Chinese Coal-fired Power Plants Research Articles

Leaching behavior of trace elements from fly ashes of five Chinese coal power plants

The leaching behavior of trace elements in five fly ashes from five Chinese coal-fired power plants were obtained by conducting the new US EPA leaching test methods (LEAF) and the conventional EPA Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) test method. These were done under a range of pH values and liquid to solid ratios. Despite different elemental and mineralogical compositions of the ashes and different ranks of the respective feed coals, the majority of elements show similar liquid/solid partitioning (LSP) curve trends among the different ash samples in the pH-dependent leaching tests. This indicates that most elements are sensitive to changes in pH. Different LSP curves exist for Cr from pH-dependent tests, probably due to different valence states of this element in the unleached fly ashes. Although most elements show similar LSP curves for different fly ash samples from the liquid/solid (L/S) dependent tests, variation exists for LSP curves of some individual elements among different ash samples. Caution should be taken when generating general L/S dependent leaching characteristics for individual elements. The leachate concentrations of the highly soluble elements such as B and Se, as well as oxyanions under alkaline conditions, are dependent on their initial concentrations in the fly ashes. The conventional EPA method TCLP overestimates the leachability of most hazardous elements, such as Be, B, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Sb, and U, at least in the studied alkaline fly ashes. LEAF tests have the advantage of being a comprehensive evaluation of the leaching characteristics, with a range of pH and L/S allowing for the examination of leachability under various conditions at different disposal or beneficial use scenarios.

Refined assessment of size-fractioned particulate matter (PM2.5/PM10/PMtotal) emissions from coal-fired power plants in China

Chinese coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) are experiencing large-scale and rapid retrofitting of ultralow emission (ULE), causing significant changes in emission level of particulate matter (PM) from CFPPs. In this study, based on coal ash mass balance over the whole process, an integrated emission factors (EFs) database of three size-fractioned particulate matters (PM2.5, PM10, and PMtotal) for CFPPs is constructed, which covers almost all typical ULE technical routes installed in CFPPs. To verify the reliability of PM EFs established in this study, we compare those with related results based on field tests. Overall, the gaps in the EFs of PM2.5, PM10, and PMtotal obtained by the two methods are not outrageous within a reasonable range. By combined with the refined size-fractioned PM EFs and unit-based activity level database, a detailed high-resolution emission inventory of PM2.5, PM10, and PMtotal from Chinese CFPPs in 2017 is established, with the corresponding total emissions of 143, 207, and 267 kt, respectively. Our estimation of PMtotal emission is comparable to the official statistics announced by China Electricity Council (CEC), which further demonstrates the reliability of PM EFs constructed in this study. Moreover, potential reductions of PM from CFPPs at two stages before and after 2017 are assessed under three application scenarios of major ULE technical routes. We forecast the final annual emissions of PM2.5, PM10, and PMtotal until 2020 will be reduced further, which fall within the range of 86–111 kt, 120–157 kt, and 142–184 kt, respectively, if all CFPPs achieve ULE requirements under the three scenarios. We believe our integrated database of PM EFs of CFPPs has good universality, and the forecast results will be helpful for policy guidance of ULE technologies, emissions inventory compilation, and regional air quality simulation and management.

The shadow prices of CO2 and SO2 for Chinese Coal-fired Power Plants: A partial frontier approach

Shadow prices are widely employed in guiding environmental policies. This paper contributes to the literature by developing a novel partial frontier approach for estimating shadow prices. The proposed method is advanced in handling outliers, and provides a precise estimation of the marginal rate of substitution along the production frontier. To cope with the different disposability characteristics of undesirable emissions, SO2 is treated as an environmental input that is strongly disposable. Because most different undesirable outputs are jointly reduced, this study is the first to use directional derivatives instead of partial derivatives and proposes a new separation method that separates individual directional shadow price from the cost of joint reduction of multiple undesirable outputs. We apply the proposed method to a sample of 93 coal-fired power plants covering six years. The estimated average shadow prices of CO2 and SO2 are 69 $/tonne and 2525 $/tonne under the newly developed partial frontiers. When assuming some undesirable output to be strongly disposable, both shadow prices fall (20.32 $/tonne and 1018.23 $/tonne). The present paper suggests the estimated shadow prices will be much different across different levels of disposability. The cost of joint reduction is calculated as 91.05 $/unit given the current production level, which leads to a directional shadow price for the two undesirable outputs of 91.32 $/tonne and 1250.06 $/tonne. The estimated shadow prices for both undesirable outputs dispersed widely under the partial frontiers. Spatial distribution of estimated shadow prices shows that coastal provinces and municipalities have higher CO2 shadow prices but lower SO2 shadow prices, whereas the northeast provinces are the opposite. The CO2 shadow price is comparatively stable over the study period while the SO2 shadow price fluctuates. Policy implications are discussed.

