China: could natural gas be a pollution solution?

Title: Pollution Solution ....on the path to a better future for China
Duration: 6:15 minutes

[Visual]
Images of people in China with protective masks in smog

[Voice over]
In 30 years, China's economic and social development has skyrocketed. But lax air pollution regulations, and a heavy reliance on coal, shrouds cities like Beijing in smog. China desperately needs clean energy and it's finding it ..deep underground.

[Alan Tan, Operations Manager]
We can contribute so much to this country in terms of pollution reductions.

[Caption]
Pollution Solution

[Voice over}
China is home to almost 1.4 billion people. But only 1% of its city dwellers breathe clean air. China's leaders have declared 'war' on pollution. Environmental pollution has become a major problem.

[China leader]
We will declare war against pollution and fight it with the same determination we battled poverty.

[Voice over]
One weapon in this battle nestles 3 kilometres underground, in the Changbei gas field. 96 billion cubic meters of natural gas, enough to power 76 million homes for 10 years. It's the cleanest fossil fuel, releasing a fraction of of the polluting particles of coal. But getting at it can be tough.

[Visual]
Changbei gas field

[Caption]
Alan Tan, Operations Manager

[Alan Tan, Operations Manager]
The key challenges of extracting natural gas is a very deep reservoir and is a very thin layer of sandstone. And we need a special technology to extract the gas.

[Visual]
Animation of drill going underground

[Voice over]
After drilling 3000 metres vertically, the drill turns to hit the gas-laden sandstone.

[Visual]
William Zhao at the Changbei gas field and then showing drilling at the field

[Caption]
William Zhao, Wells supervisor

[William Zhao, Wells supervisor]
If we drill just the vertical well, the volume of gas that we can extract from the formation is very limited, but if we drill horizontally, we can maximise our exposure to the reservoir which can give us the maximum production.

[Visual]
Animation of gas pores underground, drill going through rock]

[Voice over]
The gas is trapped inside minute pores in this 200 million year old sandstone. The drill smashes through the rock to release the gas.

[Visual]
William Zhao at the Changbei gas field, drilling and the drill bit.

[William Zhao, Wells supervisor]
The challenge is in keeping the drill on track. The thickness of the rock is from ten metres down to one metre.  This is the most difficult part for our drilling. We have some sensors in the bottom hole assembly that can exactly know where we are and we can steer the bit, exactly follow the trajectory of where we want it to be and to find the natural gas.

[Voice over]
But getting it out of the ground is the first of many hurdles.

[Caption]
Central Processing Facility

[Visual]
The Central Processing Facility and people writing on a whiteboard and people working on computers in the facility.

[Voice over]
At Changbei's Central Processing Facility, the raw gas undergoes a thorough cleansing. In its raw state it's a soup of liquids, different gases and impurities. The team's mission is to purify it.

[Caption and visual]
Liew Kok-Boon, Operations Installation Manager, at the central processing facility

[Liew Kok-Boon, Operations Installation Manager]
We have to ensure the gas that goes to the customer is very clean. We don't want to have any water, sand or mud inside there. When it comes to these two pipes, it goes into our first stage container, and inside the container it allows the gas to separate from the liquid and the other impurities.

[Visual]
Animation showing the gas hitting a metal plate, passing through metal filters and sand falling to the bottom.

[Voice over]
Travelling at up to 72 kilometres an hour, the high speed soup jets in, and abruptly hits a metal plate. The light gases pass through a series of metal filters while the heavy liquids and sand fall to the bottom. Any rogue droplets collide with mesh and fall away. The gas is now dry, but there's more to do...

[Visual]
Liew Kok-Boon, Operations Installation Manager

[Liew Kok-Boon, Operations Installation Manager]
Gas from the first stage is still not very pure. It contains many other gases. So, when it come to the second stage we still have to purify it, actually by cooling it.

[Visual]
Employee riding on bike at the field, moves to two industrial refrigerators.

[Voice over]
The different gases are separated in two highly efficient industrial refrigerators. At -14 degrees Celsius all the gases turn to wet vapour, except the one they need.

[Visual]
Animation of the gas journey through the second stage to purify it.

[Voice over]
Next, the gas and wet vapour are blasted through an assault course of filters. The wet vapour drips down, while the gas is twisted into a myriad of high speed cyclones. The forces fling more vapour out of the gas. A final mesh intercepts any remaining droplets and what comes out is dry natural gas. The gas's journey through the whole plant may have taken just 10 seconds!

[Visual]
Liew Kok-Boon, Operations Installation Manager

[Liew Kok-Boon, Operations Installation Manager]
After the second stage of the treatment the gas is clean enough. After that, my job is actually finished and I'm a happy man then.

[Visual]
Changbei gas plant and people working at the plant.

[Voice over]
A whopping 12 million cubic metres of clean natural gas leaves the facility every day. But as more wells are drilled into the Changbei reserve, that output is expected to increase.

[Visual]
Alan Tan at the Changbei gas plant

[Alan Tan, Operations Manager]
This is Shell and PetroChina starting working together as a team to make this facility a great success for China.

[Visual]
China city scenes

[Voice over]
Currently only 2% of electricity is generated using clean natural gas, but there's a push to double this within the next 5 years. More projects like Changbei would in time reduce China's dependence on coal, and help them win the war against air pollution.