[Martian]

http://news.chinaa2z.com/news/html/2009/20...5256244750.html

"World?s 1st deep sea water crude oil rig, storage platform unveiled

By smile Updated:2009-06-30 00:52:54

The Sevan Driller, the world?s first cylinder-shaped deep sea water crude oil rig and bulky storage platform, which is constructed by the Nantong Shipyard under China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO), is unveiled during a launching ceremony in Nantong City, east China?s Jiangsu Province, June 28, 2009. The rig boasts a capacity of drilling of wells up to 40,000 feet in water depths of up to 12,500 feet, a variable deckload of more than 15,000 metric tons and high storage capacity of bulk materials."

[Martian]

China's 300,000 ton oil supertanker

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2010-01...ent_9366573.htm

"China's largest oil tanker delivered in Guangzhou
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-01-23 10:36

Xin Pu Yang, the most sophisticated supertanker ever designed and built by a Chinese shipyard, docks at Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, January 22, 2010. The ship was delivered to its buyer China Shipping(Croup) Company on Friday at Nansha port in Guangzhou. It marks a milestone that the tonnage of China's oil tanks finally breaks through 300,000 tons. [Photo/Xinhua]"








A photo taken on January 22, 2010 shows the cockpit of Xin Pu Yang, the most sophisticated supertanker ever designed and built by a Chinese shipyard at Nansha port, Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong province.
[Photo/Xinhua]

[Martian]

China's 2,210-kw coal mining machine

Coal, oil, and natural gas belong together. Let's take a look at China's relatively new "2,210-kw coal mining machine."

China makes 1st 2,210-kw coal mining machine_English_Xinhua

"China makes 1st 2,210-kw coal mining machine
XINHUANEWS 2008-12-14 00:06:27


The first China-made 2,210 kilowatt coal mining machine passed check and appraisal on Saturday in the northwestern Shaanxi Province, reducing the reliance on exports. (Xinhua Photo)

XI'AN, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- The first China-made 2,210 kilowatt coal mining machine passed check and appraisal on Saturday in the northwestern Shaanxi Province, reducing the reliance on [imports].

Trial operation showed the remote control machine, produced by Xi'an Coal Mining Machine Co. Ltd, can mine eight million tons of coal annually, according to the Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Department.

The price for each was 16 million yuan (2.3 million U.S. dollars), more than 40 percent lower than [imported] ones.

China's coal production doubled in the recent decade and reached 2.5 billion tons last year. But it can only produce coal mining machine with power capacity below 1,800 kw. Machines above 2,000-kw were [imported] from the U.S. and Germany."

[Martian]

China's ultra-supercritical coal-fired plants


Yuhuan, China?s most advanced coal-fired power plant, boasts a record-breaking efficiency of 45%?thanks to ultra-supercritical steam turbines supplied by Siemens (below)



According to the New York Times (see article below), "China has begun building [a new "Yuhuan-type ultra-supercritical coal-fired plant"] at a rate of one a month."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/world/as...tml?_r=2&em

"China Outpaces U.S. in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants

By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: May 10, 2009

TIANJIN, China ? China?s frenetic construction of coal-fired power plants has raised worries around the world about the effect on climate change. China now uses more coal than the United States, Europe and Japan combined, making it the world?s largest emitter of gases that are warming the planet.

But largely missing in the hand-wringing is this: China has emerged in the past two years as the world?s leading builder of more efficient, less polluting coal power plants, mastering the technology and driving down the cost.

While the United States is still debating whether to build a more efficient kind of coal-fired power plant that uses extremely hot steam, China has begun building such plants at a rate of one a month.

Construction has stalled in the United States on a new generation of low-pollution power plants that turn coal into a gas before burning it, although Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Thursday that the Obama administration might revive one power plant of this type. But China has already approved equipment purchases for just such a power plant, to be assembled soon in a muddy field here in Tianjin.

?The steps they?ve taken are probably as fast and as serious as anywhere in power-generation history,? said Hal Harvey, president of ClimateWorks, a group in San Francisco that helps finance projects to limit global warming.

Western countries continue to rely heavily on coal-fired power plants built decades ago with outdated, inefficient technology that burn a lot of coal and emit considerable amounts of carbon dioxide. China has begun requiring power companies to retire an older, more polluting power plant for each new one they build.

Cao Peixi, the president of the China Huaneng Group, the country?s biggest state-owned electric utility and the majority partner in the joint venture building the Tianjin plant, said his company was committed to the project even though it would cost more than conventional plants.

?We shouldn?t look at this project from a purely financial perspective,? he said. ?It represents the future.?

Without doubt, China?s coal-fired power sector still has many problems, and global warming gases from the country are expected to continue increasing. China?s aim is to use the newest technologies to limit the rate of increase.

Only half the country?s coal-fired power plants have the emissions control equipment to remove sulfur compounds that cause acid rain, and even power plants with that technology do not always use it. China has not begun regulating some of the emissions that lead to heavy smog in big cities.

Even among China?s newly built plants, not all are modern. Only about 60 percent of the new plants are being built using newer technology that is highly efficient, but more expensive.

With greater efficiency, a power plant burns less coal and emits less carbon dioxide for each unit of electricity it generates. Experts say the least efficient plants in China today convert 27 to 36 percent of the energy in coal into electricity. The most efficient plants achieve an efficiency as high as 44 percent, meaning they can cut global warming emissions by more than a third compared with the weakest plants.

In the United States, the most efficient plants achieve around 40 percent efficiency, because they do not use the highest steam temperatures being adopted in China. The average efficiency of American coal-fired plants is still higher than the average efficiency of Chinese power plants, because China built so many inefficient plants over the past decade. But China is rapidly closing the gap by using some of the world?s most advanced designs.

