In a reversal of recent views towards the production of energy and pollution problems, China's high demand for natural gas will not be alleviated by the expansion of coal-to-gas plants. Government officials warned prospective investors through the National Energy Administration website (nea.gov.cn) that such plants, which release high amounts of carbon dioxide in converting coal into gas for urban consumption, are "irrational" and do not provide a long-term solution to China's energy issues. 

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Greenpeace, which released a study concerning the practice yesterday, contends that the massive expansion of coal-to-gas refineries to 50 plants nationwide would severely increase the level of pollution, estimating that the increase in production would release an additional 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year into the atmosphere.

Moreover, the critique notes that the proposed sites for new plants are located in places characterized by water shortages, such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. Since water is an essential part of the coal-to-gas process, such plants risk increasing both water scarcity and water pollution in addition to exacerbating the greenhouse effect.  

Despite the environmental issues associated with the process, interest in investment has been building since the government released a plan last September to use such plants as a means of curbing pollution. As a measure of stemming the tide, the government plans to ban plants that would produce less than 2 billion cubic metres a year, coal-to-oil projects smaller than one million tonnes a year, and would ban any provinces or regions that rely on importing coal from starting factories.

Yet despite these concerns, interest in coal-to-gas technologies as a means to satisfy China's ever-increasing demand for energy remain popular as a means of reducing dependency on foreign sources of energy.