Current Status and Outlook of CCUS Industry in China

Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) is a strategic choice to mitigate climate change and help China achieve the goals of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, thus achieving an ecological civilization and sustainable development. This paper first investigates the current situation of CCUS industry development from three levels: technology overview, national policies, and project progress. It identifies the development status of capture, transportation, and geological storage and utilization technologies, summarizes the relevant national legal policies since the 11th Five-Year Plan period, and analyzes the deployment of projects implemented in China at this stage. Secondly, on this basis, this paper analyzes the key issues that restrict the development of CCUS technology in the technical, economic and social aspects respectively. Among them, high energy consumption, high cost, and carbon leakage risk still restrict the large-scale implementation of CCUS technology. Finally, this paper proposes the future development direction of CCUS technology with respect to the key issues that restrict the technology. The integration and large-scale demonstration of CCUS whole-process systems form the general trend of CCUS development. Moreover, in the future, CCUS projects in China will gradually transition from a vertically integrated business model to a partnership or operator model. It is important to explore the development of CCUS tax incentives and subsidies in line with China's national conditions, to form a virtuous cycle of increased investment and financing and reduced costs, to improve and optimize the legal and regulatory system, and to develop a scientific and reasonable system of construction, operation, supervision and termination standards.