SHENHUA SAYS 40,000 TONS OF CO2 STORED AT INNER MONGOLIA DEMO SITE

Lindsay Kalter and Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
08/24/12

China’s first carbon capture and storage demonstration project appears to be well underway, with more than 40,000 tons of carbon dioxide sequestered over the last 15 months, according to recent state media reports. The project is operated by Shenhua Group, the world’s largest coal producer, in northern China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region and aims to inject 100,000 tons of CO2 annually into a saline aquifer in the Ordos Basin. Little is publically known about the project, which began in late 2010 and uses captured CO2 from a nearby coal-to-liquids plant, beyond general information provided in state media reports. The media outlet Xinhua reported Aug. 6 that the project’s goal of storing 300,000 tons of CO2 in the subsurface by June 2014 is expected to be met, quoting Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Co., Ltd. General Engineer Shu Geping. Requests for comment and more information were not returned by Shenhua or others affiliated with the project.

Shenhua previously announced plans to scale up CO2 storage operations to 1 million and eventually 3 million tons per year into the Ordos Basin, which reportedly has the capacity to store roughly 10 billion tons of CO2. However, the most recent announcement did not indicate whether Shenhua is moving forward with those plans. The $3.6 billion coal liquefaction plant currently emits more than 3.5 million tons of CO2 annually. China is one of the only countries in the world that operates coal-to-liquids plants, although the government has curtailed its program over the last several years due to concerns surrounding pollution and water consumption.

China Pushes Forward on CCS Research

The project overlaps with China’s twelfth Five-Year Plan, endorsed by the National People’s Congress in March 2011, which establishes more stringent climate mitigation goals for the world’s largest emitter. The plan aims to reduce CO2 emissions 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2020, looking to clean energy technologies like renewables and CCS to help achieve those reductions, as well as a pilot cap-and-trade program for some of its cities. In a document from the State Council released earlier this month, it was stated that the government would need roughly $373 billion in clean energy investments to meet the plan’s goals. China has notably pushed aggressively ahead on CCS and enhanced oil recovery operations, Shenhua liquefaction being one of several pilot and demonstration projects sprouting up in the country in recent years. The country has also attracted a steady amount of investment in the technology from foreign companies including Alstom, American Electric Power and Duke Energy.