After relying until recently on older technology, ?China has since become the major world market for advanced coal-fired power plants with high-specification emission control systems,? the International Energy Agency said in a report on April 20.

China?s improvements are starting to have an effect on climate models. In its latest annual report last November, the I.E.A. cut its forecast of the annual increase in Chinese emissions of global warming gases, to 3 percent from 3.2 percent, in response to technological gains, particularly in the coal sector, even as the agency raised slightly its forecast for Chinese economic growth. ?It?s definitely changing the baseline, and that?s being taken into account,? said Jonathan Sinton, a China specialist at the energy agency.

But by continuing to rely heavily on coal, which supplies 80 percent of its electricity, China ensures that it will keep emitting a lot of carbon dioxide; even an efficient coal-fired power plant emits twice the carbon dioxide of a natural gas-fired plant.

Perhaps the biggest question now is how much further China can go beyond the recent steps. In particular, how fast will it move toward power plants that capture their emissions and store them underground or under the seafloor?

That technology could, in theory, create power plants that contribute virtually nothing to global warming. Many countries hope to develop such plants, though progress has been halting; Energy Secretary Chu has promised steps to speed up the technology in the United States.

China has just built a small, experimental facility near Beijing to remove carbon dioxide from power station emissions and use it to provide carbonation for beverages, and the government has a short list of possible locations for a large experiment to capture and store carbon dioxide. But so far, it has no plans to make this a national policy.

China is making other efforts to reduce its global warming emissions. It has doubled its total wind energy capacity in each of the past four years, and is poised to pass the United States as soon as this year as the world?s largest market for wind power equipment. China is building considerably more nuclear power plants than the rest of the world combined, and these do not emit carbon dioxide after they are built.

But coal remains the cheapest energy source in China by a wide margin. China has the world?s third-largest coal reserves, after the United States and Russia.

?No matter how much renewable or nuclear is in the mix, coal will remain the dominant power source,? said Ashok Bhargava, a China energy expert at the Asian Development Bank in Manila.

Another problem is that China has finally developed the ability to build high-technology power plants only at the end of a national binge of building lower-tech coal-fired plants. Construction is now slowing because of the economic slump.

By adopting ?ultra-supercritical? technology, which uses extremely hot steam to achieve the highest efficiency, and by building many identical power plants at the same time, China has cut costs dramatically through economies of scale. It now can cost a third less to build an ultra-supercritical power plant in China than to build a less efficient coal-fired plant in the United States."

[Martian]

China's/World's first 1000kv UHV Alternating Current transmission project

We know that China can make her own 2,210-kw coal mining machine to efficiently extract coal. We have seen China's Yuhuan-type ultra-supercritical coal-fired plants burn coal at a world "record-breaking efficiency of 45%." The final technology is electricity distribution; China's/"World's first [super-efficient] 1000kv UHV Alternating Current transmission project."


High voltage transmission towers

China leads in UHV power technology

"China leads in UHV power technology
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-16 14:38

BEIJING -- A spokesman of the State Grid Corporation of China (State Grid) said here Wednesday the country has become the world leader in the development of ultra-high-voltage (UHV) power transmission and [transformer] technology.


Two workers of Huaibei power company inspect the transformer substations in Huaibei, east China's Anhui Province, Jan. 29, 2008. [Xinhua]

In recent years, China has achieved an overall breakthrough in UHV core technology and the localization of UHV equipment, with more than 100 domestic manufacturers and suppliers participating in the manufacturing and supply of UHV equipment, Ma said at the annual General Meeting of the China Business Council for Sustainable Development (CBCSD).

In January 2009, the world's first 1000kv UHV Alternating Current transmission project, known as the Jindongnan-Nanyang-Jingmen UHVAC transmission project, was put into operation. It marks a breakthrough in the technology of long-distance, large-capacity and low-loss UHV power transmission.

The project has been organized and independently innovated by the State Grid, said the company official. So far, the State Grid has formulated 47 national standards and a whole set of specifications for UVH project design, construction, operation and maintenance, he said.

Ma said that the standard voltage of China's UHVAC is recommended as the international standard by the International Electro Technical Commission and the International Council on Large Electric System.

The International Electro Technical Commission has set up an HV Direct Current New Technology Board, with its secretariat based in China. It is the first time that the commission has placed the secretariat of a board in China, according to the State Grid official.

By 2012, the company plans to set up a large coal-electricity base linking together Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and other economically-challenged western parts of the country, as well as a UHV network for eastern and central load centers.

By 2020, the company will build up a synchronized power grid mainly consisting power grids of northern, eastern and central parts of the country. By then, the country's total transmission capacity of UHV power grid will have reached 300 million kw."

[Martian]

NITC orders six LNG carriers from China


Dapeng Sun, China's first self-built liquefied natural gas carrier, is delivered to its owner in Shanghai. The vessel, which cost US$160 million to build, has a capacity of 147,000 cubic meters, or about 70,000 tons, of LNG. Built by Shanghai-based Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co, the ship will sail on the Australia-Guangdong route to load the clean fuel to south China. (Note: Photo is from Shanghai Daily April 4, 2008)

NITC orders six LNG carriers in China

"NITC orders six LNG carriers in China
31/05/2010

Dalian: Iranian tanker giant NITC has ordered a landmark series of six LNG ships in China. Just like a decade ago when NITC ordered the first ever VLCCs for export from China, this deal, revealed over the weekend, is the first time an overseas firm has signed for gas ships in the People?s Republic.

