Hughes & Hughes Chem Ltd. and South Korea's Anytech Co. have joined forces through Anytech Hughes Climate Solutions Pvt. Ltd., an Indo-Korean deep tech joint venture that will help India’s carbon-regulated industries turn CO₂ and plant waste into saleable products. Starting with cement and steel, the venture brings Korean-proven Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) technology built to pay for itself, instead of burying carbon at a perpetual cost.
The launch comes as India’s carbon policy moves from guidance to legal obligation. Under the Greenhouse Gases Emission Intensity (GEI) Target Rules notified in October 2025, emission intensity is now a binding limit enforced through the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS). The first notification covers 282 plants across aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali and pulp and paper, with cement plants required to cut intensity by roughly 4.7 to 7.6% over two years. Draft targets have also been issued for steel, fertiliser, refining, petrochemicals and textiles, and once all nine sectors are notified, around 740 entities will carry binding targets.
Cement carries the heaviest burden. Around 60% of a plant’s CO₂ comes from calcining limestone, which no fuel switch can touch, while the shift to alternative fuels has produced a growing stream of hazardous chlorine bypass system dust that is costly to store and dispose of. Steel plants, generating roughly 18.5 million tonnes of slag a year, also face the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Anytech Hughes treats these residues as feedstock. Its proprietary mineral carbonation process uses CO₂ from a plant’s own stack, at 15 to 20% concentration and without costly gas purification, to lock carbon permanently into stable carbonates. From cement bypass dust, it recovers potassium chloride (KCl) at 99% purity or higher, with 99.9% heavy metal removal verified by Intertek Korea, and a single installation can process up to 20,000 tonnes a year. Steel slag becomes carbonated aggregates, and fly ash becomes precipitated calcium carbonate.
Korean cement plants hit the bypass dust problem first, having adopted alternative fuels early. The process was developed there by Pyeongtaek-based Anytech with the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), validated with Korea’s leading cement producers and selected into Korea’s National CCU Mega Project. It runs stably on dust with 20 to 25% chloride content, well above typical Indian levels.
“Korea’s cement industry faced exactly what Indian plants are facing now: rising alternative fuel use, a growing chloride dust problem and tightening carbon expectations, and we spent years solving it with KIER before bringing it to market. What we learned is that the technology is only half the answer; the other half is a partner who can execute on the ground. In Hughes & Hughes, we found a partner with three decades of institutional project delivery across India, and in Anytech Hughes Climate Solutions, we have built the vehicle to localise our engineering with Indian equipment, Indian teams and Indian economics. India’s new carbon framework makes this the right technology in the right market at exactly the right time,” said Mr Jae-Yeol Lee, CEO, Anytech Co., Ltd., and Director, Anytech Hughes Climate Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Beyond compliance, a CCU installation cuts hazardous waste storage costs, creates product revenue and improves the plant’s GEI number. KCl adds strategic value, since India imports its entire potash requirement of roughly four million tonnes a year.
In April 2026, the venture signed an MoU with a leading Indian cement major for a joint bypass dust conversion facility, including a pre-purchase arrangement for the recovered KCl, and holds a KCl commercialisation agreement with UNID, a global potassium chemicals company. Engagements are also progressing with Indian steel majors on slag and energy-sector players on fly ash. Anytech contributes the engineering and reference-plant experience, while Hughes & Hughes Chem leads site assessment, installation, commissioning and operations.
Highlighting the opportunity, Mr Rajat Singhal, Managing Director, Anytech Hughes Climate Solutions Pvt. Ltd., said, “Every obligated plant in India now has two clocks running: a compliance clock, with about 40% of its reduction due in the first year, and a cost clock on every tonne of hazardous waste it stores. Our technology stops both. Storage asks a plant to pay forever for burying carbon; utilisation asks the same plant to make a product. NITI Aayog’s framework, the DST testbeds, the binding intensity targets and the ₹20,000 crore Budget outlay all point the same way: India has chosen utilisation-led decarbonisation, and we built this company for precisely that moment. Bypass dust, slag and fly ash have always been treated as something to get rid of. We want every obligated plant to start treating them as resources with real commercial value, delivered through Indian engineering, Indian equipment and Indian teams.”
Following cement and steel, the venture will take its technology to refineries, petrochemicals, aluminium, fertiliser, chlor-alkali, textiles and pulp and paper.
About Anytech Hughes Climate Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Anytech Hughes Climate Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is an Indo-Korean deep tech joint venture between Hughes & Hughes Chem Ltd. (India) and Anytech Co. (Korea), formed to serve the challenging-to-abate sectors covered by India's CCUS policy framework and Carbon Credit Trading Scheme. It delivers industrial carbon capture and utilisation solutions that convert CO₂ and industrial by-products, cement bypass dust, steel slag, fly ash, into value-added products including potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, and carbonated aggregates. Founded in New Delhi in 1991, Hughes & Hughes Chem brings over 35 years of institutional project delivery, more than 3,000 professionals, service across 118+ railway locations, and ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certifications. Pyeongtaek-based Anytech holds more than 100 registered patents.
For more information, visit anytechhughes.com.
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