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Environment

Huge CO2 Storage Potential In China

by Jessie Jiang
October 19, 2009 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 87, Issue 42

U .S. and Chinese researchers have found that China has enough underground geologic storage capacity to hold more than 100 years’ worth of the nation’s anticipated carbon dioxide output. A five-year study by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Rock & Soil Mechanics found most potential CO2 storage sites are in deep saline formations, and 90% of existing large CO2-generating power plants and industrial facilities are located within 100 miles of these formations. China is highly dependent on coal and fossil fuels and releases amounts of CO2 similar to those emitted by the U.S. Currently, the report says, China has 1,620 large stationary CO2 emissions sources, generating 3.8 billion metric tons of CO2 per year, surpassing the U.S. stationary source emissions by more than 1 billion tons per year. Seventy percent of these Chinese facilities are electric utilities, followed by cement kilns, steel mills, refineries, chemical plants, and other industrial sources. The study found some 2,300 billion metric tons of CO2 storage potential available in China.

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