Shenhua Coal-to-Liquid Plant in Inner Mongolia

The extensive facilities of the Shenhua Coal-to-Liquid Demonstration Project site.
Operational since 2008, the facility had an initial investment of 15 billion RMB with an annual output of 1 million tons of oil, which is planned to grow to 5 million tons.
The coal-to-liquid technology (a process for producing liquid fuel from coal) is highly water-intensive and highly polluting.

Unique identifier: GP04OWL

Type: Image

Shoot date: 26/04/2013

Locations: Asia, China, Inner Mongolia, Ordos

Credit line: © Qiu Bo / Greenpeace

Ranking: ★★★★ (E)

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Shenhua Coal-to-Liquid Impacts in Inner Mongolia

A collection of images showing a devastated land and the effects of water shortage on people in the Ordos grasslands in Inner Mongolia. For ten years, the Chinese state-run organisation Shenhua Group, the world's biggest coal producer by volume, has sucked this land dry, exploiting water resources at a shocking scale from these beautiful grasslands to use in its coal-to-liquid project (also known as coal liquefaction, a process for producing liquid fuels from coal) and illegally dumping toxic industrial waste water. Shenhua's operations have sparked social unrest and caused severe ecological damage including desertification, impacting farmers and herders who are facing reduced water supplies in what was once an abundant farming area.

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Shenhua Coal-to-Liquid Impacts in Inner Mongolia (Photo + Video)

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