China plunges into carbon capture technology, seeking emissions cuts and exports

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2012/08/24/1

[font face=Serif][font size=5]China plunges into carbon capture technology, seeking emissions cuts and exports [/font]
Coco Liu, E&E Asian correspondent
ClimateWire: Friday, August 24, 2012

[font size=3]ERDOS, China -- Shenhua Group Corp., one of China's coal giants, has built much of its success at the cost of climate change. Every year, the company digs hundreds of million of tons of coal out of the ground and sells this carbon-intensive energy source throughout China.

Meanwhile, its own plants consume a few million tons to generate power and chemicals, releasing a massive amount of climate-harming gas into the air.

But now, Shenhua is shifting its course. The clue is hidden in a coal-to-liquids plant here, deep in northern China's Gobi Desert. Workers heat, pressurize and process coal into diesel and other needed fuels, leaving liquid carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Then big refrigerated tank trucks drive in and carry that byproduct to a hillside 10 miles away.

There, the CO2 gets pumped down under pressure into a well and stored underground as deep as 8,000 feet. Through this project, the company says, it has prevented at least 46,000 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere since 2011.

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[NickB79]

1. They dig up hundreds of millions of tons of coal a year, and capture 30,000 tons of CO2 per year

Hey kids, can you say "a drop in the bucket"?

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Better than no drop at all (eh?)

Reading on…

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The amount of released CO2 that Shenhua has prevented seems small, but it is a symbol of China's continuing efforts to develop a cutting-edge technology it calls carbon capture, utilization and storage, or CCUS. China started a few years ago and now has several pilot projects using different techniques running across the nation.

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[Junkdrawer]

3. Schematic of the Plan: