide, reducing costs and safety concerns associated with handling gaseous hydrogen. The process is more efficient than the traditional Haber-Bosch method, achieving nearly 100% conversion efficiency with over 90% Faradaic efficiency.

Highlights of the Technology

• Cost-Effective Feedstock – CO2, CO, and N2 gases are available at little or no cost.

• Earth-Abundant Electrocatalysts – The electrodes used are cost-effective and recyclable.

• Tolerance to Impurities – The process is not affected by the presence of SOx and NOx.

• In-House Hydrogen Generation – Hydrogen required for the reactions is produced internally.

• High Conversion Efficiency – The reactors achieve high selectivity and yield with Faradaic efficiencies greater than 55% for dry CO2 and over 85% for N2.

• Economic Feasibility – The cost of producing ethanol and ammonia is competitive with current market prices, and the technology supports large-scale production.

The ethanol produced is vital for the automotive, medicinal, and food industries, while ammonia serves as an important energy carrier. The technology also enables industries to earn carbon credits. The continuous flow design of the reactors facilitates scalability and mass production, making the technology suitable for processing large volumes of flue gas.

Field Validation

While the solutions being developed at Y-Capita across different segments are on different levels of technology readiness and commercialization, the company has successfully taken many of these solutions to the ground. The company is also actively involved in discussions with major automobile sectors, Oil & Gas companies, and Thermal and Coal power plants in India and abroad to employ its Electrocatalytic reactor.

Some of the deployed solutions include:

1. Carbon Capture & Utilization – Carbon-do-oxide to Ethanol Conversion plant for Manas Agro – Since Aug 2023, Nagpur-based Manas Agro & Infrastructure uses Y-Capita’s patented technology to convert effluents into valuable products. The technology involves a patented mini reactor that converts discharged carbon dioxide into fuel-grade ethanol, suitable for fuel blending.

2. Proof of Concept with Bhilai Steel Plant – Bhilai Steel Plant, a major producer for Indian Railways, manufactures various steel products and aims to manage greenhouse gas emissions effectively by converting them into value-added products and fuel. The waste converter unit, to be set up with Y-Capita’s assistance, will be a 25 TPD (tonnes per day) plant, which could scale up to 200,000 TPD, aiming to make the Bhilai Steel Plant carbon neutral within a year. As per the SAIL Communications team, this project involves a INR 6,000 crore investment.

3. Emissions Management for SAIL (Steel Authority of India) – SAIL is collaborating with Y-Capita to manage greenhouse gas emissions at several of its steel plants, including those in Durgapur, Bokaro, Burnpur, and potentially Rourkela. The agreement encompasses converting 80% emissions into value-added products and fuel without leaving any residue. This initiative follows the trial agreement for emissions management at the Bhilai Steel Plant.

Concluding Remarks

Y-Capita’s innovations provide a viable solution for industries to reduce their carbon footprints and contribute to global sustainability efforts. The above products and deployment examples only present a part of Y-Capita’s sizable portfolio of cleantech solutions. To know more about their portfolio, visit – www.y-capita.in

The team at Y-Capita can be reached at info@y-capita.in.