What is China doing in CCS?
I talk to journalists frequently and one of the most common questions I get is: ‘what is China doing in CCS?’ The question seems fitting to answer now, within the context of my interview with Mark Bonner, the Institute’s policy guru, whom I quizzed about the appetite for CCS in developing countries as part three of our COP-16 Cancun interview.
In short, China is undeniably one of the ‘buzz’ regions for CCS.
The Institute’s survey of projects globally has picked up almost 20 projects, through anecdotes would suggest at least a few more, which the survey did not pick up due to confidentiality. Most of these projects are pilot scale and five are large scale integrated projects.
Most of the significant CCS projects in China are driven by just a few of the major state-owned enterprises who are very influential.
The Huaneng Group, China’s largest power generation company, is the most proactive driver of CCS. It has under its belt two fully integrated pilot projects (using post combustion capture) in Beijing and Shanghai, which the company boasts have the lowest technology costs in the world (for more on costs, check out this article in Nature magazine.) It has also started the construction of the Greengen project, China’s first commercial (integrated gasification combined cycle) IGCC project.
Greengen is being constructed initially as a 250MW IGCC plant with plans to scale up to a 400MW IGCC-CCS plant by 2016. It is understood that the Huaneng Group have plans to explore other opportunities to develop large scale CCS projects. However, given the costs of CCS projects and the limited public funding for them in China, it is likely that any sizeable venture will require some level of international sponsorship or cooperation.
China’s largest coal producer and leading coal-to-liquids (CTL) and coal-to-oil enterprise - the Shenhua Group - is pursuing a CCS project based on a commercial CTL plant in the Ordos, Inner Mongolia region. This project is China’s largest integrated CCS project focused on storage in a saline formation and expects to capture and store over 1Mtpa of CO2 once completed. While the source of CO2 is virtually ready for compression and transport, the storage of CO2 continues to present considerable challenges.
The Chinese are particularly interested in CO2 re-use, which can make all the difference for the commercial viability of CCS. Both of the Huaneng Group projects sell CO2 for reuse in the food industry and other industrial applications.
What’s driving China’s interest in CCS? Climate change and an ever-rising energy demand.
In its 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) China set targets to reduce 20 per cent off its energy consumption per unit GDP. This led to the introduction of more efficient power plants, the closure of wasteful power and industrial facilities, and with a view to the future, rising R&D support for CCS through the Ministry of Science and Technology.
In 2009, China announced targets to reduce its carbon intensity by 40-45 per cent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. These targets are expected to be embodied in the 12th Five-Year Plan, expected to focus on social welfare, environment and sustainable development. The expectation is that CCS will also be included in this plan.
Kristina Stefanova
Kristina has more than 10 years of experience working with the private and public sectors in the US, Australia and the UK in the areas of communications, climate change, energy and environment. She has worked in consulting; for the British Foreign Office; with international organisations such as the World Bank and US Agency for International Development; and as a newspaper and wire reporter. Kristina holds a MsC in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.
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Comments
I have spent quite a bit of time with the Huaneng Group over the past several months and they still seem to be finding which technologies will best suit their needs and have not really begun full scale CCS projects until this review has been completed.
Thank you for your insights George.
The Huaneng Group is an interesting company, exploring a range of different technology options. Huaneng’s Greengen project seems to be tracking well and is flagged to be China’s first commercial scale IGCC-CCS project once completed. Also, the company’s PCC pilot projects represent some of the largest capture power projects in the world and are yielding some very good results, so they have definitely made some key technology investments. Despite this progress, it should be recognised that CCS technology more broadly is still in the demonstration phase and as a result no company, especially in the power sector, has chosen their preferred technology.
For a bit more info on each of the large-scale, integrated projects in China, refer to our project map and filter on China and see this article from PowerPlantCCS.
Thank you for this very well informed post; I can only agree with people saying that China is a buzz country for CCS. It seems very important to me to stay tuned of what is happening there.
Can you keep us posted on the CCS outcomes that will be decided with China's 12th five year plan ?
Louis-Marie Jacquelin
In charge of CCS activities at ENEA Consulting
FYI - more details from an article in the NYTimes about China's environmental minister who's written an unusually stark warning about the effects of unbridled development on the country’s air, water and soil, saying the nation’s current path could stifle long-term economic growth and feed social instability.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/world/asia/01beijing.html?src=me&ref=world
Thanks for the question Angus.
How China plans to meet the 40-45% energy intensity reduction target remains unclear. However, it is expected that this target will feature in China’s 12th Five Year Plan, which is due out next month. These plans are blueprints that set the direction for China’s national economic planning and policy development.
The 12th Five Year Plan is expected to focus on the quality of China’s economic growth and environmental protection, not just growth at any cost. We are likely to see a continued focus on energy conservation, energy efficiency, renewable energy and other clean energy technologies. Electricity tariff reforms and carbon trading mechanisms are also being considered.
CCS is still considered a relatively new technology in China, particularly the storage aspects. The focus has been on strengthening R&D and pilot scale testing but slowly we’re seeing an increase in larger scale CCS projects being proposed. In addition to the increasing interest and activity we’ve seen in CCS, the positive feedback we’ve had from our consultations with Chinese Government and industry stakeholders all suggest that CCS will remain a hot issue in China. Therefore, we have every reason to believe that CCS will continue to be a focus in China over the next 5-year planning period and beyond.
Thanks Kristina, this is a really interesting look at the Huaneng Group's activities in CCS demonstration and at the drivers for CCS in China.
In China's efforts to achieve a 40-45 per cent reduction in carbon intensity, do you have insights into which technology solutions are being looked at? Is CCS expected to be a major part of its approach?