Alstom, Datang to Build Trial Carbon-Capture Projects in China

Alstom SA (ALO), the third-largest maker of power equipment, and China Datang Corp. agreed to develop two trial projects to capture and store carbon in the country as the world’s biggest consumer of coal seeks to curb emissions.

Alstom and Datang, the second-largest Chinese electricity producer, will develop projects to gather carbon dioxide from power plants and store it in the nation’s two biggest oilfields, the Levallois-Perret, France-based equipment company said today.

China, the largest user of power according to the BP Plc Statistical Review of World Energy, requires technology to help it meet climate-change goals, while feeding electricity needs. The International Energy Agency says carbon capture and storage alone can deliver 19 percent of a goal of cutting world carbon- dioxide emissions in half by 2050, compared with 2005 levels.

Alstom will fit its carbon-capture technology to the Daqing coal-fired power plant in Heilongjiang province and Dongying coal station in Shandong province. The two projects, adjacent to the Chinese oilfields, will each trap more than 1 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide a year in 2015, Alstom said. China has pledged to cut emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 percent to 45 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels.

The gas can be used for so-called enhanced oil recovery by pumping it into the field to loosen denser crude, boosting output from aging deposits, Alstom said. The cost of achieving the 50 percent emissions cut would rise by more than 70 percent in the long term without CCS, the Paris-based IEA said in 2008.

To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Sally Bakewell in London at Sbakewell1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net