"Based on estimates, each tanker has been priced between $200mln to $220mln, meaning that for building six tankers initially demanded by Iran from China, we need $1.2bn in credit," Mohammad Souri, President and CEO of NITC, said Sunday. For NITC these are its first gas ships, and mean that Iran could be exporting gas by ship as early as March 2012.

Chinese media suggest NITC has plumped for Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding. SWS has never built LNG ships before. China's only yard versed in this high-tech construction has been Hudong-Zhonghua, also from Shanghai, which has been building a series of six, (including Dapeng Sun, pictured) for a domestic consortium involving Cosco.

Chinese energy majors have signed a series of deals with Iran over the past three years to develop Iranian gas fields. [31/05/10]"

[Note: Thank you to "marchpole" for finding the story.]

[Martian]

"Beijing's Super Efficient Trigeneration Plant"

We know that China's first "liquefied natural gas" (i.e. LNG) carrier transports natural gas from Australia to China. What happens to natural gas after it arrives in China?

One destination is "Beijing's Super Efficient Trigeneration Plant." The natural-gas plant efficiency is an incredible 58% (e.g. 13% + 45% = 58%); "According to Xinhua, the plant is 13 percent more efficient than the most advanced coal-fired power plant [e.g. 45% for Yuhuan-type ultra-supercritical] in the world."

Hillary Clinton Hearts Beijing's Super Efficient Trigeneration Power Plant : TreeHugger

"Hillary Clinton Hearts Beijing's Super Efficient Trigeneration Power Plant
by Alex Pasternack, New York, NY on 02.23.09
Science & Technology


Clinton with US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern and GE executives (Getty)

"What we hope is you don't make the same mistake we made, because I don't think either Chinese and the world can afford that," Hillary Clinton said this weekend, referring to the West's dirty industrialization amid talk of working with China on climate change issues. She was speaking at Beijing's Taiyanggong Thermal Power Plant, a one-year-old gas-fired power plant that produces both electricity and steam with half the emissions and a third the water usage of an equivalent Chinese coal-fired plant. Said US Special Envoy on Climate Change Todd Stern, "This is exactly the kind of thing the US and China should do more together."

How trigeneration works
The Taiyanggong plant, China's first urban gas-fired trigeneration plant, generates 3.2 GWh of power per year and is estimated to cut 1.5 million metric tons of CO2 per year in electricity generation alone. It also means a cut in SO2, NOX, and particulates -- the other terrible stuff that comes out of China's untold numbers of coal-fired power plants.

In this system, natural gas is sent to the gas turbine for power generation. The flue gas is then sent to a heat recovery steam generator to generate steam with a high temperature and pressure. This steam drives the steam turbine to generate even more electrical power.

Meanwhile, the plant's waste steam also provides heating and cooling to Beijing's Taiyanggang neighborhood, an area of 40 square kilometers, making redundant 78 low efficiency boilers.

While a cogeneration plant offers combined heating-and-power (CHP) through the conversion of waste heat -- a technology John Laumer has called "deadly sexy" -- a trigeneration plant also generates chilled water using that heat. Thus it's sometimes referred to as a CHCP, or combined heating-cooling-and-power plant.

According to Xinhua, the plant is 13 percent more efficient than the most advanced coal-fired power plant in the world. Its dramatically more efficient than most Chinese or American coal-fired power plants, where 33% efficiency is the norm. That means 2/3rds of these plants' heat goes to waste.

Owned by Beijing Energy Investment Holding Co. and SP Power Development Co. Ltd., the plant has received credits under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism, the program that pays for clean energy projects in the developing world. Some have criticized the program for its overemphasis on Chinese projects, and its certification program, which sometimes counts dams and other questionable projects as CO2 reducers.

Where are our trigen plants?
The sound economics and ethics of cogeneration and trigeneration are clear, but they are growing only slowly. New York launched its first trigeneration plant last year, but as Forbes.com reports, regulatory hurdles and the complexities of building the plants have kept many stuck in the pipeline.

In the US, a renewed focus on energy efficiency under the Obama administration however could change that, using state-level incentives. The Department of Energy recently released a comprehensive assessment of CHP's potential, "Combined Heat and Power: Effective Energy Solutions for a Sustainable Future," (downloadable pdf file). Among its findings:

If the US adopted high-deployment policies to achieve 20 percent of generation capacity from CHP by 2030, it could save an estimated 5.3 quadrillion Btu (Quads) of fuel annually, the equivalent of nearly half the total energy currently consumed by US households.

Cumulatively through 2030, such policies could also generate $234 billion in new investments and create nearly 1 million new highly-skilled, technical jobs throughout the United States.

CO2 emissions could be reduced by more than 800 million metric tons (MMT) per year, the equivalent of taking more than half of the current passenger vehicles in the US off the road.

In this 20 percent scenario, over 60 percent of the projected increase in CO2 emissions between now and 2030 could be avoided.

Sharing Goals
Clinton's visit was a clear attempt to step away from the finger-pointing over climate and connect the dots between economic and environmental interests in both the US and China. The plant is based on generators and advanced super-critical gas turbines by General Electric, which also services the plant.

Partnerships between US and Chinese companies can be fraught with intellectual property (IP) issues. Consider how until recently, a number of Chinese cars looked suspiciously like US models. But Chinese officials continue to insist that technology transfer be a key part of climate agreements between the West and China. The West will likely remain hesitant until IP protection sees greater advances.

Increasingly though the Chinese are developing their own hi-tech solutions. When I spoke to Ferdinando "Nani" Becalli-Falco, President and CEO of GE International, at the start of last summer's Beijing Olympics, he explained why GE needs to be more "more Chinese than the Chinese": "[The country is] becoming a creative technologist. My mother used to have a German refrigerator, now she has a Chinese one, a Haier. So they've begun to build products that are competitive from a technology point of view and a price point of view."

