Clean coal efforts gather momentum

China has set up a massive coal chemical project in Ordos, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, marking another step in the diversified and clean use of its abundant coal reserves.

The 59 billion yuan ($9.1 billion) plant, set up by Zhongtian Synergetic Energy Co Ltd, will be one of the largest coal-based chemical companies and enables it to compete with other petroleum and natural gas-based chemical firms.

By converting coal to methanol and the methanol to olefin, the company can produce 3.6 million metric tons of methanol and 1.37 million tons of plastic products such as polypropylene and polyethylene each year, which is the largest capacity among all coal-based chemical companies in China, according to the company.