China’s coal gasification development

and deployment programme

Dr Andrew Minchener OBE

General Manager

IEA Clean Coal Centre

Scope of the presentation

• Role to date of IGCC

• Rationale for coal to chemicals, gaseous and

liquid fuels deployment

•Strategic considerations

•New initiatives

•Gasifier options

• Export opportunities and related initiatives

• Final thoughts

China’s energy and environmental

initiatives

Five-year Planning Cycle for National Economic

and Social Development. This provides:

• guidelines, policy frameworks, and targets for policy-

makers at all levels of government

• top down overall objectives and goals related to

economic growth and industrial planning in key sectors

and regions

Historical review of the 11th Five-Year

Plan (2006-2010)

Key targets were to meet China’s increasing

energy demand, while simultaneously reducing

pollution and ensuring a stable, reliable and

clean energy supply

• Declaration that the nation will achieve a 20% reduction in

energy consumption per unit of GDP and 10% reduction of

major pollutant (sulphur dioxide)

• Improvement of coal power plant efficiency through the

introduction of advanced high-efficiency units and the

closure of small inefficient power plants

• Shut-down of obsolete, small steel-making and cement

production units

Overview of energy and environmental

aspects of 12th

Five Year Plan

• Energy consumption per unit of GDP to be cut by 16% from

2010 levels;

• SO2 and NOx emissions to be cut by 8% and 10%

respectively from 2010 levels;

• CO2 emissions per unit of GDP to be cut by 17% from 2010

levels;

• Non-fossil fuel use to account for 11.4% of primary energy

consumption;

• Expenditure on research and development to account for

2.2% GDP; and

• Water consumption per unit of value-added industrial output

to be cut by 30%.

New coal chemical industry supply chain

Low and high value end products

Low value products Higher value options

China’s coal to chemicals development

and deployment programme

• Aim is to establish a modern coal chemical industry, to

include the upgrade of those demonstration projects that

offer the higher energy conversion efficiency, a suitable

geographical location, with both adequate suitable coal

supplies and sufficient water availability, as well as offering

prospects for extending the industrial chain to promote local

economic and social development.

• This will include a focus on the construction of projects for

clean production, utilisation, processing and conversion of

low-calorific-value coal

Phased development programme in

line with the 11th

FYP

2006-2010

• Establish gasification technology to use coal as a feedstock

for chemicals and fuels production.

• Determine the technical viability of using gasification based

coal conversion to produce both synthetic oil and gas, and

to manufacture various chemical products (hydrogen and

methanol)

• Assess economic viability of products from coal conversion

technologies compared to imported alternatives

Wide range of coal gasification

technologies being supplied in China by

overseas vendors

GE Energy Shell Siemens SES

Increasing use of domestic technologies

also underway

• ECUST is the leading Chinese

technology supplier, and has

some 31 projects either

operational or at the

contracted design and

construction stage. Now the

3rd biggest gasifier vendor in

the world

• Other Chinese suppliers

include;

• TPRI

• H-TL

• Tsinghua U

• ICC-CAS

• MCSG

• Sedin

Phased development programme in line

with the 12th

FYP

2011-2015

. Ensure coal to chemicals programme is in line with

government goals to increase clean energy use and cut CO2

emissions.

• Establish very large scale coal to SNG processes and

possibly scale-up various coal to oil technologies.

• Apply large scale coal gasification for the production of

olefins as a means to establish higher value-added markets

for plastics and fibres.

• Continue assessment of other coal to chemicals techniques,

especially coal to glycol and coal to aromatics processes.

• Limit any expansion of the lower end coal to chemicals

processes and weed out those companies and industries

with low production efficiency and high-energy consumption.

Indicative economic assessment

for coal to oil products in China

Indicative economic assessment

Input coal

price

(US$/tonne)

Crude oil production

costs (US$/barrel)

ICL DCL

15 35-45 25-30

125 80-90 49-59

155 110-120 65-75

Environmental considerations

Chinese

applications

Standard

coal

consumption

Water

consumption

CO2

emissions

tonnes/tonnes

ICL 4.39 13 5.0

Coal to

olefins

6.68 33 5.5

Coal to

ethylene

glycol

2.55 14 2.0

tonnes/1000 Nm3

Coal to SNG 2.83 6.58 2.5

Coal to SNG

• Some 14 coal gasification

projects are under construction

in China through to 2016.

• Total potential annual SNG

output of just over 21 billion m3

pipeline quality gas

• Target capacities are 89-96

billion m3/year, although the

timelines for these subsequent

expansions have yet to be

defined.

Coal to SNG projects for construction

in China through 2016

Owner Location

Annual output

(billion m3)

Schedule 1st

phase

operations 1st

phase Target

Guanghui Xinjiang - 0 2012

Qinghua Xinjiang 1.4 5.5 2012

Datang Inner Mongolia 1.4 4.0 2013

Xinwne Xinjiang 2.0 10.0 2013

Huineng Inner Mongolia - 2.0 2013

Huaneng Xinjiang 4.0 6.0 2013

Guodian Inner Mongolia 2.0 10.0 2014

Shenhua Inner Mongolia - 2.0 2015

Sinopec Xinjiang - 8.0 2015

Guanghui Xinjiang 4.0 4.0 2015

CPIC Xinjiang 2.0 6.0 2015

CNOOC Shanxi 4.0 6-15 2015

Hongshenggi Gansu - 4.0 2015

Datang Liaoning - 4.0 2016

Coal to olefins

• Sixteen methanol-to-olefins

(MTO) and methanol-to-

propylene (MTP) projects are

due to come on stream by

2015, with a total annual

production capacity of 10 Mt.

• First four are commercial

prototype demonstration units,

and have commenced

operation.

• Product quality is at the lower

end of the market range.

Further development work is

needed to introduce more

highly efficient catalysts and to

ensure operational stability.

Non-power coal gasification projects in

China at end of April 2013

Supplier Coal gasification projects

Operational Design/construct Total

GE 28 10 38

Shell 21 - 21

Siemens 1 5 6

Lurgi variants 7 5 12

SES (U-Gas) 2 1 3

KBR (TRIG) - 2 2

ECUST 12 25 37

TPRI 1 4 5

HT-L 4 14 18

Tsinghua U 4 16 20

ICC-CAS 4 2 6

MCSG 12 2 14

Sedin 2 8 10

Total 98 94 192

CCS opportunities for the modern

coal to chemicals sector (end 2011)

Export opportunities and related

initiatives

• Gasification technology exports and licenses

• Major engineering, procurement and construction

role being established overseas

• Initiatives underpinned by the China Development

Bank

Conclusions

• China offers a template for large scale coal to chemicals, gaseous

and liquid fuels deployment, for all stages of the industrial

development cycle.

• It has shown what can be achieved from a technical standpoint

while demonstrating, as technology familiarisation has been

achieved, that there are various routes that can then be followed to

ensure that acceptable economic performance becomes a key

factor.

• Water availability and the need to limit CO2 emissions will have to

be taken into account, if sector is to continue to grow

• Scope for early CCS demonstrations on larger coal conversion

units

• There will also be a strong market for the cost-effective

deployment of water-saving and wastewater treatment

technologies. Such activity will provide a significant stimulus to

GDP growth at a time when export opportunities in other sectors

may not be as strong as in the previous FYP period.