China, which is developing more than half of the carbon-capture and storage projects announced within the last year, is quickly becoming a leader in deployment of systems to cut emissions from power plants, according to the Global CCS Institute.
Currently there are 75 carbon-capture and storage, or CCS, projects in development worldwide compared with 74 a year ago, Brad Page, chief executive officer of the institute, said today on a media call. Nine were newly identified, including five in China, and eight were canceled or put on hold, he said.
“China is the fastest-moving nation now on CCS,” Page said. The country “has moved very rapidly from right down in the bottom of our league tables to now being number three in the world in terms of number of projects,” he said. The US and Canada have the most projects.
Chinese companies are beginning to participate in projects in other countries, and that is a trend that may continue, Page said. China Petrochemical, Asia’s biggest refiner that’s known as Sinopec Group, last month won an engineering contract for Summit Power Group LLC’s CCS project in Texas.
“That may well turn out to be just a sign of things to come,” Page said. “It’s a very important development.”
The Global CCS Institute is based in Canberra, Australia.