EU-Chinese project to develop clean coal power plants
A new EU-funded project will bring together Chinese and European researchers to develop and build cleaner coal-fired power stations in China. In order to meet the ever increasing energy needs of the world's largest population, China is currently engaged in a massive programme to build large numbers of new power stations; in 2005 alone, the country increased its generating capacity by over 52 Gigawatts. Most of these new power stations will be coal-fired, and as a consequence China is expected to be the world's biggest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter by 2010. The aim of the COACH (Cooperation Action Within CO2 Capture and Storage China-EU) project is to harness European expertise to design a coal-fired power station incorporating CO2 capture and storage technologies, to be constructed in China by 2010. The project partners will identify which of China's older power stations are likely to be replaced by new plants, and evaluate which of the new projects are most suitable for CO2 capture technologies. They will then recommend what kinds of technology or methods should be used to deal with the carbon dioxide produced by individual power plants. 'COACH will give European suppliers an opportunity to position themselves on a future Chinese market for CO2 capture technology,' pointed out Jens Hetland, a scientist at SINTEF, one of the project partners. 'COACH will also give both Europeans and Chinese the chance to develop joint CO2 technology for use elsewhere in the world.' The project falls within the remit of the partnership signed by the EU and China at the beginning of 2006 on ways of tackling climate change. It brings together partners from both China and the EU, and includes representatives from academia, the oil industry and other industries. The project is due to run for three years.
Countries
China, Norway