Environmental concerns will weigh against these economic benefits. On the surface, the plant is impressively clean. There is no smell and in the glow of an Inner Mongolian sunset, white and pink smoke billows from its pipes.
But for each tonne of the liquid, six-and-a-half tonnes of water must be piped from an aquifer more than 70km away and more than 3 tonnes of carbon dioxide are released into the air. These are concerns for a country that is already desperately short of water and increasingly criticized as the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Government researchers have been cautious about adopting this technology nationwide because liquid coal results in 50 percent to 100 percent more emissions than a comparable amount of oil.
The prospect of millions of gasoline tanks being filled with such a fuel has alarmed environmentalist groups.
“Developing this technology on a big scale will lock China up even further in its unsustainable reliance on coal, which is the biggest cause of climate change,” said Yang Ailun, of Greenpeace.
Last year, the government blocked several new proposals for coal liquefaction facilities. But this may be to ensure the monopoly of the state firm. In the long term strategic concerns may ensure a future for liquefaction.
Shu insists his new facility can be good for the environment because it is equipped to capture and condense carbon dioxide for possible storage. Next year, the facility will begin one of China’s most ambitious carbon capture and sequestration research programs. In a US-backed project, it will store 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually in a nearby saline aquifer.
A successful pilot could pave the way for a wider scale adoption of the technology that many believe is of global importance. Beijing’s policymakers believe dumping carbon underground is expensive and risky for local environments. But under foreign pressure, they have identified more than 100 sites for potential storage.
Ordos will lead the way, but it remains to be seen whether its scientists will be as successful with carbon storage as they have been with coal liquefaction.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CUI ZHENG
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