In the clean energy sector, companies like Suntech are paving the way for home-grown and potentially huge solutions.

In the short term, as Chinese officials talk about shutting down coal plants and Western countries seek common ground with China on climate change, the best proof of the potential for clean energy in China are projects like Taiyanggong."

[Martian]

Tianjin to have desalinated seawater as domestic water


Tianjin Beijiang
Location: Tianjin
Operator: Tianjin SDIC Jinneng Electric Power Co Ltd
Configuration: 2 X 1,000 MW
Operation: 2009
Fuel: coal
Boiler supplier: ??
T/G supplier: ??
EPC: North China Power Engineering, Tianjin Electric Power Construction Co
Quick facts: This 2 X 1,000 MW power station plus seawater desal project was approved in May 2007. Unit-1 was commissioned on 12 Nov 2009 and Unit-2 on 30 Nov after 28mos of construction. These supercritical units have Feida precipitators and wet limstone FGD scrubbers from Kawasaki/Beijing Bootes. Two more sets are planned.
(Photograph courtesy of SDIC Huajing Power Holdings Co Ltd
Posted 14 Mar 2010)

In addition to power generation, the 3.82 billion U.S. dollar Tianjin Beijiang Power Plant is engaged in "seawater desalination, sea salt production and waste resource reuse."

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/chin.../c_13332348.htm

"Tianjin to have desalinated seawater as domestic water
English.news.cn 2010-06-03 22:03:45

TIANJIN, June 3 (Xinhua) -- North China's Tianjin Municipality will start providing desalinated seawater for home use and drinking this month to ease the city's water shortage, a company official said Thursday.

The first stage of the seawater desalination project, the nation's largest to date, had been completed, said Guo Qigang, general manager of Tianjin Beijiang Power Plant, which is in charge of the project.

It was processing 100,000 tonnes of water a day and the water quality was undergoing tests.

The second stage of the project was expected to be completed by December next year, taking the total desalination volume to 200,000 tonnes a day, or a quarter of the city's daily water consumption, Guo said on a seminar on seawater utilization.

Tianjin has one of the most acute water shortages in China. It has launched several projects to divert water from the Yellow and Luanhe rivers into the city for domestic use, but its per capita quota of water resources stands at just 370 cubic meters, much lower than the internationally-recognized warning level of 1,000 cubic meters per capita.

More than 400 of China's 600 cities are short of water.

Seawater desalination was an effective measure to ease the shortages, Sang Guowei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said at the seminar.

Tianjin Beijiang Power Plant, with total investment of 26 billion yuan (3.82 billion U.S. dollars), has undertaken the trial project of China's recycling economy, which consists of power generation, seawater desalination, sea salt production and waste resource reuse.

Editor: Mo Hong'e"

[Martian]

Sources of imported energy are interchangeable

I don't believe that it is important whether Canadian oil is being shipped to China or not. For every gallon of Canadian oil that is shipped to the United States, the U.S. will buy one less gallon from Saudi Arabia. Instead, that gallon from Saudi Arabia will be shipped to China.

On the other hand, let's assume that Canada eventually builds a pipeline to its West coast and ships oil to China. For every gallon that Canada ships to China, the U.S. will simply buy an extra gallon from Saudi Arabia and China will buy one less. The point is that it makes no difference whether Canada ships oil to China or not.

Furthermore, Canada is merely one player among many in the energy business. As a consumer, China has the option of choosing the source of energy that it prefers. For example, Australia exports 40 million tonnes of coal to China (see Ship Chartering: Australia plans to boost coal exports to China). China can always import more Australian coal and convert it into oil in one of China's coal-to-liquid (i.e. CTL) plants.

[Martian]

China's coal-to-liquid (i.e. CTL) plants

China's CTL plants that convert coal into oil are economical around $50 U.S. dollars per barrel of oil (see CTLtec Asia 2009 - About Event | About Conference).


A coal-to-liquid plant operated by Shenhua Group in Ordos, Inner Mongolia autonomous region. [China Daily]

China plant to begin coal-to-liquid production - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

"China plant to begin coal-to-liquid production
By Rick Stouffer, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

One of the world's largest coal producers will finish construction this year of the first coal-to-liquid plant built in 40 years -- but the $1.5 billion project isn't located in America -- it's in China.

The Shenhua Group will begin producing diesel fuel from coal later this year at the facility, located in Inner Mongolia, about 375 miles west of Beijing. The plant will convert coal into some 22,000 barrels of crude oil-like liquid per day, of which 70 percent will be pure diesel fuel.

Shenhua is years ahead of U.S. coal-to-liquid proponents, yet it still took the company 10 years to move from planning to production.

"China is not talking about coal-to-liquid -- it's doing," said Qingyun Sun, associate director of the U.S.-China Energy Center at West Virginia University.

Sun addressed 60 attendees to CTLtec Americas 2008, a two-day coal-to-liquid conference sponsored by Singapore-based Centre for Management Technology. The conference began Monday and continues today at Downtown's Omni William Penn Hotel.

"The Shenhua project is one of seven coal-to-liquid demonstration plants currently being developed in Western China, at a cost of some $12 billion," Sun said. Three facilities are Shenhua projects.

Sun listed the reasons why China is so heavily involved in coal-to-liquid, and those reasons, ironically, sound much like those offered by proponents in the United States.

The coal-to-liquid push is due to China's desire to be energy secure, to be able to use its most abundant fuel in an environmentally clean way, and due to logistical problems in trying to move coal around the country to where it's needed.

Peabody Coal Senior Vice President Fredrick D. Palmer said coal will be the basis for a new industrial revolution, likening it to the nation's first industrial revolution of the mid 19th century, in what's needed to satisfy future energy needs.

