A Case Study Comparison of Coal Fired CCUS Plants in the United States and China

A critical emerging technological process to help reduce anthropocentric carbon emissions is Carbon Capture Utilization and Sequestration (CCUS), whereby carbon dioxide emissions are captured from the flue gas expelled by coal-fired power plants. Nations, especially the United States and China, are working to develop and advance CCUS programs. Yet, existing research does not explain how external factors impact the development of CCUS programs in either country. In this paper, a comparative study of five plants (three in the United States and two in China) is used to evaluate how funding, regulation, and information sharing and collaborative networks affect the development of CCUS programs. I find that the development of CCUS in the United States is impacted by insufficient funding and regulation, and in China, CCUS development is constrained by inconsistent sources of funding, limited regulation, and minimal international collaborative networks. Overall, these results suggest that further collaboration between the United States and China could resolve issues that bar the successful development of CCUS