Paths and policy suggestions for the construction of CCUS regional center in southwestern China
In the southwestern China,the implementation of national strategies such as the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and the national natural gas(shale gas)productivity base of 100 billion cubic meters is being sped up.Facing the contradiction between the hard demand of energy consumption growth and the rigid constraint of carbon emission reduction,promoting the development of CCUS industry is the only way to solve this problem,while the construction of CCUS regional center is the inevitable trend of CCUS industrial scale and cluster development.Furthermore,the Sichuan Basin is the best choice for the construction of CCUS regional center in the southwestern China.In order to speed up the construction of the center,this paper systematically reviews foreign experiences and practices,and analyzes their advantages and challenges.Then,the construction paths and policy suggestions are put forward specifically based on the characteristics,source-sink matching and current situations of CO2 and geological storage resources in the southwestern China.And the following research results are obtained.First,there are five advantages in building a CCUS regional center in the southwestern China,i.e.,huge demand of carbon reduction and production increase for enterprises,abundant and concentrated carbon sources from high-energy-consuming industrial enterprises,large-scale carbon sink resources,good source-sink matching,and active support from local governments.Second,at present,the main problem in the construction of the center is that there is no top-level design and unified planning,sharing platform for the whole-industry-chain collaborative technological research,and incentive and restrictive policy system for carbon emission reduction.In the next step,it is necessary to focus on three paths of CCUS-EGR,CCS and DACCS,build the southwestern China CCUS regional center via three stages of start-up,expansion,large-scale development,construct two industrial clusters of ten million tons and three industrial clusters of one million tons,and compare and select the technical and commercial paths.In conclusion,the construction of the CCUS regional center in the southwestern China shall be promoted mainly from the following three aspects.Specifically,we should focus on perfecting the top-level design,and issuing unified strategic planning;strengthening the construction of a scientific and technological research system,and accelerating the formation of a technologically mature and economically feasible CCUS whole-chain technology;and enhancing policy support,and promoting international cooperation.