China's global power: Estimating Chinese foreign direct investment in the electric power sector

We analyze the spatial and technological distribution of China's overseas electric power investments around the world, and the pollution intensity of Chinese coal fired power plants relative to those held by non-Chinese entities. We find that Chinese firms hold approximately $115 billion USD in electric power assets globally, with an average of 73% ownership stake in a total capacity of 81 GW. Chinese power investments span the globe but are largely found in developing countries, particularly in Asia and Latin America. The vast majority of Chinese investment goes to coal (24.5 GW), gas (20.5 GW) and hydropower (18.1 GW), while the share of wind (7.2 GW) and solar (3.1 GW) is relatively small but may be rising. The energy mix of Chinese overseas investment is similar to the existing world portfolio. Within the coal sector, between 2011 and 2017, the majority of Chinese greenfield investment in coal used supercritical technologies (58 percent) while only 34 percent of non-Chinese coal plants built during this period were supercritical.

Insight of particulate arsenic removal from coal-fired power plants

Arsenic is easily volatilized as vapors during coal combustion and predominantly transferred into particulate forms. The removal of particulate arsenic together with fine fly ash particles is essential to control arsenic emission during coal combustion. In this study, fly ashes and different size fraction samples (PM2.5, PM10, and PM20) were collected or prepared from four Chinese coal-fired power plants, with objectives of studying the arsenic distribution and speciation in fly ash, and understanding the retention relationship between the removal of ash particles and particulate arsenic. The results demonstrated that the concentration of arsenic of the first two ESP (electrostatic precipitator) hoppers was at similar level, then followed by a substantial increase in the rear hoppers. And the particle size distribution of fine fly ash particles from various ESP systems presented essentially similar trend. Furthermore, particulate arsenic was mainly present as arsenates probably through the interactions between arsenic vapors and accessory Ca/Fe/Al-minerals. Arsenic associated with calcium compounds tended to be enriched in coarse particles, while arsenic bound with Fe/Al-compounds was enriched in fine particles. Meanwhile, arsenic associated with calcium sulfate compounds was easier to be captured by ESP compared to calcium silicate-bound arsenic. The interactions between arsenic vapors and various accessory minerals not only affected the size distribution characteristics of particulate arsenic, but also had a great effect on its removal efficiency of ESP. Specifically, based on the ash resistivity calculation, arsenic-bearing fine particles with certain amount of Fe had suitable conductivity and favored the capture of particulate arsenic by ESP.

The effect of environmental policy on Chinese firm's green productivity and shadow price: A metafrontier input distance function approach

In this paper, a new parametric meta-frontier estimation method, which we call the metafrontier input distance function (MIDF), is proposed to construct a new green productivity index and the shadow price for Chinese coal-fired power plants. Taking the policy heterogeneity into account, 93 Chinese coal-fired power plants are divided into two groups based on whether they are located in China's key “environmental protection cities”, a Chinese environmental protection policy. Using this method, the productivity and the shadow price of the two groups are compared. We find that the average annual growth rate of green productivity of coal-fired power plants in key environmental protection cities is 5.11% from 2005 to 2010, while in the non-key environmental protection cities it is 9.43%, suggesting that environmental regulation will damage productivity growth. Interestingly, although coal-fired power plants in key environmental protection cities face more stringent environmental regulation, their green productivity index still shows an overall upward trend, which partially supports the Porter hypothesis. For the shadow price of sulfur dioxide (SO2), the group-based shadow price of coal-fired power plants in key environmental protection cities is 5419 US dollar per ton on average, while in non-key environmental protection cities it is 1628 US dollar per ton, which also indicates that power plants facing more stringent regulation bear greater abatement costs.

