GE inks deal to deploy "clean coal" technology in China

General Electric (GE) and China's biggest coal producer, Shenhua Group, announced yesterday that they are partnering to deploy the engineering giant's 'clean coal' gasification at a number of sites across China.

The move, which came on the same day as US president Barack Obama and Chinese president Hu Jintao signed a wide-ranging clean technology co-operation deal, saw the two companies sign a memorandum of understanding committing them to forming a joint venture to build integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) facilities. A final agreement on the new joint venture is expected by mid-2010, the two companies said.

IGCC technology is touted as a cleaner alternative to conventional coal-fired plants. Coal is heated to produce a synthetic gas from which particulate matter, mercury and sulphur is removed. The gas is then used to turn a turbine to generate electricity, with excess heat from the process used to create steam which then drives a second turbine. As well as improving air quality, the technology is also significantly more efficient than standard coal-fired power plants, resulting in lower carbon emissions per unit of energy generated.

Among the projects planned by GE and Shenhua is a commercial-scale IGCC plant that will also employ carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems, whereby CO2 emissions are captured and buried underground.

Shenhua vice president Wang Xiaolin said the combination of Shenhua's experience in developing and operating coal gasification plants and GE's latest gasification and IGCC technologies "would create a leading gasification technology business in China with significant local presence, focus, resources and expertise".

The move is the latest in a series of measures from Shenhua designed to curb its environmental impact. The company is also a stakeholder in GreenGen, a US$1bn IGCC plant under construction in Tianjin that will be China's first commercial-scale plant to use CCS, and recently signed a pact with Royal Dutch Shell to develop advanced techniques for coal liquefaction, which converts coal into gas, then to liquid.

GE is among a handful of US energy giants that have signed deals this year with Chinese companies to develop so-called clean coal technologies. Duke Energy and China Huaneng Group, one of the country's largest utilities, have agreed to share information on low carbon technologies, while Southern Co is licensing its coal gasification process to Chinese power producer Dongguan Tianming Electric Power. Further partnerships are expected over the coming years, following Hu and Obama's pledge to increase co-operation between the two countries' emerging clean tech sectors.