By special correspondent Li Ruixuan
From Caijing Online

China and the United States has signed a US$ 250 million worth agreement on a joint project of clean coal technology, as a latest step to enhance cooperation clean energy.

Under the agreement, US based Clean Coal Technologies Inc (CCTI) will partnered with China’s Sino-Mongolia International Railroad Systems Company (SMIRSC) to build a clean coal production facility in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, adopting advanced coal liquefaction technology provided by CCTI.

The first phase of the joint venture, which is set to start construction in early 2009, includes a plant with an annual capacity of 1.5 million tons of clean coal which will be supplied to power stations. Operation is expected to be launched in mid-2010.

According to CCTI, the capacity of the facilities will be further expanded to one billion tons with a total investment of about US$ 8 billion over the next ten years. It will be the world’s largest clean coal and coal liquefaction project.

“This contract is another example of how U.S.-China trade is working to promote mutual economic growth while utilizing innovative U.S. technologies to address environmental and industrial concerns associated with fossil fuels,” said William Zarit, U.S. Commerce Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary.

Environment and energy has become a new bright spot in the Sino-US economic and trade cooperation and is seen as the major achievement of the China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED). The fifth round of SED is set to be held in Beijing on December 4 and 5, with more topics focusing on environment and energy cooperation will be put on agenda.