Characteristics and speciation of heavy metals in fly ash and FGD gypsum from Chinese coal-fired power plants

This research focused on the distribution and chemical speciation of Cr, Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, and As in fly ash and flue gas desulfurization gypsum (FGD gypsum) from a large-scale pulverized coal-fired (PC) power plants in Anhui Province of eastern China. The partitioning behavior of the heavy metals (HMs) revealed that trace metals were mainly retained in coal combustion ash (88.9–98.7%) and FGD gypsum (1.26–4.33%). Other fly ashes generated from different PC boilers and a circulated fluidized boiler (CFB) were collected to comparatively study the ash mineralogy and chemistry. The PC fly ashes were dominated by glassy materials including cenospheres, pleiospheres, ferrospheres, solid spheres, and Fe-bearing spinel, while irregular glassy particles and unburned carbon were observed in the CFB ashes. The results of SEM-EDS found that PC ash mainly consisted of <100-µm-diameter aluminosilicate spherical particles. In contrast, CFB ash was primarily comprised of fine irregular Al-Si-Ca-O agglomerates. FGD gypsums, occurring as large flaky crystals, were primarily composed of CaSO4·2H2O with minor quartz and calcite. According to the sequential chemical extraction procedure, the amount of HMs occurring as oxidizable associations of fluidized ash was higher than that of PC ash, which might be associated with the lower flame temperature in CFB boiler. The percentage of Cr (43.1–53.2%), Cu (79–87.8%), Zn (67.8–89.6%), and As (64.5–75.6%) as effective fraction was notably higher in FGD gypsums compared with fly ashes. The leaching tests revealed that all combustion residues were non-hazardous materials. The RACs (risk assessment codes) of Cr, Pb, Cd, and As in fly ashes indicated that they posed no risk or low risk to the ecosystem, while the HMs in all FGD gypsums showed a medium risk or high risk to the ecosystem. Therefore, the reuse of FGD gypsums should be carefully evaluated since the environmental stability of HMs in gypsums was weaker compared with fly ashes.

The changes in coal intensity of electricity generation in Chinese coal-fired power plants

In recent years, the coal intensity of electricity generation and its change rate over time has varied significantly across coal-fired power plants in China. This paper decomposes the coal intensity change into four components: technological catch-up, technological progress, change in capital-coal ratio, and change in labor-coal ratio. We find that technological catch-up is the most important factor in decreasing mean coal intensity in the plants between 2009 and 2012. It is also the main driver of heterogeneity in coal intensity changes across different groups of the plants.

The LCOE of Chinese coal-fired power plants with CCS technology: a comparison with natural gas power plants

In the process of energy transformation in China, the potential competitiveness of natural gas power plants and coal-fired power plants equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology should be considered. In this study, the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) method is used to compare the competitiveness of these two types of power plants. The results show that regardless of whether a carbon pricing mechanism is included, the LCOE is lower for coal-fired power plants with CCS than for natural gas power plants if the coal-fired power plants have the same level of emission reduction as the natural gas power plants or ensure deep emission reductions. When the coal price reaches 750 CNY/t, the coal-fired power plants with the CCS technology lose their competitive advantage when the carbon price is less than 158 CNY/t. In Shanxi province, the coal-fired power plants with CCS technology have a greater competitive advantage than the natural gas power plants.

Effects of Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization and Wet Electrostatic Precipitators on Emission Characteristics of Particulate Matter and Its Ionic Compositions from Four 300 MW Level Ultralow Coal-Fired Power Plants.

To achieve ultralow-emission (ULE) standards, wet electrostatic precipitators (WESP) installed downstream from wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) have been widely used in Chinese coal-fired power plants (CFPPs). We conducted a comprehensive field test study at four 300 MW level ULE CFPPs, to explore the impact of wet clean processing (WFGD and WESP) on emission characteristics of three size fractions of particulate matter (PM: PM2.5, PM10-2.5, and PM>10) and their ionic compositions. All these CFPPs are installed with limestone-based/magnesium-based WFGD and followed by WESP as the end control device. Our results indicate that particle size distribution, mass concentration of PM, and ionic compositions in flue gas change significantly after passing WFGD and WESP. PM mass concentrations through WFGD are significantly affected by the relative strength between desulfur slurry scouring and flue gas carrying effects. Concentrations of ions in PM increase greatly after passing WFGD; especially, SO42- in PM2.5, PM10-2.5, and PM>10 increase on average by about 1.4, 3.9, and 8.3 times, respectively. However, WESP before the stack can effectively reduce final PM emissions and their major ionic compositions. Furthermore, emission factors (kg/(t of coal)) of PM for different combinations of air pollution control devices are presented and discussed.

