Facing China's Coal Future - IEA

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