China's Green Development: Carbon capture technology advances in China

A green technology has been around for years now, but it's not really caught on. Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, involves capturing waste carbon dioxide. The CO2 is then safely deposited before it enters into the atmosphere, limiting greenhouse gas emissions. CCS is now experiencing a second spring in China, thanks to technological advances and new policy approaches.

It could be the "solution" that makes all the difference. Gao Shiwang is behind this next-generation chemical that's crucial to carbon capture, a technology that is often used by traditional fossil fuel plants to manage their CO2 emissions, but is often complained for not being cost-effective, enough.

Gao Shiwang, Deputy Chief Engineer, Huaneng Clean Energy Research Institute. "When this absorbent interacts with carbon dioxide it breaks into two layers, the one where CO2 concentrates can be set apart and processed and the other half can be used to capture CO2 again. Using this absorbent could cut as much as 40 percent of heat consumption compared with previous editions."

The solution is being put to the test in one of Huaneng's thermal power plants. So far, it's managing to capture a thousand tons a year.

Gao, "We are next trying to put the solution to use in the 120,000 ton facility in Shanghai, and if that goes well it will become the solution for many more of our projects."

SUN YE (CGTN Reporter) "But for now, even the country's largest carbon capture and storage facility is still small scale, especially compared with the country's ambitious green goal of having carbon emissions peak by the year 2030, and becoming carbon neutral by the year 2060."

Zhang Jiutian, Green Development Institute, Beijing Normal University. "Before, carbon capture and storage were most often used in projects just to test if the technology was viable, but now with the 2030 and 2060 goals, CCS needs to aim for commercialization and an economy of scale. That's partly why the 14th Five-Year Plan has called for CCS projects to be a focus."

Zhang expects a maturer CCS technology to be a green solution not only for fossil fuel power plants, but also cement factories, steel makers and other industries that need to reign in greenhouse gas emissions.