China launches first big carbon capture and storage project
China has begun construction of its first large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project as part of efforts by Beijing to mitigate climate change, as the Trump Administration heads in the other direction.
The state-owned Yanchang Petroleum will officially launch its project to capture CO2 emissions from a coal-to-gas petrochemical plant near the western Chinese city of Xi'an on Thursday.
Once operational it will capture 400,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, the equivalent of taking around 80,000 cars off the road for a year.
Steam and white smoke billow from a coal-fired power plant in Beijing. Power stations like these have been identified for future CCS projects. Andy Wong
"Four years ago, this was an industrial plant venting CO2 into the atmosphere. Today, just four years later, it is a standard-bearer for clean technology," said Alex Zapantis, the Asia Pacific General Manager of the Global CCS Institute ahead of the launch.
The project will capture CO2 from two coal gasification (syngas) plants and re-inject this into previously exhausted oil fields.
This process, known as "enhanced oil recovery", will then allow the pumping of reserves previously considered uneconomic from the old wells.
The Global CCS Institute, which is based in Melbourne and counts governments, companies and research bodies among its members, has identified seven additional large-scale CCS projects across China.
These include coal-fired power stations, fertiliser plants and chemical production.
There are currently 16 large-scale CCS facilities operational around the world with a further five coming into production within the next 12-18 months, according to the Global CCS Institute.
This gradual ramp-up of projects comes after more than a decade of delays and frustrations for those championing CCS as a solution to mitigate climate change and protect the coal industry.
Stephan Matthais, a project leader at the Peter Cook Centre for CCS Research at Melbourne University, said the technology was beginning to gain some momentum.
"There was a lot of scare mongering about CCS in Europe which likened it to the storage of nuclear waste and this had a big impact around the world," he said.
Professor Matthais said public concerns had abated somewhat while the technology had a longer track record and industry players such as BHP Billiton had begun to fund projects.
"I think there is a realisation that even if we go 100 per cent alternative energy we will need to sequester carbon from things like cement plants and steel mills," he said.
"Industry is now moving ahead of politics."
This is particularly the case in the United States, where President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to begin winding back emission reduction targets for coal-fired power stations and other restrictions on the fossil fuel industry.
Yet at the same time companies such as ExxonMobil are urging the President not to withdraw from the Paris Climate change deal and to continue taking action to prevent global warming.
The precursor to the Paris Agreement was a deal between China and the US in late-2015 for both countries to take greater action on climate change. That deal appeared in jeopardy with the election of Mr Trump, but Beijing has vowed to honour its commitments even as the US President has threatened to tear up the Paris Agreement.
Yangchang's CCS plant was identified as a joint collaboration project between the US and China, as part of the climate deal between the world's two largest emitters.
As more CCS projects get built it is hoped the price will come down, allowing the technology to compete with renewable energy and therefore provide a long-term solution for the coal industry.
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