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Greenhouse gas emissions from synthetic natural gas production

Nature Climate Change volume 6, pages 220–221 (2016)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 27 April 2016

This article has been updated

To the Editor

China is developing technology to process coal into synthetic natural gas (SNG). This process would both attain energy security and implement clean coal technology. Yang and Jackson's claim1 that the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with converting coal to SNG are seven times those associated with conventional natural gas has been widely cited and used in discussions regarding SNG production and the direction of clean coal technologies in China. Here we show that the 'seven times' result is incorrect.

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Figure 1: Scope (solid horizontal lines) and reference bases for life-cycle GHG emissions from Yang and Jackson's paper1.
Figure 2: Comparison, using revised data, of the life-cycle GHG emissions associated with the coal-to-SNG, coal-to-electricity, conventional natural gas and shale gas pathways.

Change history

  • 11 March 2016

    In the version of this Correspondence originally published, information was inadvertently omitted from the Acknowledgements section. This has now been corrected in all online versions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (grant no. 51306185), the 'Strategic Priority Research Program — Climate Change: Carbon Budget and Related Issues' of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. XDA05010102), and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association, CAS.

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  1. Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 2706, Beijing, 100190, China

    Sheng Li & Lin Gao

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  1. Sheng Li
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  2. Lin Gao
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Correspondence to Sheng Li.

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Li, S., Gao, L. Greenhouse gas emissions from synthetic natural gas production. Nature Clim Change 6, 220–221 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2887

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