"Economic growth requires a new energy industry revolution, with trillions of dollars and millions of jobs invested in new coal power plants, coal-to-liquid and coal gasification, oil and natural gas, oil sands, nuclear plants, carbon sequestration, gas-to-liquid, oil shale and enhanced oil recovery processes," Palmer said."

[Martian]

China is Saudi Arabia's largest customer for oil

"Saudi Arabia exported more oil to China than to the United States last year." Saudi Arabia has spare capacity of 4 million barrels per day in production. By the way, one barrel of oil is 42 gallons.

"China?s oil demand is set to grow by 900,000 barrels a day in the next two years. Chinese oil consumption reached 8.5 million barrels a day last year, compared with 4.8 million in 2000. It will account for a third of the world?s total consumption growth this year."

"China is by far the fastest-growing oil market in the world."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/business...ml?pagewanted=1

"China?s Growth Shifts the Geopolitics of Oil
By JAD MOUAWAD
Published: March 19, 2010

Last summer, Saudi Arabia put the final bolt in its largest oil expansion project ever, opening a new field capable of pumping 1.2 million barrels a day ? more than the entire production of Texas. The field, called Khurais, was part of an ambitious $60 billion program to increase the kingdom?s production to meet growing energy needs.


(Photo: Richard Carson/Reuters)
Khalid al-Falih, chief of Saudi Aramco, says ?the writing is on the wall? that China is the growth market for oil.


(Photo: Aramco, via Agence France-Presse ? Getty Images)
The Khurais field is capable of pumping 1.2 million barrels a day and was part of a $60 billion program to increase production.

It turns out the timing could not have been worse for Saudi Arabia.

Only two years ago, consumers were clamoring for more supplies, OPEC producers were straining to increase their output, and prices were rising to record levels. But now, for the first time in more than a decade, the world has more oil than it needs.

As demand slumped because of the global recession, Saudi Arabia was forced to shut about a quarter of its production. After raising its capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day, Saudi Arabia is now pumping about 8.5 million barrels a day, its lowest level since the early 1990s.

?2009 was painful for us as it was for everybody else,? said Khalid A. al-Falih, the president and chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the kingdom?s state-owned oil giant, and a company veteran who was promoted to the top post at the beginning of last year. ?We experienced the same cash flow constraints that everybody did. But we adjusted quickly and, certainly, everything that was strategic to us was not touched.?

The recession also precipitated a milestone for Saudi Arabia and the global energy market. While China?s successful economic policies paved the way for a quick rebound there, the recession caused a deeper slowdown in the United States, slashing oil consumption by 10 percent from its 2005-7 peak. As a result, Saudi Arabia exported more oil to China than to the United States last year.

While exports to the United States might rebound this year, in the long run the decline in American demand and the growing importance of China represent a fundamental shift in the geopolitics of oil.

?We believe this is a long-term transition,? Mr. Falih said in a recent interview. ?Demographic and economic trends are making it clear ? the writing is on the wall. China is the growth market for petroleum.?

Saudi officials have said they favor prices of around $80 a barrel. Despite soft demand and high levels of inventories, oil futures in New York have averaged $75 a barrel over the last six months. On Friday, they closed at $80.68.

In the United States, some experts believe that energy-efficiency measures, as well as the government?s push for biofuels and its plans to limit carbon emissions, are putting the nation on a long-term path to lower oil consumption.

The American talk about energy independence rankles Saudi officials, who maintain that the goal is unrealistic and could end up damaging energy markets by undermining investment now, thus leading to higher prices in the long run.

Mr. Falih said he welcomed energy-efficiency measures but insisted that fossil fuels would dominate energy demand for decades.

?I was here in the 1980s after the 1970s price shocks, and I remember all the debates,? Mr. Falih said. ?But ultimately the policies were reasonable. And the United States continues to search for that reasonable ground.?

Saudi officials have recognized that structural changes are taking place in the United States. A few months ago, Aramco sold its storage facilities in the Caribbean, a signal that it was abandoning the East Coast market, according to analysts. (The Saudis stopped striving to be the top foreign supplier to the United States years ago. The kingdom now trails Canada, Mexico and Venezuela for exports to the United States.)

That is not to say the Saudis are cutting ties with the United States. Aramco is expanding its Motiva refinery, in Port Arthur, Tex., which it owns with Royal Dutch Shell, to increase its capacity to 600,000 barrels a day. That will make it the largest refinery in the United States, overtaking Exxon Mobil?s Baytown refinery.

Edward L. Morse, an energy expert who heads global commodity research at Credit Suisse in New York, said the transformation was a healthy development in relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States. It also means the end of the ?U.S. discount,? where Aramco sold oil to American refiners for about $1 a barrel less than to Asia.

?The Saudis don?t see the need to subsidize their oil exports to the United States anymore,? Mr. Morse said.

Last year, Saudi exports to the United States fell to 989,000 barrels a day, the lowest level in 22 years, from 1.5 million barrels a day the previous year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Meanwhile, Saudi sales to China surged above a million barrels a day last year, nearly doubling from the previous year. The kingdom now accounts for a quarter of Chinese oil imports.

Saudi Aramco recently inaugurated a huge refinery in the Fujian province, in the southeast coast of China, which is projected to receive 200,000 barrels a day of Saudi crude, and is looking at a second project in the northeast city of Qingdao.

It is also planning to build two refineries in Saudi Arabia, as joint ventures with Total and ConocoPhillips, that are primarily destined to ship products to Asia.