Big-Data-Mining-Based Improved K-Means Algorithm for Energy Use Analysis of Coal-Fired Power Plant Units: A Case Study.

The energy use analysis of coal-fired power plant units is of significance for energy conservation and consumption reduction. One of the most serious problems attributed to Chinese coal-fired power plants is coal waste. Several units in one plant may experience a practical rated output situation at the same time, which may increase the coal consumption of the power plant. Here, we propose a new hybrid methodology for plant-level load optimization to minimize coal consumption for coal-fired power plants. The proposed methodology includes two parts. One part determines the reference value of the controllable operating parameters of net coal consumption under typical load conditions, based on an improved K-means algorithm and the Hadoop platform. The other part utilizes a support vector machine to determine the sensitivity coefficients of various operating parameters for the net coal consumption under different load conditions. Additionally, the fuzzy rough set attribute reduction method was employed to obtain the minimalist properties reduction method parameters to reduce the complexity of the dataset. This work is based on continuously-measured information system data from a 600 MW coal-fired power plant in China. The results show that the proposed strategy achieves high energy conservation performance. Taking the 600 MW load optimization value as an example, the optimized power supply coal consumption is 307.95 g/(kW·h) compared to the actual operating value of 313.45 g/(kW·h). It is important for coal-fired power plants to reduce their coal consumption.

A Highly Resolved Mercury Emission Inventory of Chinese Coal-Fired Power Plants.

As the largest coal consumer in China, the coal-fired power plants have come under increasing public concern in regard to atmospheric mercury pollution. This study developed an up-to-date and high-resolution mercury emission inventory of Chinese coal-fired power plants using a unit-based method that combined data from individual power plants, provincial coal characteristics, and industry removal efficiencies. National mercury emissions in 2015 were estimated at 73 tons, including 54 tons of elemental mercury, 18 tons of gaseous oxidized mercury and 1 ton of particle-bound mercury. Pulverized coal boilers emitted 65 tons, mainly in the coastal provinces and coal-electricity bases. Circulating fluidized bed boilers emitted 8 tons, mainly in Inner Mongolia and Shanxi Province. The average mercury emission intensity over the Chinese mainland was 18.3 g/GWh, which was similar to the limit for low-rank coal-fired units in the United States. The overall uncertainty of national mercury emission was estimated to be -19% to 20%, with the mercury content in coal being the major contributor. In most provinces, monthly mercury emissions generally peaked in December and August. However, monthly partition coefficients of southwest China were obviously lower than other regions from June to October due to the high proportion of hydropower generation.

Eco-efficiency measurement of coal-fired power plants in China using super efficiency data envelopment analysis

The measurement of coal-fired power plant eco-efficiency and identification of influencing variables are of great importance for the government to develop relative policy decisions. In this article, an improved two-stage analysis model is employed to analyze eco-efficiency of 58 Chinese coal-fired power plants: firstly, principal component analysis is selected for pre-treatment of variables in order to reduce dimensionality and distinguish prioritized factors; secondly, the super efficiency data envelopment analysis is chosen to assess eco-efficiency with overall ranking; thirdly, Kruskal-Wallis rank sum tests are adopted to figure out macro-environmental factors; finally, considering interactions in the coal power industry chain, plus time effect, we apply the Tobit regression to determine direct external factors. According to the result, over 60% of the coal-fired power plants work in an acceptable productive condition, while some still face improper investment problems. Plants with large installed capacity tend to stably operate. Then, macro-environmental factors like policy preference and economic situation can greatly affect local plants’ performance, while resource distribution has few impacts because of the perfect transport condition. In addition, the increasing thermal coal price help improve eco-efficiency while the high power unit age and feed-in tariff do harm to production performance. Based on the analysis, this paper also proposes some effective suggestions for the government.

