Integration and findings from the EU-China COACH project

Abstract

The COACH project was an EU-China collaboration funded by the EU's FP7 R&D programme to assess the potential for a CCS demonstration project in China. The Jing-Jin-Ji Region of North-Eastern China is a major contributor to China's CO2 emissions profile with large stationary sources currently contributing annual emissions of nearly 350 million tonnes CO2 per year, of which approximately 300 million tonnes CO2 has the potential to be captured and stored annually. Two scenarios for a CCS demonstration project located in the onshore section of the Bohai Bay region in Shandong Province in the North East of China were assessed in this study. Capture studies considered a polygeneration scenario while scoping studies were performed of storage potential within the onshore Bohai Bay area. Size scales of <1 Mtonnes/year (c. 5 million tonnes storage capacity) and >1Mtonnes/year (c. 100 million tonnes storage capacity) were considered. Introductory screening was performed for four areas to review their potential for development for CO 2 storage. These included two oilfield provinces, a regional saline formation and a coal mining area. A preliminary risk assessment was prepared covering both technical and non-technical issues. Order of magnitude costs likely to be incurred in implementing a CCS demonstration project were assessed. These included estimates of the cost of capture and conditioning of the CO 2, transportation to a storage site and the storage of the CO 2 in a geological formation. The cost of capture was expressed relative to a reference case comprising an IGCC without CCS. A single product, electricity, was considered. Storage costs were assumed to arise from appraisal (saline formations and coal mining areas), wells (new CO2 injectors and remediation or upgrading for existing wells) and monitoring. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.