“Turning CO2 into treasure”: Sinopec China's first capture and storage operation

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) has completed the construction of China’s first carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) project, the Qilu-Shengli Oilfield CCUS, which will reduce carbon emission by 1 million tons per year, the equivalent of planting nearly 9 million trees and shutting down 600,000 economy cars. And plans another two by 2025.

The new CCUS project, which started construction just over a year ago, involves capturing carbon dioxide produced from Sinopec's Qilu refinery in eastern Shandong province during a hydrogen-making process, and then injecting it into 73 oil wells in the nearby Shengli oilfield. Sinopec has estimated that 10.68 million tonnes of carbon dioxide will be injected into the oilfield over the next 15 years, boosting crude oil production by nearly 3 million tonnes.

Sinopec will also build a CCUS R&D center to focus on the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs including the integration of CCUS with new energy, hydrogen energy and biomass energy. The company will advance the technology applications such as the carbon dioxide production of high-value chemicals and carbon dioxide mineralization and utilization to make breakthroughs in the core technologies and solving the equipment bottlenecks in carbon capture, transportation, utilization and storage.

Yesterday we posted about the CCUS plans by Saudi Aramco and partnerships with several other companies, among them China’s Sinopec. A recent MoU from August 2022 includes potential collaborations across upstream and downstream businesses, engineering and construction, oilfield services, carbon capture and hydrogen. Click here for the press release

Click on the image below to read more about Sinopec CCUS (carbon capture, utilization and storage) plans.