Facing China's Coal Future - IEA

© OECD/IEA 2012 Facing China’s Coal Future
Prospects and Challenges for Carbon Capture and Storage
storage in the GreenGen project post 2015 have been discussed, but lack detailed planning at this
point. Information on storage capacity, site selection standards, and site investigation and
injection safety were seen as lagging far behind international developments in these areas.
Figure 15 Stakeholder ranking* on CO 2 storage priorities and options to 2050
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Source: CCII Survey.
Survey Finding (Figure 15): EOR and ECBM seen as key initial drivers for CCUS, though with
limited long‐term role. Experience in geologic storage of CO 2 in China has been closely linked to
EOR, which is increasingly discussed for pilot CCS projects, along with ECBM. Given China’s focus
on CCUS, activities are likely to begin with CO 2 resource recycling, including usage in EOR, ECBM
and Enhanced Gas Recovery (EGR) and in the chemical and food industries. Many respondents
felt that EOR/ECBM/EGR will be a major focus of R&D and deployment policies between 2010
and 2020 along with new technologies and methods for industrialising CO 2 utilisation, however,
technical issues and CO 2 leakage concerns still remain.
Many stakeholders suggested that, in China, although EOR and ECBM utilisation may be a priority
out to 2020, the volume of CO 2 utilisation through EOR, ECBM and EGR is rather limited relative
to CO 2 storage required to meet climate change imperatives (Figure 15). Therefore, storage in
saline aquifers was seen as a priority from 2020 to 2050. Stakeholders also suggested that China’s
offshore storage sites were inadequate for the medium and long term (2020‐50), with issues of
cost and oceanic impacts. Note, that the views on distribution of storage potential displayed here
do not necessarily reflect actual storage capacity in China.
China’s industry readiness and leadership in CCS
Just under 45% of stakeholders indicated that the overall level of Chinese CCS technology lags
behind an advanced international standard (Figure 16). However, almost 37% felt that China’s
technical development was on par with an international level, and just over 6% were of the
opinion that China currently surpasses other international technology leaders. Views differ from
international organisations and local stakeholders on whether China has the components to
develop an industry ecosystem for CCS. Given the increasing development of technical projects
and international collaborations on advanced research, it is likely that these views reflect China’s
existing and growing leadership in the global industry.