Chinese researchers have developed a new technology that generates electricity from coal without emitting carbon. The innovation is considered groundbreaking because it offers double the efficiency of thermal power generation and is environmentally friendly, although commercialization is expected to take about 20 years.

According to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Thursday, a research team led by Xie Heping, a professor at Shenzhen University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently published results on the development of a "Zero-Carbon Direct Coal Fuel Cell" (ZC-DCFC) in the international academic journal Energy Reviews. The technology pulverizes and refines coal before loading it into a battery, where it undergoes an electrochemical oxidation process through an internal oxide membrane that directly converts chemical energy into electricity. The carbon generated during power production is captured internally rather than released into the atmosphere, leaving behind carbonate, a high-value byproduct.

Conventional thermal power generation emits large amounts of carbon in the process of burning coal to produce steam and turn turbines, but the new technology eliminates this process entirely. In addition, because it skips the combustion and heat engine stages, its theoretical energy efficiency reaches around 80 percent. This is twice as high as conventional thermal power generation, which remains at about 40 percent due to the Carnot limit, the maximum efficiency threshold for heat engines.

China's coal reserves amount to approximately 143.1 billion tons, accounting for about 13 percent of the global total. That places the country fourth after the United States (23 percent), Russia (15 percent), and Australia (14 percent). Accordingly, China relies on coal-fired power generation for about 55 percent of its total electricity production. However, this conflicts with the country's 2060 carbon neutrality target. If the new technology is commercialized, it is expected to reduce carbon emissions while still utilizing inexpensive coal.

Still, the industry consensus is that actual commercialization will take time. Half of China's coal-fired power plants still have 20 to 30 years of service life remaining. Wei Zhijiang, chief engineer at Xuan Steel, a subsidiary of China's HBIS Group, predicted that "this technology will only become cost-competitive after 2045."