A new study in Nature Sustainability models how retrofitting 567.4 GW of China's coal-fired power plants with carbon capture and storage combined with enhanced water recovery (CCS-EWR) could store 1.6 billion tonnes of CO2 by 2030. The process extracts water from deep saline aquifers during CO2 injection, producing an estimated 1.7 billion tonnes of water in 2030, rising to 3.3 billion tonnes by 2060. That is equivalent to 79% and 154% of China's current industrial water shortage, respectively. The researchers built a high-resolution source-sink matching model and found that cumulative water extraction from 2025 to 2060 could reach 94.6 billion tonnes. After accounting for the extra water CCS requires, net blue water extraction is 54.6 billion tonnes. In 2030 alone, 0.48 billion tonnes of blue water could be extracted in water-scarce regions by sequestering CO2 from water-abundant regions. Maximum annual profits from the combined approach are estimated at US$370.8 million. The study provides a transferable framework for assessing energy-carbon-water tradeoffs in regions where coal power, water stress, and geological storage potential overlap. It suggests CCS-EWR can address two linked resource problems simultaneously, though deployment depends on pipeline infrastructure, storage site characterization, and desalination costs for the extracted brine.
