New | China in heated debate turning highly polluting coal into gas as fears of environmental disaster lurk

Scientists are caught in a heated debate on whether China’s efforts to turn coal into gas would become an environmental disaster for the whole planet.

China is building the world’s largest synthetic natural gas industry, with more than 40 plants under construction or planned. When completed, these facilities would generate nearly 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, more than the nation’s total natural gas consumption last year.

Converting coal to gas as fuel for power generation could significantly reduce the discharge of air pollutants, such as fine particulates into the environment. To the Chinese government, the technology is considered a major weapon in the battle against smog.

But a joint study by researchers from Duke University and Stanford University in the United States in 2013 alleged that these massive projects in China could emit four times more carbon dioxide than coal-fired power plants, while generating the same amount of energy, due to the lengthy chemical reactions required by the sophisticated conversion process.

The study prompted international concerns. If all the coal-to-natural-gas plants planned by the Chinese government were built, they would emit more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year, according to Greenpeace.

That was almost equivalent to half of the total CO2 emissions by India in 2013.