Geochemistry of uranium in Chinese coals and the emission inventory of coal-fired power plants in China

ABSTRACTUranium, which is of chemotoxic and radiotoxic, is connately present in coals. In view of its dual roles in resource recovery and environmental impact, the geochemistry of uranium in Chinese coals and its atmospheric emission by coal-fired plants in China are discussed in this article. The average uranium concentration of the majority of Chinese coals is 2.43 mg/kg, which is comparable to that of world coals. However, in coals from certain local regions of China, i.e. Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Chongqing Provinces, the uranium is significantly enriched; and even abnormally enriched to form coal-hosted uranium deposits, e.g. coals from the Yili and Tarim Basins of Xinjiang Province, Bangmai Basin of Yunnan Province, and Mabugang Basin of Guangdong Province. Uranium in Chinese coals is associated with organic matter, silicates, pores, pelitic components, phosphate minerals, and uranium minerals. The enrichment of uranium in Chinese coals is attributed to the weathering of source rocks, volcanic ashes, magmatic intrusion, marine water influence, groundwater, hydrothermal fluids, organic matter, palaeoclimate, and the geologic conditions of coal-accumulating basins. Uranium is prior to partition into fly ash. About 62.9 tons of uranium were released into atmosphere from Chinese coal-fired power plants in 2014. Some environmental and human health problems were historically related to uranium in coal worldwide.

PM2.5 Emission Reduction by Technical Improvement in a Typical Coal-Fired Power Plant in China

ABSTRACTTo investigate PM2.5 reduction by technical improvement in typical Chinese coal-fired power plants, two units built in different time with different particulate matter (PM) control technologies but with the same coal-fired boiler type were selected to characterize the concentrations of PM2.5 generated and emitted from coal-fired power plants. We found that significant benefit of PM2.5 emission reduction was achieved by technological improvement. Due to the increase in the installed capacity and the application of low NOx burner alone, PM2.5 emission factor without adopting other air pollution control devices decreased from 0.153 kg t–1 (the 100 MW unit) to 0.123 kg t–1 (the 300 MW unit). With the help of an improved electrostatic precipitator (ESP) of which removal efficiency increased from 76.4% to 97.5%, PM2.5 emission factor further decreased from 0.014 kg t–1 (the unit with a normal ESP) to 0.003 kg t–1 (the unit with a cold-side ESP and a wet flue gas desulphurization (WFGD)). However, the application of flue gas denitrification and desulfurization devices may alter PM2.5 compositions and their emissions. For instance, the installation of a WFGD was found to largely increase the emissions of water-soluble ions in PM2.5 (e.g., SO42–, Ca2+, and NH4+).

Assessment of heavy metal contamination in soil associated with Chinese coal-fired power plants: a case study in Xilingol, Inner Mongolia

ABSTRACTThe construction of coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) is an important issue in energy production and consumption, and regional sustainable development under Chinese 12th Five-Year Plan. Positively or negatively, the construction of CFPPs could affect ecological sustainability, sustainable development of cities and the surrounding areas, national energy security, and also the actions currently in place to curb air pollution. Specifically, CFFPs could create environmental hazards in the surrounding area, such as soil-related environmental problems as a serious consequence. The most significant soil-related environmental problems include the encroachment of farmland, soil erosion, and soil contamination by heavy metals. In this study, the CFPP in Xilingol, Inner Mongolia is used as an example. Ecological environmental data were collected, including details on heavy metal content in soil samples from the area. Based on these data, the potential ecological risk index was used to assess the level of soil pollution by heavy metals and ecological risks. For this CFPP in Xilingol, the heavy metal element has exhibited the highest level of soil contamination. The severity of ecological risk posed by different heavy metals was ranked in the following descending order: Hg>Cd>As>Ni>Pb>Cu>Cr>Zn.

Actual mercury speciation and mercury discharges from coal-fired power plants in Inner Mongolia, Northern China

Mercury species distribution in the flue gas from three typical coal-fired power plants have been investigated using a C-5000 sampler for Ontario Hydro Method (OHM) to evaluate specified Hg emission inventories in the largest coal-production province of China, Inner Mongolia. The feed coal, bottom ash, fly ash and gypsum have also been sampled in the field. Mercury emissions are in the dominant form of Hg0 (>85%). The Hg2+ (<15%) and the Hgp (<2%) emissions are minor fractions of Hgt in the flue gas. The wet limestone flue gas desulfurization device (WLFGD) showed much higher removal efficiency for Hg2+ (87–95%) than for the other two Hg species. The input Hg/output Hg varied from 92% to 115% for the tested 3 coal-fried utility boilers during sampling time. We obtained comprehensive Hg discharge factors, including direct atmospheric Hg emission factors and indirect discharge factors of Hg associated with bottom ash, fly ash and gypsum, to the environment, designating the fates of Hg in coal. We estimated the Hg discharges from coal-fired power plants in Inner Mongolia in 2008–2014 and expanded to China. The maximum of direct Hg emissions from coal-fired power plants of Inner Mongolia was 24Mg in 2012. The Chinese coal-fired power plants emitted directly 100Mg Hg to the atmosphere every year at the nationwide air control actions. The maximum discharges of Hg associated with fly ash and gypsum of Inner Mongolia was 81Mg and 11Mg in 2012, respectively. The national Hg discharges with fly ash and gypsum every year are respectively about 300Mg and 82Mg, majority of which may be reemitted to the atmosphere by the utilization industry. Therefore, mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants are not the largest single source of Hg to the atmosphere in normal operation of the current efficient denitrification, particles control and desulfurization devices. Instead, the utilization industry of fly ash and gypsum would be emitting more Hg to the atmosphere.

