Facing China's Coal Future - IEA
Facing China's Coal Future - IEA
Facing China's Coal Future - IEA
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<strong>Facing</strong> China’s <strong>Coal</strong> <strong>Future</strong>: Prospects and Challenges for CCS © OECD/<strong>IEA</strong> 2011<br />
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Huaneng’s Beijing Gaobeidian Thermal Power Plant, a post‐combustion capture facility that<br />
annually recovers about 3 000 tonnes of CO 2 used for food production. TPRI’s central role in<br />
Huaneng’s pilot projects, its own technology development efforts and its research and<br />
commercialisation relationships with international technology providers position the institute<br />
well to export equipment and engineering services for future CCS projects.<br />
Growth of large‐scale modern coal gasification plants for non‐power applications deployed in<br />
China represents a potential early opportunity for the application of CCS and EOR, especially<br />
through clustering of various units in specific industrial locations. An inherent characteristic of<br />
the coal gasification process of such plants is that large quantities of high concentration CO 2 are<br />
separated and, at present, vented into the atmosphere. Marginal costs for application of CCS to<br />
such plants may be lower than for coal‐based power generation processes, since it would only be<br />
necessary to provide for compression, transport and injection of CO 2 into suitable storage sites<br />
(Michener, 2011). This clustering effect – centralising sources of emissions and developing<br />
planned industrial parks – may give China another advantage over other locations in developing<br />
more cost‐competitive CCS projects.<br />
<strong>Coal</strong>‐to‐liquids (CTL)<br />
China’s coal chemical technology is basically a diversified gasification technology (Figure 8). Its<br />
process begins as coal is converted into carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen through a<br />
gasification reaction. Then, part of the CO is converted into hydrogen and CO 2 through a<br />
transformation reaction, and the ratio of CO and hydrogen is adjusted to suit the need of the<br />
production target (i.e. methanol, olefin, etc). CO 2 is separated from syngas by means of acid gas<br />
removal. Finally, CO and hydrogen are reacted together to generate various synthetic products<br />
(Ren, 2009).<br />
Figure 8 Typical process flowsheet of standard coal chemical industry in China<br />
Source: Ren, 2009.<br />
During the process of direct coal liquefaction, large amounts of hydrogen are required. In the<br />
conversion reaction of coal‐to‐hydrogen, CO needs to be transformed into CO 2 , and separated by<br />
means of an acid gas removal process.<br />
In the coal chemical process flow, the acid gas removal process emits huge amounts of CO 2 under<br />
high pressure and high concentration, often 80% to 99%. China’s coal chemical industry<br />
development will need to consider the opportunity to address high CO 2 emissions and potential<br />
high concentration streams, which could dramatically increase efficiency of capture and enhance<br />
the economic feasibility of CCS projects over coal‐fired power generation.