As of September 30, 2016, the Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies program at MIT has closed. The website is being kept online as a reference but will not be updated.

Ordos Fact Sheet: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Project

Company/Alliance: Shenhua Group

Location: Inner Mongolia, China

Start Date: Operation at pilot scale of 0.1 Mt/yr (2011)

Size: 0.1 Mt/yr

CO2 Source: Coal liquefaction plant (currently emitting 3.6 Mt/yr of CO2). Physical solvent-based adsorption

Storage: Onshore to onshore pipeline 201-250 km for EOR and/or saline aquifer; the plant is located above saline aquifer with significant storage potential

Scale Up: 1 Mt/Yr CO2 capture in 2020

Motivation/Economics:

Expected to cost approximately 10 billion RMD or $1.46 billion US to build the carbon capture part of the project. The liquefaction plant alone cost 24.5 billion yuan ($3.58 billion US).

Comments:

In August 2012, the Chinese Government announced that 40,000 tons of CO2 had been successfully sequestered in the Ordos formation. Over 150,000 tonnes of CO2 had been injected by late October 2013. This is the first integrated whole chain CCS project in China.

The Chinese Government curtailed its coal liquefaction program in 2008 and this project is one of 2 projects which was still allowed to go ahead. The smaller scale project of 100,000 Tons/Yr at a cost of 210 million yuan ($30.8 million) started end 2010. Shenhua's coal-to-liquid plant is the first of its kind to go into operation in China. Project proponents successfully received funding in the first phase of the United States DOE's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding.

The coal-to-liquids plant uses Wuhai coal tar to produce olefins through an advanced gasification technology. The plant is located on top of an enormous coal deposit which decided its location. Potential storage sites are currently being investigated for the second phase of the project. Shenhua is China's largest coal mining company.

 

Project Link: China to launch first CCS project (April 2009)

Technical Papers:

Li, X, R Xu, P Jiang, Modelling and Interpretation of a Temperature Drop in the Wellbore in Ordos CO2 Storage Project, China, Energy Procedia, Vol 63, pp 6413-6419, (2014) <Link to PDF>

Zunsheng, J, Z Lifa, G Runmin, L Tingting, W Hong, H Wang, F McLaughlin, R Bentley, S Quillinang, Opportunity and Challenges of Integrated Enhanced Oil Recovery Using CO2 Flooding with Geological CO2 Storage in the Ordos Basin, China, Energy Procedia, Vol 63, pp 7761-7771, (2014) <Link to PDF>

Luo, T, L Zhou, Z Jiao, Y Bai, S Wang, The Ordos Basin: A Premier Basin for Integrating geological CO2 Storage with Enhanced oil Recovery Projects in China, Energy Procedia, Vol 63, pp 7772-7779, (2014) <Link to PDF>

Other Sources and Press Releases:

China buries 40,000 tons of carbon emissions underground (August 2012)
CLEAN delegation visited the CCS project in Ordos (August 2011)
China's Shenhua says CTL plant to begin storing carbon in '11 (November 2010)
First CCS project in China launched (October 2010)
China builds 1st carbon capture & storage project in Ordos (July 2010)
Carbon capture by end of 2010 (June 2010)
Shenhua plans to triple capacity of coal-liquids plant (January 2009)
Shenhua shows the way to make gas from coal (January 2009)
Shenhua exempt in China stoppage on coal-to-oil projects (August 2008)