ADB helps China on road map for carbon capture

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is assisting the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the development of a road map for carbon capture and storage (CCS) to help achieve the country's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction goals.

"There is an urgent need to fast-track the demonstration and deployment of carbon capture and storage in the People's Republic of China to cut CO2 emissions from the energy and industrial sectors and achieve the country's long-term climate change mitigation goals," said Finance Specialist for Energy at ADB's East Asia Department, Annika Seiler. ADB will assist the PRC in developing a detailed plan for a staged demonstration and deployment of CCS, which is an essential set of technologies to prevent climate change. CCS involves the separation and capture of CO2 and compression, transportation, and injection of the captured CO2 in a suitable underground storage.

CCS application can prevent up to 90 percent of CO2 emission from large emission sources such as fossil fuel-based power plants. However, its development has been slow. To date, no large-scale CCS project attached to a fossil fuel-based power plant is operational anywhere in the world.

Since 2008, the ADB has been supporting the government's efforts through capacity development projects, studies, and financial assistance.

Incomplete policy and regulatory framework, low fiscal and financial support for CCS demonstration projects, and inadequate international funding mechanisms to support projects have been identified as key barriers to large-scale demonstration of CCS in the PRC.

A comprehensive government-endorsed road map for CCS is expected to encourage more demonstration projects in the PRC. This project is set to launch at least two large-scale CCS demonstration projects by 2016, with an installed capacity to capture at least two million tons of CO2 per year.

The large-scale demonstration of CCS in the PRC is expected to drive the technology's commercialisation globally and help reduce CCS project costs as well as overcome remaining technical challenges.

ADB will also support the assessment of the potential role of oxy-fuel combustion CO2 capture, one of the three available CO2 capture technologies, in the PRC's optimal mix of CO2 capture technologies.

To fast-track CCS demonstration, analyses and studies of oxy-fuel combustion CO2 capture technology will be undertaken parallel to the formulation of the road map.

ADB is providing $2.2 million, financed on a grant basis by the ADB-administered Carbon Capture and Storage Fund under the Clean Energy Financing Partnership Facility. In 2009, the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute contributed to establish the fund. In April 2012, the United Kingdom pledged financing for CCS development in developing and emerging countries.