Mon Feb 1, 2010 9:58am GMT
Market News
By David Stanway
TIANJIN, China, Feb 1 (Reuters) - China needs to overcome its scepticism about carbon capture technologies if it is to bring down the costs of meeting its CO2 targets, experts at a clean coal conference said.
Many in Chinese government circles remain uncertain about the economic value of removing carbon dioxide from the process of burning coal, even as foreign companies look to Beijing as a testing ground for technologies that could revolutionise the way fossil fuels are consumed.
CCS traps, transports and buries CO2 underground.
The complex idea is seen by some governments as a way to curb the growth of planet-warming emissions in the fight against climate change but there is still uncertainty about the idea working on a global-scale.
China has two commercially operating CCS sites at power plants in Beijing and Shanghai, and many other demonstration projects are being built -- including one at Shenhua Group's coal-to-oil plant in Inner Mongolia.
But Yue Guo, vice-president of the Shenhua Coal Liquefaction Co. Ltd, summed up the country's reservations, saying the "energy penalty" of CCS made the sequestration process self-defeating by transferring emissions elsewhere.