India is also courting Saudi attention. After a visit in March to Riyadh by India?s prime minister, Saudi Arabia outlined a goal to double its exports to India. The kingdom already accounts for 25 percent of the Indian market after its exports grew sevenfold from 2000 to 2008.

?Oil flows are shifting from West to East, and Saudi supplies that used to go to Europe and the United States are now headed for Asia,? said Jean-Jacques Mosconi, the senior vice president for strategy at Total of France.

Brad Bourland, a former State Department official who heads research at Jadwa Investment in Riyadh, said: ?Saudi Arabia used to be very much an American story, but those days are gone forever. That?s just a reflection of a globalized world and the rise of Asia. They now see their relationship with China as very strategic, and very long term.?

Some energy and security experts have pointed out that the Saudi government is keen on displacing Iranian oil sales to China to persuade Beijing authorities to back tougher sanctions against Iran?s nuclear program, a position that has the support of the United States.

?We know the Saudis and others have delivered the message to the Chinese that instability in the gulf is not in their interest,? Douglas C. Hengel, the deputy assistant secretary for energy, sanctions and commodities at the State Department, said last week during a conference in Houston.

But Jon B. Alterman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that the falling dependence of the United States on Saudi oil could turn into a problem for the Saudis, because the United States guarantees their security in the Persian Gulf.

?The Saudis are particularly concerned about the shape of the global market where all the growth comes from the east and all the security comes from the west,? Mr. Alterman said.

China?s oil demand is set to grow by 900,000 barrels a day in the next two years. Chinese oil consumption reached 8.5 million barrels a day last year, compared with 4.8 million in 2000. It will account for a third of the world?s total consumption growth this year.

While China is by far the fastest-growing oil market in the world, the United States is still the top consumer: despite the slump, Americans consumed 18.5 million barrels a day in 2009. That amounts to 22 barrels of oil a year for each American, compared with 2.4 barrels for each Chinese.

?To me, this is a long-term business,? said Mr. Falih during the interview.

'And that is how I look at the United States and China ? as markets for commodities that will be in demand for years.'?

[Martian]

Chinese focus on energy efficiency

A Yuhuan coal-fired plant is 45% efficient.

A Beijing trigeneration natural gas plant is 58% efficient.

Ethnic Chinese in America are striving to achieve the goal of 66% efficiency for solar cells via harnessing "hot electrons" in quantum dots. The current "theoretical maximum efficiency of [solar] cells is around 31 percent." "However, if one could remove the hot electrons before they cool, says study author Xiaoyang Zhu, a chemistry professor at University of Texas at Austin, "then you essentially shut down this heat-loss pathway, and you increase efficiency by more than a factor of two."

"Now researchers have shown that it's possible to harvest that energy before it escapes, meaning that engineers could one day develop next-generation solar cells with efficiencies of up to 66 percent. The research, funded by the Department of Energy, is described in the June 18 edition of the journal Science."

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/en...r-cells?src=rss

"How Quantum Dots Could Double Solar Cell Efficiency
Researchers have demonstrated a way to use quantum dots to significantly reduce the amount of energy that solar cells lose to heat, paving the way for future cells that are twice as efficient as today's technology. Here's how they did it.

By Mike Orcutt
June 18, 2010 4:24 PM


New research shows next-gen solar cells could more than double the efficiency of conventional silicon cells, shown here. (Photo from Flickr)

When it comes to turning sunlight into electricity, today's technology leaves lots of room for improvement. The most efficient solar cells on the market, which are made of silicon, convert less than 20 percent of the light that hits them into electricity, and the theoretical maximum efficiency of these cells is around 31 percent.

One reason for this low efficiency is that much of the incoming light contains energy that is too high for solar cells to capture, so it's lost as heat. Now researchers have shown that it's possible to harvest that energy before it escapes, meaning that engineers could one day develop next-generation solar cells with efficiencies of up to 66 percent. The research, funded by the Department of Energy, is described in the June 18 edition of the journal Science.

When light hits a solar cell, a fraction of its energy is absorbed, exciting electrons in the cell's material and knocking them free. An electric field then forces the free electrons to flow in a specific direction, producing electric current. The energy that is absorbed is determined by what scientists call the bandgap?a limited range of energies the cell's material can capture.

But sunlight is composed of particles, called photons, representing a very broad range of energies. The energy from photons too high to be absorbed takes the form of high-energy electrons?or, as scientists call them, "hot electrons"?and is lost as heat. However, if one could remove the hot electrons before they cool, says study author Xiaoyang Zhu, a chemistry professor at University of Texas at Austin, "then you essentially shut down this heat-loss pathway, and you increase efficiency by more than a factor of two."

To accomplish this, the group used nanoscale (less than 100 nanometers, or 10-9 meters) crystals of a compound called lead selenide. Like silicon, lead selenide is a semiconductor, meaning it absorbs light energy within a certain bandgap, or range of energies. But semiconducting nanocrystals, also known as quantum dots, exhibit very different properties than their larger counterparts. For one thing, they can hold on to a hot electron for a longer period of time, stretching out the amount of time it takes for the electron to cool. In fact, previous research has shown that quantum dots can increase the lifetime of hot electrons by as much as 1000 times.

Once a hot electron is confined within a quantum dot, then comes the hard part: removing it so its energy can be harvested. The electron likes to stay inside the quantum dot, Zhu says, "so we needed to find something that would attract it out." For this role, the researchers chose titanium oxide, a well-studied compound known for its ability to accept new electrons. Then came the really hard part: arranging the lead selenide quantum dots and titanium dioxide in such a way that their chemical interactions would induce electron transfer.

Not only was the transfer successful, it was also very fast. If verified, this result makes highly efficient quantum dot solar cells more realistic, according to Tianquan Lian, a chemistry professor at Emory University who was not part of this study, and whose research revolves around the use of nanomaterials for solar energy conversion. This is the first demonstration that, in principle, the vital electron transfer step is possible, he says.