Characteristics of NOx emission from Chinese coal-fired power plants equipped with new technologies

Coal combustion in coal-fired power plants is one of the important anthropogenic NOx sources, especially in China. Many policies and methods aiming at reducing pollutants, such as increasing installed capacity and installing air pollution control devices (APCDs), especially selective catalytic reduction (SCR) units, could alter NOx emission characteristics (NOx concentration, NO2/NOx ratio, and NOx emission factor). This study reported the NOx characteristics of eight new coal-fired power-generating units with different boiler patterns, installed capacities, operating loads, and coal types. The results showed that larger units produced less NOx, and anthracite combustion generated more NOx than bitumite and lignite combustion. During formation, the NOx emission factors varied from 1.81 to 6.14 g/kg, much lower than those of older units at similar scales. This implies that NOx emissions of current and future units could be overestimated if they are based on outdated emission factors. In addition, APCDs, especially SCR, greatly decreased NOx emissions, but increased NO2/NOx ratios. Regardless, the NO2/NOx ratios were lower than 5%, in accordance with the guidelines and supporting the current method for calculating NOx emissions from coal-fired power plants that ignore NO2.

燃煤电厂烟气超低排放技术路线的工程应用

中国大气污染形势依旧严峻，燃煤电厂烟气排放政策愈加严格，市场需求更加迫切，针对这一现状，同时借鉴国外先进技术，为实现燃煤电厂烟气超低排放，可分别采用“以低低温电除尘技术为核心的烟气协同治理技术路线”或“湿式电除尘技术路线”，本文对该两条技术路线进行了简述，并从技术路线及设计要求、技术方案、投运效果等方面介绍了其典型案例，对两条路线的技术特点作了比较，提出了烟气超低排放技术存在的问题及建议。本文可为超低排放技术路线的选择及工程推广提供一定参考。 The atmospheric pollution situation in China is still serious. Flue gas emission policies are stricter and new technique is asked for market demand. In accordance with this present situation and to meet the requirement of flue gas ultra-low emission in Chinese coal-fired power plant, flue gas co-governance route with low-low temperature ESP technology as core task and WESP technical route could be used respectively. These two technical routes were described briefly. Typical cases from aspects of technical route, design requirement, technical proposal, operation effect and so on were introduced. Comparison of technical characteristics of two technical routes was conducted in this paper, and noteworthy problems and suggestions for flue gas ultra-low emission technical were pointed out. This paper could provide some reference for the selection of flue gas ultra-low emission technical routes and engineering promotion.

Meeting Minamata: Cost-effective compliance options for atmospheric mercury control in Chinese coal-fired power plants

A new international treaty, Minamata Convention, identifies mercury (Hg) as a global threat to human health and seeks to control its releases and emissions. Coal-fired power plants are a major source of mercury pollution worldwide and are expected to be the first key sector to be addressed in China under Minamata Convention. A best available technique (BAT) adoption model was developed in the form of a decision tree and cost-effectiveness for each technological option. Co-benefit control technologies and their enhancement with coal blending/switching and halogen injection (HI) can provide early measures to help China meet the Minamata Convention obligations. We project future energy and policy scenarios to simulate potential national mercury reduction goals for China and estimate costs of the control measures for each scenario. The “Minamata Medium” scenario, equivalent to the goal of the US Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule, requires the application of activated carbon injection (ACI) and HI on 30% and 20% of power plants, respectively. The corresponding total costs would be $2.5 billion, approximately one-fourth the costs in the US. An emission limit of 3µg/m3 in 2030 was identified as a feasible policy option for China to comply with Minamata Convention.