China's first self-developed integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power station is scheduled to go online in Tianjin next year, joining an elite group of such efficient power plants in the world.

Construction on the 2.1 billion yuan facility began last July. When completed, it will be among the most efficient coal-fired power stations globally, with a more than 99 percent rate of desulfurization and much lower emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

"Compared with an ordinary 300,000 kWh coal-fired power plant, the model IGCC power station with 250,000 kWh capacity reduces coal consumption by 70,000 tons annually, and its carbon dioxide emissions will be just one-tenth of a standard plant," said Wu Ruosi, deputy general manager of China Huaneng Group, which initiated the project.

IGCC technology greatly increases generating efficiency with close to zero pollutant emissions, Wu said.

Seen as the world's most green coal-fired power generation technology, IGCC extracts the maximum energy from fuel by using both gas and steam.

There are currently only 10 IGCC power stations of the same scale globally. Most of them in Europe and the United States.

Wang Yanjun, deputy director of Huaneng Group, said that the green technology will not only be applied to new power plants but also can help nearly 60 domestic existing gas-fired power plants.

The Tianjin IGCC project is a major part of the Green Coal Power Program initiated by Huaneng Group in 2004.

Huaneng Group, in cooperation with other seven large State-owned enterprises involved in power generation, coal resources and investment, jointly founded a company to implement the program.

With leading-edge proprietary technologies, the program is aimed at popularizing clean coal solutions nationwide.

While collecting and treating carbon dioxide, the frontier technologies highlight coal gasification for generating hydrogen, hydrogen gas turbine combined cycle power generation and fuel cell power generation.

The key technologies of the program are listed in national plans for medium and long-term development of science and technology.

One of the key IGCC technologies, use of pulverized dry coal for gasification under pressure, was independently developed by Xi'an Thermal Power Research Institute, whose holding company is Huaneng Group.

In addition to use in domestic coal projects, the proprietary technology has already entered the international market.

The institute signed a coal gasification technology licensing agreement on a 150 mW IGCC project in Pennsylvania with US Future Fuels Co in July 2009, a first for China's self-developed IGCC technology.