The ultimate goal, Zhu says, is called a "hot-carrier solar cell," which could convert up to 66 percent of incoming light into electricity. But many scientific and engineering steps remain before such a cell can be commercially developed. One challenge is to figure out how to transfer the hot electrons to a conducting wire. "This is science that has really striking implications, but implication is not application yet," Zhu says, adding, 'I'll be extremely happy if, in my lifetime, I see [hot-carrier cells] on roofs.'"

[Xiongmao]

Wow! Thanks so much for all the links and articles Martian

Cheers,
X

[Bill]

wo... you are a real piece of work Martian, good job!

[Martian]

Thank you both for the kind words. China is a very dynamic country. You have to keep a close eye on it because there are new achievements every year. I try to be selective and pick the more impressive ones.

[Martian]

Ethnic Chinese wins prestigious "2010 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the U.S."

http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Det...1&Type=aECO

"Taiwanese professor receives U.S. presidential chemistry award
2010/07/06 13:39:55


James C. Liao

Los Angeles, July 5 (CNA) Taiwan-native James C. Liao, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) , has been awarded a prestigious chemistry prize in the U.S. for synthesizing fuels from carbon dioxide.

The development, which won the 2010 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has tremendous potential for cutting carbon emissions and saving fossil fuels, Liao said in an interview with the Central News Agency.

"The research is expected to enter mass production in five years at the soonest, " he said. "Once it enters mass production, it could replace 14 kinds of petroleum-based fuels and eliminate about 500 million tons of CO2 emissions."

Liao said scientists have only been able to indirectly convert CO2 into liquid fuels in the past, but his research has successfully developed a process that genetically modifies cyanobacterium to consume CO2 to produce the liquid fuel isobutanol.

Isobutanol is one of a number of higher alcohols considered to be superior to ethanol as fuels because of their higher energy density.

The technology is considered to have great promise, Liao said, because of the inexhaustible supply of CO2, unlike for oil or other alternative energy sources such as corn or rice straw.

"The problem now is how to effectively convert CO2 and find a more cost-efficient way to produce a variety of products," he said.

Liao graduated from National Taiwan University with a B.S. in chemical engineering in 1980, and got a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1987. He joined the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science in 1997.

The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, launched in 1995, promotes research on and the development of new technologies that help prevent pollution by reducing or eliminating hazardous waste in industrial production.

Liao, also affiliated with Easel Biotechnologies, LLC, which is commercializing the technology under exclusive licence from UCLA, is the first UCLA professor to receive the award in its 15-year history. (By Chiang Chin-yeh and Fanny Liu)"

This post has been edited by Martian: 19 July 2010 - 04:24 AM

[Martian]

China's Next Step: Smart Grid

Two of the major themes in this thread are advanced technology and energy efficiency. A smart grid satisfies both criteria.



Unlike a 300,000-ton oil supertanker, a smart grid is hard to see. Just like the nervous system for a human body, a smart grid enables a two-way communication between energy producers and consumers. By providing information about energy demand throughout the day, variable pricing for electricity, and harnessing important elements of the smart grid as energy production and storage devices, there is less stress (or wear and tear) placed on the electricity grid and improvements of 10% to 15% in energy efficiency can be achieved.

Think of it this way. The current electric grid is brainless. Consumers are charged one uniform price for electricity. This creates a problem for energy producers. There are spikes in energy demand as consumers turn on their dishwashers, clothes washers, or dryers during the evening hours. However, if you have a smart grid and the dishwasher's display panel tells you that electricity is a lot cheaper at 3 A.M. then you can program the dishwasher to wash the dishes at 3 A.M. The consumer saves money and the electric company does not have to activate expensive natural gas generators to handle the spikes in electricity demand. Everybody wins.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/06...nas-smart-grid/

"* June 30, 2010, 6:48 PM HKT
State Grid Guns for China?s Smart Grid

State Grid Co. of China has thrown down the gauntlet in a move that could pose a major challenge to foreign companies seeking a foothold in the multibillion-dollar upgrades of China?s electricity network.


Government-run State Grid is setting China?s smart-grid standards as it gets into the smart-grid business itself. (ZUMApress.com)

The state-owned company, which controls the transmission of electricity over 26 of China?s 31 provinces and regions and was ranked 15th on Fortune?s Global 500 list in 2009, on Tuesday announced a set of standards it wants adopted by the government over ?smart-grid? upgrades to China?s power transmission and distribution networks.

State Grid, interestingly, is setting the standards as it gets into the business of making smart-grid technologies. Wang Yimin, head of its smart-grid department, told the state-run China Daily bluntly that the company hopes to use its role to help keep its dominance in grid building and equipment supply.

State Grid was created in 2002 when the government reformed the electricity sector, separating power generation from transmission and creating a new electricity regulator in the bet that competition among power producers would increase efficiency and lower costs.

But State Grid has been criticized for using its quasi-monopoly status to muscle back in. Though one magazine ran into trouble for taking on State Grid, even the more typically docile China Daily acknowledged critics? worries.

?Some experts have expressed concern that the aggressive power supplier is trying to monopolize China?s smart grid market,? the paper said. ?A public and transparent standard will help break the industry monopoly by encouraging competition.?

State Grid?s moves are especially worrying for foreign companies such as General Electric Co., Siemens AG and others who see smart grid as a potentially huge and lucrative market. China is expected to spend $60 billion to $100 billion in the next decade on smart grid upgrades. Where Chinese suppliers of conventional power equipment can sell cheaply, foreign players think they have an edge on cutting-edge technology.

