Construction of the coal-to-SNG facility in Yili, Xinjiang, August 7, 2011.

Yili, XINJIANG - The developer of a large coal-to-SNG project in Yili Kazakh autonomous prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, has promised to keep the atmosphere and water clean amid concerns that the project may damage the local environment.

Xinjiang Qinghua Coal Group, a branch of China’s privately-owned coal enterprise Inner Mongolia Qinghua Group, is building a “recycle economy industrial park” centered on a sprawling project to produce 5.5 billion cubic meters of gas from coal. The park in the resources-rich prefecture also includes hydrogenation of coal tar, synthetic ammonia and fly ash cement.

“We have energy projects in Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, and Ningxia too, but the environment in Yili is very good. We don’t want to become a polluter in Yili, and we don’t want to be condemned by history,” said Zhu Wenjian, Deputy General Manager of Xinjiang Qinghua Coal Group.

Zhu said to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide the company has improved its production technology in order to reuse the carbon dioxide and also build green belts around the park, which is about one kilometer from the local residential community.

“We can recover 70 to 80 percent of the carbon dioxide produced, ” he said.

The project is expected to go into production in 2013, and the gas will enter the West-to-East pipeline.