Gas pipeline to recycle waste heat

China's largest energy conservation company signed two bilateral cooperation agreements Tuesday with China National Petroleum Corporation and GE Oil & Gas to recycle waste heat created by the country's longest gas pipeline project, according to a statement co-released by the three companies.

It is an important move in improving the country's industrial efficiencies, though challenges remain, analysts told the Global Times Tuesday.

Under one of the agreements, the State-owned China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group (CECEP) will offer measures to generate electricity from waste heat created by the compressor stations of China National Petroleum Corporation, the country's largest oil and gas producer, which is constructing gas transmission pipelines from western to eastern China.

CECEP's other agreement is a Memorandum of Understanding with GE Oil & Gas, which will be in charge of providing technology, equipment and services for this waste heat recycling program.

Part of the electricity generated from the waste heat will be connected into the State Grid, China's largest electricity grid operator, according to Cao Yang, China regional manager of GE Oil & Gas, speaking to the Global Times at a press conference Tuesday.

"The projects should avoid any negative impact on the current gas pipeline, which is one of the challenges facing the program," Cao said.

The three companies will first launch the waste heat recycling project in Yanchi, a county in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Nanchang, the capital of East China's Jiangxi Province, Wang Xiaokang, chairman of CECEP, said at a press conference Tuesday

The project will be expanded to more regions if the two programs succeed, Wang said, without disclosing details about the total installed capacities of the programs.

Wang told the Global Times that his company is still negotiating with the State Grid about whether and how they will connect the electricity they generate.

Zhang Lizi, a professor at North China Electric Power University, told the Global Times Tuesday that normally, larger generating capacities make it more feasible to connect electricity into the grid, adding that current technological conditions mean power generation from waste heat is relatively small.

By 2010, the total installed capabilities of power generation from waste heat have reached 12 million kilowatts, Shanghai Securities News reported in June, citing a report released by the National Development of Reform Commission.

The central government set a target of 26 million kilowatts in its 12th Five Year Plan (2011-15), according to the newspaper.