Professional Documents
Culture Documents
767 China Focus
767 China Focus
Last year, China’s government gave 43 trillion m3. With oil becoming • Fourthly: alternative energy sources.
the go-ahead for the construction of scarce in China, customers, from The Chinese government has great
four huge oil storage tanks, which are industry to public transport, are hopes for nuclear power, which is seen
expected to be completed in 2010. switching to gas. as clean and cost-effective. Currently
They will have a combined capacity China’s longest gas pipeline, there are 11 nuclear power plants in
of 14m t – equivalent to about 104m which extends more than 4000 km China, nine of which are in commercial
bbl – enough to cover roughly 30 days' from remote western China’s Xinjiang use, providing around 2% of the
imports at current levels. Filling these Autonomous Region all the way country’s electricity. But according
tanks will mean buying between 35,000 to Shanghai, started commercial to Kang Rixin, general manager at
and 65,000 bbl/d between 2006 and operation at the end of 2004. The China National Nuclear Corporation,
2010, analysts say. pipeline has a capacity of 12b m3/y; a nuclear power should account for 4%
China’s eventual goal is a 90-day second pipeline from Russia to South of electricity by 2020. “By 2020 we
strategic petroleum reserve, which it is Korea and China is currently under will have around 40 nuclear reactors.
expected to realise in 2015. Assuming construction. But this means we still need to build
GDP growth of 6.5%/y, this would take 30 nuclear reactors in the coming 15
The good news for foreign investors
885m bbl by 2020, which is bound years.”
is that the Chinese government
to have an enormous impact on the Wind power has been somewhat
has fully opened up its natural
world’s oil markets. neglected in China, but as supply of
gas industry, encouraging foreign
• Secondly, find substitutes. China's other forms of energy is becoming
investors to participate in everything
National Development and Reform short, wind power is receiving more
from gas exploitation to infrastructure
Commission favours coal as an energy interest.
construction, building gas power
source, because it is abundant and He Zuoma at the Chinese Academy
stations, city gas projects and more.
offers a secure supply. Because of this, of Sciences says that China has a
Building the infrastructure will cost
there is a great deal of interest in coal proven wind resource of at least 259m
over ¥220b between 2002–2020. This
liquefaction. kW. Adding inshore wind potential
will build a 50,000 km gas pipeline,
Three years ago, China’s largest coal would bring China’s wind power
construct several huge liquefied capacity to over 1000 GW – two and
company, Shenhua Group Corporation, natural gas (LNG) storage stations and
signed a licence agreement with a half times the capacity of China’s
build LNG transport infrastructure. water power.
Hydrocarbon Technologies of the US to
The Chinese government also Last year, China’s largest wind
build the first direct coal liquefaction
promised to allow foreign companies power station project, also the
plant in China. The ¥24.5b plant is due
greater participation in natural gas biggest in the whole Asian region,
to be completed in 2007 and will have
electricity generation. Currently, was launched in Rudong in eastern
an initial capacity of 1m t of oil a year,
around 14% of electricity consumed China. The 850,000 kW, ¥5b project
rising to 10m t/y by 2010.
in China is generated from natural gas will generate over 250m kWh once
Two indirect coal liquefaction plants
and, in future, the percentage will it starts operations in the second
are under consideration. Shenhua Group
rise to over 30%. “Natural gas will quarter of 2005. Shanghai is also
and Ningxia Coal Industry are both
be one of the most dynamic fields of planning to exploit wind power. It is China’s coal
currently working with Sasol and Shell
international cooperation in China,” estimated that by 2015, wind power struggles
to see if the idea is practical. “It is a
said Liu Keyu, deputy director at the can cover 3% of the city’s electricity with safety
pre-feasibility study. It’s the beginning
Economic and Technology Research consumption. and transport
of the process of looking at what the
Centre. According to Wu Guihui, deputy bottlenecks
opportunities are,” says Nick Wood,
Shell’s spokesman in Beijing. “It’s very
early days.” The Chinese government
itself is looking to invest ¥30b in each
new coal-to-fuels plant. Proponents of
coal liquefaction, such as professor Tao
Shuren at China University of Mining
and Technology, stress the strategic
importance of the technology.
However, not everyone believes
coal liquefaction is the way forward.
Feng Fei, director at the Research
Department of Industrial Economy,
says that by 2010 liquefied coal will
only supply 10m t/y of refined oil – a
negligible amount considering that
demand is expected to hit 350m t/y by
then. The relatively high cost of coal
liquefaction is another concern.
• Thirdly: encourage mass exploitation
of natural gas, as advocated by the
China State Energy Bureau. China’s
proven reserves of natural gas total
director at the Energy Bureau, by 2020, efficiency rating is among the lowest
China’s wind power plants will have a in the world. For instance, every kg
combined capacity of 20m kW, which of coal only produces $0.36 of GDP in
will lift the share of wind power in China, compared with a global average
China’s energy mix from the current of $1.86 and a record of $5.58 in
0.11% to 1% of annual electricity Japan.
consumption. Chinese experts now believe that
Other energy sources, like water, energy efficiency should be listed
also have a role to play. Recent after coal, petroleum, natural gas and
estimates suggest that hydroelectric electricity, as the ‘fifth energy’ in the consumption. The country is a
power could generate 448 GW, country. Zhao Jiarong, director at the The combined ravenous importer
possibly producing an annual power department of environment resources capacity of new of oil and oil
output of 2470b kWh, equivalent to conservation under the National electric power plants products
that produced by burning 900m t of Development and Reform Commission, China builds each year is equal
coal each year. In 2003, installed said at a news conference that China to that of half in Britain, or the same
hydroelectric dams had a capacity could save up to 300m t of standard as the whole Brazilian installations.
of just over 92 GW – 24% of China’s coal each year – around 18% of its With this frenetic construction of
total electric power – with annual 2004 coal consumption. infrastructure, it is believed that in
generation of 283b kWh, accounting At the end of 2004, China launched the future, when the economy cools
for about 14.8% of the country’s the biggest and most ambitious energy- down, China will inevitably have
total electricity consumption. This is saving plan in the country’s history. problems such as a large surplus of
largely thanks to the completion of the The goal is to produce $1200 of GDP for electricity capacity and a shortage of
Yangtze Three Gorges dam. each 2.25 t of coal consumed, by 2010 non-renewable resources like coal, as it
The use of other power sources – that would be a saving of 0.43 t on plays a dominant role in China’s current
such as solar, biomass or geothermal the 2002 figure. By 2020, the figure is energy consumption. So what China
power is still in its infancy due to their projected to decline to 1.54 t. really needs now maybe is not only to
low density and efficiency in energy meet the current huge consumption of
transformation, though they might envisioning the future energy, but more importantly to bring
make some contribution in the future. It is understandable that China’s strong its economic development onto a more
• Finally: energy saving. China’s energy GDP growth is powered by great energy healthy and more sustainable track. ■
�����������������������������
ABB Engineering Services
PEL provides process engineers with the ideal toolkit:
Calculation tools ensure designs are carried out more
quickly and more reliably
Datasheet management ensures that up-to-date design data
is always available
������������������������������ �������������������������������������������������
�������������������������������������������������
A workbench of validated calculations related to:
Physical properties Control valve sizing
Fluid flow Mixing
Scheduling & mass balance Heat transfer
of batch processes Equipment sizing
Plus a database for storing and controlling process,
mechanical, instrument, and relief specification sheets