In the height of summer on the Ordos Plateau, the blazing sun beats down. At CHN Energy Ordos Coal-to-Liquids Company in Ordos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern China, a maze of pipelines stretches across the site like a steel forest. Nearby, in the injection area of the carbon dioxide storage project, three towering silver storage tanks stand out, while red valves more than two meters high tightly seal three deep injection wells. This is not a site for extracting resources—it is a place where carbon is being stored.
CCS project
The period from 2026 to 2030 marks a critical five years in China's drive to peak carbon emissions. Under the national plan, by 2030, China's carbon dioxide emissions per 10,000 yuan (around 1,473 USD) of GDP are expected to be 17 percent lower than in 2025. Coal-to-liquids and other coal deep-processing projects have long been regarded as typical examples of high energy consumption and high emissions due to their lengthy resource conversion processes and complex production chains. These facilities consume large amounts of electricity and heat during operation while generating substantial direct carbon dioxide emissions, making them major sources of carbon emissions.
How can this challenge be addressed? As early as 2011, Ordos Coal-to-Liquids Company took the lead by launching a carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project with an annual capacity of 100,000 tons. The project captures and compresses carbon dioxide generated during production before injecting it underground for permanent storage.
"The project is capable of capturing and storing 51 million cubic meters of carbon dioxide each year, equivalent to the annual carbon sequestration of approximately 274 hectares of broadleaf forest," said Du Haisheng, a technical renovation engineer with the Planning and Development Department of Ordos Coal-to-Liquids Company. Through an injection well reaching a depth of 2,495 meters, more than 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide have already been injected into saline aquifers located 1,500 to 2,500 meters underground.
As more carbon is captured, new applications for its use continue to emerge. China now has more than 120 planned and operational carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) demonstration projects covering sectors including power generation, oil and gas, chemicals, cement and steel. Some captured carbon dioxide is injected into oil reservoirs to enhance oil recovery, some is used in the production of chemical products, and some is applied in the food industry, including carbonated beverages.
Today, a growing number of industrial sectors are moving beyond the traditional mindset of simply reducing carbon emissions toward utilizing and recycling carbon. As technologies such as CCUS continue to advance, the industrial applications of carbon dioxide will keep expanding. What was once regarded as a carbon burden is being transformed into a new source of green growth, opening a new chapter in high-quality, low-carbon industrial development.
