China to invest $13 billion in coal-based chemicals base
10 Mar 2007
Mumbai:
China is investing $13 billion to build a liquefied-coal
chemicals project in northwest Ningxia Hui Autonomous
Region.
Expected to be Asia's largest facility of its kind, the
project would produce methanol and other chemicals from
coal to meet China's growing demand for energy alternatives.
Director of the regional development and reform commission
Hao Linhai said that the project is coming up in the Ningdong
chemical resource base, which is located near Ningxia's
coal reserves, which has 80 per cent of the region's coal
deposits.
The chemical plant will convert over 5 million tonnes
of coal annually into chemicals such as dimethyl ether,
olefin and methanol, which are fuel additives.
Several plants that will turn coal into diesel fuel are
now under construction and will go into production in
2020. Hao informed that these are expected to convert
50 million tonnes of coal into 10 million tonnes of diesel
every year.
China,
meanwhile, is negotiating with South Africa-based Sasol
and Royal Dutch Shell Group to introduce coal liquefaction
technologies needed to produce diesel fuel. China is the
world's top coal producer and consumer. It uses 42 per
cent of the world's thermal coal for power and 48 per
cent of its coking coal for steel. Energy consumption
per unit of gross domestic product fell for the first
time last year, by 1.2 per cent, but this was still well
short of the 4 per cent target.
China
is also the world's second biggest emitter of greenhouse
gases. The International Energy Agency expects it to overtake
the US by the end of the decade.
