China’s Largest CCS Pilot Project Completed

China’s largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) pilot project, with an annual capacity of 150,000 tons, completed current-carrying in Jinjie Power Plant of Guohua Power, a subsidiary of China Energy, during its maiden trial operation on January 21. This marked that the project has completed installation and entered the debugging phase.

The pilot project for carbon capture and storage.

The project represents an innovation made by Guohua Power in pursuing energy conservation, emission reduction and low-carbon development. It has been cited as a key construction project in Shaanxi Province in 2018 and a major technological innovation project of China Energy. Moreover, it has received support from the key national research project “High-performance Sorbent/Absorbent Materials & Technology for CO2 Capture.”

A panoramic view of Jinjie Power Plant.

To fulfill the construction of the country’s largest CCS pilot project for coal-fired power plants, Guohua Power established a project team mainly comprised of personnel from its research institute and Jinjie Power Plant. The team has constantly optimized their design plan by adopting advanced chemical absorption technology, integrating such high-efficiency, energy-saving technologies as inter-stage cooling, separate desorption and MVR, and creatively using such equipment and materials as high-efficiency heat exchangers, high-gravity reactors, and modified plastic fillings.

After putt into operation, the CCS pilot project will achieve 90% CO2 capture, with the concentration of captured CO2 surpassing 99% and the thermal loss of regenerative sorbents lower than 2.4GJ/tCO2. Its overall performance will lead its peers around the world, thus providing technical support for China to achieve large-scale carbon capture in coal-fired power plants and its carbon reduction goal under the framework of the Paris Agreement. Results of the project can be used in large-scaled industrial production, so as to generate remarkable environmental and social returns and make important contributions to China’s efforts to peak and neutralize carbon emissions.