The Paris Agreement was reached at the Paris Climate Change Conference in December 2015. The main goal is to keep the global average temperature increase in this century within 2 degrees Celsius. The Chinese government promises that carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2030 will be 60%-65% lower than in 2005.
Carbon dioxide capture use and storage (CCUS) technology is an important CO2 abatement technology. CCUS technology has been safely put into commercial operation for 45 years. By the end of 2018, 21 large-scale CCS facilities will be put into operation worldwide, and 37 million tons of carbon dioxide will be collected every year. China is also actively promoting CCUS, and has completed more than ten pilot and demonstration projects of 1,000 tons or above.
——CO2 Capture
In terms of carbon dioxide capture, the participants were mainly coal-fired power plants and coal chemical enterprises. In 2009, Huaneng Company implemented a 100,000 tons/year CO2 capture demonstration project at the Shidongkou Second Power Plant in Shanghai; State Power Investment Group invested Chongqing 10,000 tons/year CO2 capture industrial demonstration project of Hechuan Shuanghuai Power Plant, which was officially put into operation in January 2010.
On January 15, 2018, the EPC general contracting project of the carbon capture test platform of China Resources Haifeng Power Plant started. China Resources Haifeng is constructing the first carbon capture and utilization demonstration project for coal-fired power plants in South China, with a carbon dioxide capture capacity of 20,000 tons, which is expected to run in 2019.
The demonstration project of 150,000 tons of CO2 capture and storage after combustion in Shaanxi Guohua Jinjie Power Plant is underway and is expected to start construction in 2018.
——CO2 Storage and EOR
CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology is an acknowledged method for enhancing oil recovery at late stage of oilfield development. PetroChina Changqing Oilfield, Daqing Oilfield, Sinopec Zhongyuan Oilfield, Shengli Oilfield, and Yanchang Petroleum have carried out the application of CO2-EOR to enhance oil recovery. Xinjiang Dunhua 100,000 t/a CO2 capture project using PSA relaxation gas from a methanol plant, was commissioned in 2016. The captured CO2 was used for heavy oil recovery in Karamay oilfield.
In July 2018, Yanchang Petroleum CO2 EOR technology and geological monitoring project was launched at the Xingzichuan Oil Production Plant. After the implementation of the project, it is estimated that the annual storage of CO2 will exceed 100,000 tons, and the oil recovery rate will be increased by more than 8% on the basis of water driving, which can effectively improve the development level of ultra-low permeability reservoirs in oilfields.
As of the end of June 2018, the CCS-EOR project of PetroChina Jilin Oilfield has buried 750,000 tons of CO2 and 7,000 tons of oil displacement since the beginning of this year, and it is equivalent to burning CO2 produced by burning nearly 330,000 tons of coal. Over the past 4 years since the project started, it has accumulated 1.7 million tons of CO2 and more than 700,000 tons of crude oil.
On September 14, 2018, Sinopec Shengli Oilfield started construction of the CO2 EOR development technology and demonstration application project of the low-permeability reservoir. The low-permeability reservoirs in Shengli Oilfield are rich in reserves. The project selects 4 blocks from the different reservoir types in Shengli Oilfield as demonstration areas. At the same time, it has abundant carbon dioxide gas sources and has reached an annual agreement with Qilu Petrochemical for 600,000 tons of CO2.
——CO2 to Chemicals
In recent years, Chinese enterprises and scientific research institutes have made a series of progress in the CO2 to high-value chemicals such as methanol, olefins, aromatics, gasoline, formic acid; CO2 and methane reforming to syngas; and CO2 to degradable plastics, and are implementing industrialization.
In July 2018, Lanzhou New Area Petrochemical Industry Investment Group, Suzhou Gaomai New Energy and DICP of CAS signed a 1000-ton "Solid solar fuel synthesis: development of CO2 hydrogenation synthesis methanol technology" project cooperation agreement. The project is based on solar energy and other renewable energy electrolysis water hydrogen production and carbon dioxide hydrogenation methanol synthesis key technology, to establish a thousand tons of CO2 hydrogenation methanol industrialization demonstration project.
On Aug 30th 2018, CAS Institute of Process Engineering and the managerial office under High Tech Center for “Coal Clean and Hi-Efficiency Conversion & Novel Energy Conservation Processes” major R&D project, jointly held an execution planning argumentation and kick-off meeting for one of the subthemes under the project, “CO2 to Major Chemicals” novel process.
Experts attending the meeting listened carefully to the planning report, made full communication with the R&D team, and carried out heated discussions on the research methodology, study foundation of the demo unit, scope and boundary of research scope, original data accumulation, intellectual property right sharing mechanism, relationship between CO2 source/quality and industrial capture process, and techno-economic analysis of the processes for CO2 to vinyl carbonate, DMC and MEG etc.
CCS & CO2 to High Value Chemicals 2018 will be held in 18-19 December in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China. The upcoming conference will discuss China's carbon tax policy outlook in the context of Paris Agreement, low-cost and high-efficiency CO2 capture, enrichment and transportation technologies, CCUS demonstration of large coal chemical, power generation and petrochemical plants, CO2-EOR experience, CO2 to methanol, olefins, aromatics, gasoline, formic acid and degradable plastics and other high-value chemicals technology and demonstration, food-grade CO2 market research, etc.
