Shenhua Group, China's largest coal miner, is working on research and development of the country's first carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at its coal-to-liquids plant, according to a statement on the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission's website.

The CCS project will be applied to Shenhua's 1-million-ton direct coal-to-liquids plant in Ordos, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, which launched trial operation at the end of last year.

CCS is an approach to mitigate global warming by "capturing" carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuel power plants and "storing" it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.

Storage measures, including geological storage, are being considered for Shenhua's CCS project, which will be put into full operation in one or two years, the statement said.

(China Daily April 8, 2009)