Turning waste into value: How Anytech Hughes plans to turn carbon capture into a revenue stream for Indian industry

Carbon capture technology is gradually making its way into the Indian market. However, most decarbonisation plans in India treat the Carbon Capture Storage and Utilisation (CCUS) system as a disposal problem, i.e., compress it, transport it, and lock it underground. Anytech Hughes, a joint venture between India’s Hughes & Hughes Chem and Korea’s ANYTECH, is trying to change this narrative by converting industrial waste into a key asset for permanent carbon mineralisation. It provides high-quality air purification and AQMS (Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Systems) solutions for enterprises.

Rajat Singhal, MD, Hughes & Hughes chem Ltd & Hughes services Pvt .Ltd, talks to The Economic Times Digital, explaining how they are trying to bring the system to India. Yet to commercialise here, their technology uses reactive waste streams, such as cement bypass dust, fly ash, and steel slag and locks CO2 away permanently into stable solids while recovering high-value, marketable products. Edited excerpts:



ET: What is the annual CO₂ mineralisation capacity of a single commercial installation?

Rajat Singhal (RS): In our process, the volume is set by the waste rather than the chimney. Conventional carbon capture is usually limited by how much CO₂ can be compressed, transported, and stored. Here, the CO₂ is taken up by the material it reacts with. So, what a plant can mineralise depends on how much bypass dust it generates and what that dust contains. That changes with the kiln, the fuels, and the raw materials, which is why we size every installation around the plant it serves rather than quoting one number for all.

This also means the process becomes more relevant as plants burn more alternative fuels, given that the chlorine from these fuels is responsible for generating bypass dust in the first place. NITI Aayog’s Roadmap for Cement Sector Decarbonisation, released in January 2026, targets a 20% thermal substitution rate by 2030, which means more alternative fuel in Indian kilns and, with it, more bypass dust that our process can put to use.

Cement is our starting point, but some of the largest volumes sit in other sectors. Steel slag is a clear example. India generates around 19 million tonnes of steel slag a year, a figure expected to reach 60 million tonnes by 2030. Streams like this can come into the same core process once it is configured for each material.

Whatever the volume at a single site, the result is permanent. The CO₂ becomes part of a stable solid, not a gas that has to be watched for decades.


ET: How many tonnes of CO₂ has Anytech Hughes actually captured and mineralised to date?

RS: The technology is proven at a commercial scale in Korea, where it has been running for years. It was developed under a national R&D programme backed by Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, jointly with the Korea Institute of Energy Research, and is protected by 16 patents in cement mineral carbonation alone. It has been validated at the Hanil Cement and Sampyo Cement pilot facilities and is now undergoing technology verification with a major French cement company. So, we are not bringing an untested concept to India.

Our focus here is to adapt that technology in India. Its composition depends on the raw materials, the fuels, and the way each plant operates. So, a process that works in one setting needs to be fine-tuned before it delivers the same results elsewhere.

That adaptation is where much of our current work sits. Our full CCU system is designed for capacities of up to 20,000 tonnes a year, while our lower-capex CCS system starts at 10,000 tonnes a year.


ET: What is the biggest misconception about carbon capture in India’s heavy industry?

RS: The biggest misconception is that carbon capture can only ever be a cost. Much of the conversation around carbon capture has focused on capturing CO₂ and storing it underground. That approach has a role to play, but it comes with an ongoing burden. Storing carbon underground means paying for it forever: to capture it, move it, store it, and make sure it stays there.

Using carbon to make something valuable changes the whole conversation. When captured CO₂ becomes part of a product that can be sold, it stops being purely an expense and starts contributing to the business. In our case, CO₂ from the cement kiln is used to treat waste that the plant already has to deal with, and the outcome is saleable products alongside CO₂ that is permanently locked away.

This shift in thinking matters, especially in India. Our heavy industry is growing, and most plants find it difficult to justify investments that only add to their costs, even when the environmental benefits are clear. A solution that pays its way is far easier to approve, fund, and scale.

That is how Indian industry will actually adopt carbon capture at scale. Regulation will play its part, but lasting adoption will come when the technology makes sense on the balance sheet as well as for the climate. Once carbon capture is seen as a source of value rather than a burden, the pace of adoption changes completely.


ET: How does the technology perform with different industrial waste streams, such as cement bypass dust, fly ash, and steel slag?

RS: Each waste stream behaves differently, and that is where our experience matters. Cement bypass dust, fly ash, and steel slag differ in their chemistry and in what can be recovered from them. So, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. The process needs to be shaped around each material to deliver the best results.

Cement bypass dust is a great fit because we recover more than one valuable product from it. The dust is generated when plants remove chlorine from the kiln, and it is otherwise a waste that needs to be stored and disposed of. Independent XRF analysis of bypass dust by Kongju National University in Korea found 30.6% chlorine, 16.8% potassium oxide, and 38.5% calcium oxide, confirming its suitability for potassium chloride extraction and CO₂ mineralisation. Our process uses CO₂ to treat it and recovers products, such as potassium chloride and calcium carbonate, turning a disposal problem into a source of value while permanently capturing carbon.

Steel slag and fly ash also have strong potential. Heavy industry already manages both, and they offer real scope for mineralisation. We tailor the process to each one, taking into account its composition and the products that can be recovered from it.

Across all three, the goal is the same: to turn industrial waste into something stable and useful, with CO₂ locked away for good.


ET: Are there any limitations on the type or chemical composition of waste that can be used? Can you also share general limitations and challenges around this technology?

RS: So rather than applying a fixed formula, we look closely at each waste stream before designing a solution. This upfront work is essential to making sure each installation performs well and delivers the expected results for the plant.

Beyond the plant itself, the wider challenges are about the ecosystem. The first is building markets for the recovered products. For the model to work at scale, buyers need to be comfortable with products that come from industrial waste, and that market needs time to develop. The second is letting India’s carbon market mature so that the value of permanently locking away CO₂ is properly recognised and rewarded.

We see both moving in the right direction. India’s carbon market is steadily taking shape, and industry is showing more interest in circular solutions.