China Energy starts operations at Asia’s largest coal carbon capture facility

Beijing — Chinese state-owned power generator China Energy Investment Corporation has started operations at Asia’s largest coal-linked carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) facility, according to a report in state media outlet CCTV on Friday.

The facility, adjoined to the group’s Taizhou thermal coal power plant in the country’s eastern Jiangsu province, has the annual capacity to store 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the report said.

Carbon capture has become a focus area for China’s major power generators, as the country pursues a plan to hit its carbon emissions peak by 2030. Last year, state-owned oil and gas giant Sinopec launched a 712,000-tonne-per-year CCUS project – the country’s largest – at one of its oil refineries in Shandong province.

China has around 40 CCUS demonstration projects in operation or under construction, with a total annual capture capacity of around 3 million tonnes per year, the CCTV report said.