Photographs: Aly Song/Reuters Chen Aizhu
China, the world's top energy user, wants to turn coal in remote areas into gas and then pipe it to cities, where residential and industrial use for the fuel is growing rapidly.
From coal miners to power producers, from private firms to state energy giants, companies are in a push to convert China's abundant and cheap coal into gas, using a mix of locally developed and imported technology similar to that used to produce synthetic fuel in apartheid-era South Africa.
Beijing has approved four pilot projects able to supply 15 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year by 2015.
Let's have a look at some plants that China hopes will help boost its energy supply.
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: A hundred-meter-long (328 feet) lantern, featuring a dragon and made of 10,000 used compact discs and auto parts, is lit up in Hami, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Photographs: China Daily/Reuters
Project: Qinghua Group
Location: Xinjiang
Capacity: 5.5 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2014
Project status: Approved
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: Contestants race camels during a winter Naadam event in Hulun Buir, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.Photographs: China Daily/Reuters
Project: Datang Group
Location: Inner Mongolia
Capacity: 4.0 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2012
Project status: Approved
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: A woman practices tai chi with a fan after a snowfall in Shenyang, Liaoning province.Photographs: Stringer/Reuters
Project: Datang Group
Location: Liaoning
Capacity: 4.0 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2013
Project status: Approved
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: Nomads participate in a horse race on the Kerqin Grassland in Inner Mongolia.Photographs: China Newsphoto/Reuters
Project: Huineng Coal Chemical
Location: Inner Mongolia
Capacity: 2.0 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2013
Project status: Approved
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: 'Hadas', pieces of silk used as a greeting gift among the Mongol minorities, are displayed at a park in Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia.Photographs: Bobby Yip/Reuters
Project: CNOOC
Location: Inner Mongolia
Capacity: 3x4.0 billion cubic metres
Date of start: N/A
Project status: Preliminary approval
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: Shepherds lead their flocks of sheep and cattle along on the Guozigou segment of the Lianyungang-Horgos expressway as vehicles drive past the other side of the expressway, in Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region.Photographs: China Daily/Reuters
Project: China Power Investment Company
Location: Xinjiang
Capacity: 6.0 billion cubic metres
Date of start: N/A
Project status: Preliminary approval
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: Two tourists look at a sand sculpture in a desert in Turpan in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Photographs: China Daily/Reuters
Project: Xinjiang Guanghui
Location: Xinjiang
Capacity: 0.5 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2012
Project status: Proposed
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: A shepherd rests in a pasture in Xilinhot in Inner Mongolia.Photographs: Bobby Yip/Reuters
Project: Shenhua Group
Location: Inner Mongolia
Capacity: 2.0 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2013
Project status: Proposed
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: Tourists wave as they travel around the Kumtag Desert by a sightseeing train at a scenic spot in Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Photographs: China Daily/Reuters
Project: Henan Coal Chem Engineering
Location: Xinjiang
Capacity: 4.0 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2014
Project status: Proposed
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: A local farmer leads a row of camels at a tourism resort of the Kumtag Desert in Shanshan county, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Photographs: China Daily/Reuters
Project: China Coal
Location: Xinjiang
Capacity: 4.0 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2014
Project status: Proposed
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: Tourists in donkey-drawn carriages visit the ancient city of Gaochang, Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Photographs: China Newsphoto/Reuters
Project: China Huadian Group
Location: Xinjiang
Capacity: 4.0 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2015
Project status: Proposed
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: Tourists take pictures outside the Xinjiang International Bazaar, a major trading complex, in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.Photographs: Andrew Wong/Reuters
Project: China Huaneng Group
Location: Xinjiang
Capacity: 6.0 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2015
Project status: Proposed
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: An ethnic Uighur man rides a horse in snow in Yili, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.Photographs: Stringer/Reuters
Project: WanXiang/GreatPoint
Location: Xinjiang
Capacity: 0.85 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2015
Project status: Proposed
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: A cotton picker works in a field in Hami, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.Photographs: China Daily/Reuters
Project: Guodian Pingmei Nileke
Location: Xinjiang
Capacity: 4.0 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2017
Project status: Proposed
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15 Chinese plants that will turn coal into gas
Image: Labourers work on building a highway to connect Kashgar and Aksu by the end of October 2013 in Aksu, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.Photographs: Stringer/Reuters
Project: Sinopec Group
Location: Xinjiang
Capacity: 8.0 billion cubic metres
Date of start: 2020
Project status: Proposed
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