But if State Grid has its way, that edge could be dulled.

? Shai Oster"

[Martian]

Sick of coal, China boosts its nuclear goals by 50 percent


A Nuclear Power Plant in China - (Photo: Russianspy.org)

Sick of coal, China boosts its nuclear goals by 50 percent | VentureBeat

"Sick of coal, China boosts its nuclear goals by 50 percent
March 24, 2010 | Tom Slater

China is scaling up its nuclear power plans in a big way. Its goal is to build 70 gigawatts worth of nuclear capacity by 2020 ? 50 percent higher than its 2020 target was five years ago. It looks like uranium, still unpopular in the U.S. is finding big fans in Asia.

Achieving this goal will cost the country as much as $59 billion for 28 more reactors ? 20 of which are already in the process of being built. As of this year, China is home for one-third of the world?s nuclear power construction. And the industry looks pretty healthy. Nuclear is thriving in its relatively lax regulatory environment. In the U.S., projects can be bound up in red tape for years before inevitably being abandoned. In China, plants can be built in just four years, like clockwork.

But the country isn?t the largest nuclear generator in the world, it?s simply the fastest growing. In fact, nuclear only provides about 2 percent of the energy used in the country, compared to 19.7 percent in the U.S., and more than 75 percent in France.

China still consumes more coal than any nation on earth ? but it knows that has to change. That?s one of the reasons it?s pushing so hard to build reactors ? to limit reliance on dirty power while also expanding the energy supply to meet skyrocketing demand. After the United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen went bust, China said it would ramp up efforts to cut emissions. Nuclear could help it make good on its word.

The difficulties associated with wind and solar energy in China have also made nuclear look more appealing. Without a well-developed electrical grid, much less a Smart Grid with adequate storage, fully harnessing distributed sources of energy is somewhat of a fool?s errand. The country is still investing in solar and wind ? developing a market presence in the U.S. in both areas, as well (think SunTech) ? but not as much as in nuclear.

China?s latest nuclear strategy will be detailed in full later this year. As it stands, the country is building more than twice as much new power as its closest competitor, Russia. In addition to delivering the power generated to its own people, China hopes to export it to its neighbors, including India, South Korea, and Russia ? each of which are building more reactors than any other three countries outside of China. By selling nuclear energy abroad, Chinese companies will be competing directly with France?s Areva and General Electric.

Around the world, 370 gigawatts-worth of nuclear facilities are in operation. Another 200 gigawatts are currently under construction."

[Martian]

Huge solar-powered station starts operation


China's Suntech BIPV. Suntech Power Holdings Co. is the world's largest maker of polysilicon solar-power modules.

Huge solar station starts operation - China.org.cn

"Huge solar station starts operation
China Daily, July 19, 2010

The world's largest stand alone integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) project started transmitting power to the grid in Shanghai on Sunday in another move showcasing China's commitment to reduced carbon emissions.

The 6.68-megawatt solar system can produce 6.3 million kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity per year to meet the needs of 12,000 Shanghai households. It will cut coal consumption by 2,254 tons, while reducing carbon emissions by 6,600 tons.

The project has been installed on the awnings on both sides of the newly completed Hongqiao Station of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway. Its 20,000 solar panels cover a roof area of 61,000 sq m and have produced 300,000 kwh power since the 160 million-yuan project began operation two weeks ago.

"The project is another manifestation of China's commitment to reducing carbon emissions to fight climate change. It comes after the country set a voluntary target of cutting carbon intensity per unit of GDP by 40 to 45 percent by 2020," said Yu Hailong, general manager of the Beijing-based China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group (CECEP), the project's developer.

"As a pilot project, it will help stimulate the development of solar energy in China and promote the construction of more environmentally friendly railway stations," he said.

Chief engineer of the Ministry of Railway Zheng Jian said China will further encourage BIPV implementation at railway stations, which serve as an ideal vehicle to promote the technology.

A 2.2-MV BIPV system has also been installed at the Wuhan Station of the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-speed Railway. The system was connected to the national grid in May, CECEP deputy manager Chen Shuguang said.

"BIPV technology does not take up extra space, because it is integrated into buildings' design and construction. It is especially suitable for China's eastern areas, where there are limited land resources yet greater energy demand," Chen said.

The development of renewable energy has been topping the central government's agenda. It aims to have an installed capacity of 20 gigawatts of solar units and 100 gigawatts of wind power by 2020, official statistics show.

A number of world-class pilot projects have been completed this year in Shanghai, which is hosting the World Expo 2010.

They include the 4.6-MV solar energy generation system installed in the Expo Garden and China's first offshore wind farm, the 102-MV Donghai Bridge wind power project, which started transmitting electricity to the national grid in early July.

The government is also tendering for bids to develop 13 solar power projects with a combined capacity of 280 megawatts in the western regions, following last year's bidding for a 10-megawatt solar power plant in Gansu province's Dunhuang.

But Song Aizhen, of the solar energy branch of CECEP, said the government needs to come up with more detailed subsidy plans for renewable energies to encourage more active corporate investment.

"Take solar energy for instance - its cost is already three times that of thermal power, and BIPV technologies are even more expensive," she said.

'So government subsidies will be crucial to the technology's wider application.'"

[Sampanviking]

Quote

"Take solar energy for instance - its cost is already three times that of thermal power, and BIPV technologies are even more expensive," she said.

Which is the problem. Personally, I never been a big fan of the Solar Farm concept and have believed that the trick is to convince every householder or developer to place cells on their roofs. It is more cost effective (Capital cost only to householder and nominally free electricity) rather than billing expensive current via the meter. Put one on every home and you could close a large number of old and dirty power stations.