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The latest statistics show that the full-chain CCUS project, promoted jointly by Sinopec Nanhua Company and East China Petroleum Bureau, has captured over 160,000 tons of carbon to date. This carbon has been used by upstream enterprises such as the East China Petroleum Bureau and Jiangsu Oilfield for oil displacement, resulting in an increase in oil production of over 10,000 tons. As an important means of reducing carbon emissions, CCUS technology has been under study at Sinopec for over 20 years; it helps domestic companies capture and utilize more than one million tons of carbon each year, which is equivalent to planting over 50 million trees. Research on carbon capture using carbon for targeting “CCUS is not something new; we have been conducting research in this field for over 20 years.” ”A research team led by Mao Songbai, a senior expert at Sinopec, was the first in China to begin research on CCUS technology. In 1998, Mao Songbai, who was then the team leader in charge of amine-based decarboxylation, went to Chitianhua in Guizhou along with senior experts from the Gas Purification Institute to provide technical services. They learned that the client’s company had a synthetic ammonia plant with an annual capacity of 300,000 tons, using natural gas as raw material. To address the carbon shortage issue in urea production, they installed a flue gas carbon dioxide capture unit with a capacity of 3,000 standard cubic meters per hour. After it was put into operation, various problems arose, including severe oxidation and degradation of the capture solvent, high steam consumption, equipment corrosion, and low carbon dioxide production rates. Customers turn to them for help. Capturing carbon dioxide from flue gas for production was a highly challenging technology at that time. Mao Songbai took on this troublesome task. They have developed a low-pressure (for flue gas, etc.) carbon dioxide capture technology; active amines, high-efficiency antioxidants, and corrosion inhibitors are added to the solvent, resulting in significantly reduced degradation and vapor consumption. After more than 10 years of operation and evaluation, the carbon dioxide production meets all design specifications entirely, equipment corrosion has been eliminated, and production operations are stable. Between 2006 and 2007, the key enterprises in China’s central and western regions that used natural gas to produce methanol almost all adopted Nanhua’s technology for carbon capture, achieving good economic and social benefits. Since the 1990s, Nanhua has focused on research into carbon dioxide capture and utilization. It has been committed to advancing CCUS technology, and now possesses leading domestic as well as internationally advanced methods for carbon dioxide capture, including new catalytic thermal potassium-alkali processes such as those involving low-temperature heat sources for pressure swing regeneration, improved MDEA-based decarbonization techniques, and physical purification methods like NHD. The applications of these technologies have expanded from traditional syngas carbon dioxide capture to natural gas, refinery gases, EO/EG cycle gases, F-T synthesis cycle gases, various flue gases, blast furnace gases, and kiln gases. The team that fulfilled its mission: With Sinochem’s CCUS demonstration unit in its coal chemical division as the focal point, within a radius of 100 meters lie the Sinopec Group Key Laboratory for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Utilization technologies, as well as a demonstration unit for capturing carbon dioxide from flue gases of power boilers, which utilizes state-of-the-art membrane capture technology and is currently under construction. “Thermal power plants are major sources of carbon dioxide emissions, accounting for about 50% of the total emissions. ”Guo Benshuai, the current head of the Low-Carbon Team, explained that before the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, their new carbon capture technology was applied at Huaneng Shanghai Shidongkou No. 2 Power Plant, which was the largest coal-fired power plant in the world at that time, enabling the capture of 100,000 tons of carbon per year. The carbon dioxide capture rate is over 80%, and the purity is over 99.6%. In 2011, Nanhua Company applied for the **“12th Five-Year Plan” science and technology support program project titled “Development and Application Demonstration of Technologies for Carbon Dioxide Capture from Flue Gas in Large-Scale Coal-Fired Power Plants, as well as Its Use for Oil Extraction and Sequestration.”** As the lead entity responsible for this project, it took the initiative to conduct research on its key components, and a demonstration facility with an annual capture capacity of 30,000 tons was established at the Shengli Power Plant. The device liquefies the recovered carbon dioxide and injects it underground as a powerful tool for enhancing oil production in oil fields. The carbon dioxide used for oil displacement can still be recovered and reused. They also completed the project under the 12th Five-Year Plan’s **Science and Technology Support Program, titled ‘Research and Development of Technologies for the Mineralization and Utilization of Carbon Dioxide and Related Engineering Demonstrations’. They are currently working on two key research projects under the 13th Five-Year Plan: ‘Evaluation of the Comprehensive Properties of Absorbents and Their Large-Scale Production’. Be a pioneer in carbon neutrality. “Carbon neutrality essentially means balancing carbon emissions with carbon absorption.” To achieve carbon absorption, reliance is placed mainly on two methods: biological absorption through afforestation, and industrial capture, storage, and utilization of carbon dioxide. These methods are used to ‘capture’ the carbon dioxide that has already been produced; compared to biological absorption, industrial capture yields more significant results and acts more quickly. ”The person in charge of the relevant department at the company explained. At present, Nanhua’s CCUS technology has been applied in carbon dioxide capture from flue gases such as those from natural gas boilers, coal-fired boilers, and other types of boilers at more than 30 enterprises in nearly 16 provinces and cities, including the Sichuan Vinylon plant, the Golmud refinery in Qinghai Oil Field, and the Shengli Power Plant. The maximum processing capacity of these systems is 11,800 standard cubic meters per hour, allowing for the capture of over 1 million tons of high-purity carbon dioxide per year. This carbon dioxide is used in the production of acetic acid, methanol, urea, and food-grade carbon dioxide, thereby protecting the environment while generating direct economic benefits of hundreds of millions of yuan as well as significant social benefits for users. “The 30·60” dual-carbon goal will create broad opportunities for the application of carbon dioxide capture and resource utilization technologies. At present, Nanhua Company is actively developing the carbon-neutral industry to earnestly fulfill its responsibilities as a central state-owned enterprise, both in terms of political and social duties. Source: China Chemical Industry News