China's first clean coal plant underway

Work is underway on China's first clean coal-based power plant in the northern city of Tianjin. The $1bn project, called GreenGen, will be the country’s first commercial-scale plant to use carbon capture and storage.

It is being funded by a group of investors comprising US coal giant Peabody Energy, five of China's largest power companies, two domestic coal companies and government entity State Development and Investment Corp, which operates the country's state-owned assets.

All components for the plant are being manufactured domestically, with the exception of a gas turbine power unit. The facility's core feature is a gassifier designed by the Thermal Power Research Institute in Xi'an, a subsidiary of one of GreenGen's utility stakeholders, China Huaneng Group.

The plant will support Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle technologies, which are touted as a cleaner alternative to conventional coal-fired plants. They convert coal into a synthetic gas from which particulate matter, mercury and sulfur is removed.

The gas is then used to fuel a highly efficient combined cycle system, which powers a turbine generator, before the waste heat is captured to power a second steam turbine system. The use of two turbines results in far higher levels of efficiency than traditional coal fired plants where much of the heat energy produced is lost.

The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by 2011 at a cost of about $290m. It will be capable of generating 250MW of electricity and gasifying 2,000 tonnes of coal daily.

According to the developers, the plant's capacity will then be expanded to 650MW by 2016, when it will be able to gasify 3,500 tonnes of coal per day.

In related news, the European Commission recently announced plans to invest up to €50m ($70m, £43m) to help build a facility in China to test carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

"We have taken action to put in place the regulatory framework and the incentives to facilitate CCS demonstration in Europe and now we are making good on our promise to China," said Stavros Dimas, the European commissioner for the environment.

The commission did not disclose details of the project. However, it is known that aside from the Tianjin clean coal plant, a test CCS facility is being developed in Inner Mongolia – an area rich in coal mines.

The Mongolia project is being led by Shenhua Group, China's largest coal producer and a stakeholder in GreenGen. It will inject an estimated 100,000 tonnes of carbon emissons underground by the end of this year and ultimately aims to capture 3 million tonnes annually.