The Environmental and Economic Impact of IGCC in China, With Comparison to Alternative Options

Due to its rapid economic growth, China is developing a considerable electricity demand, which in turn requires a corresponding expansion of power capacity (Zhao and Gallagher 2007). However, because its current power generation capacity relies heavily on coal energy, CO2 emissions and other conventional pollutants have also increased drastically in
recent years. In 2005, China emitted 5323 million tons of CO2 and 25.49 million tons of SO2, which makes China the second-largest CO2 emitter and the largest SO2 emitter in the world (EIA 2008; SEPA 2005).

Though not bound to limit its emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, the Chinese government has emphasized adjustment of its energy structure. In 2007, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) published the 11th Five Year Plan (2005-2010) for the energy industry, and the Medium- and Long-Term Development Plan for nuclear and renewable energy (before 2020), in which made specific goals to develop alternative energy and mitigate the side effects of coal-fired plants. However, even with all of those goals fulfilled, coal would still dominate the energy supply. Thus, reform of the coal-fired power industry, where half of all coal in China is consumed (Zhang 2005), is needed if the side-effects of coal-fired power production are to be minimized. IGCC technology is one of promising options in reducing CO2 emissions and other conventional pollutants (Chen and Rubin 2009).

There are several studies that investigated performance of advanced coal power generation technologies, such as Lifeng Zhao (2008), which compared performance of different advanced coal-fired power technologies in China, and Chao Chen (2009), which investigated the performance of IGCC in the USA. However, they neither related the performance to China’s future electricity demand, nor did they compare the feasibility with other possible options like renewable and nuclear energy.
In this study, the environmental and cost impacts of IGCC are investigated by studying different scenarios based on China’s projected electricity demand according to up-to-date policies of Chinese government organizations. The performance of IGCC plants are modeled by the newly developed Integrated Environment Control Model (IECM, developed by the Department of Engineering & Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University). As China is emphasizing development of renewable and nuclear energy, this study also compares the feasibility of IGCC with those alternative options that are currently significant in China.