Anhui Conch - September 2019
Despite the project proving to be a loss maker, Anhui Conch is fully committed to its carbon capture investment at the Baimashan plant in eastern China. The US$10m carbon capture and storage (CCS) project was installed last year after taking 12 months to construct. Trial production began in October 2018 with the aim of separating and purifying 50,000t of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year, which Anhui Conch would then sell to industrial consumers.
As a pilot project the technology is currently designed to capture just a small share of the 1.5Mt of CO2 produced by a single kiln line. The challenge now is to find a buyer for the CO2 with the local market “limited”, according to the Baimashan plant’s manager. CNBM has applauded Anhui Conch for taking the lead on carbon capture, adding that it hoped “the entire industry can follow”.
Along with carbon capture, the Chinese government is encouraging its cement producers to make increased use of alternative fuels, including municipal solid waste, tyres or methane from landfills. To this end, Anhui Conch has already converted 11 cement projects to municipal waste with its 14Mta plant in Tongling now incinerating all the waste produced by the city’s residents.
