{"id":1671,"date":"2026-04-03T09:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/?p=1671"},"modified":"2026-04-03T09:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:25:07","slug":"worlds-first-tower-csp-project-for-ultra-heavy-oil-recovery-surpasses-5000-tonnes-of-steam-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/2026\/04\/03\/worlds-first-tower-csp-project-for-ultra-heavy-oil-recovery-surpasses-5000-tonnes-of-steam-production\/","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s First Tower CSP Project for Ultra-Heavy Oil Recovery Surpasses 5,000 Tonnes of Steam Production"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the Fengcheng oilfield operations area of Xinjiang Oilfield, the Zhong-37 tower-based water-steam concentrated solar power (CSP) project has recently entered full commercial operation. As the world\u2019s first tower CSP demonstration project for ultra-heavy oil recovery, the facility uses 23,000 heliostats to track the sun and precisely reflect solar radiation onto a central receiver, directly generating superheated steam at 305\u00b0C. This steam is injected to heat ultra-heavy oil, enabling its extraction. Since commencing operations in September 2025, the project has cumulatively produced over 5,000 tonnes of steam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fengcheng oilfield is China\u2019s largest contiguous shallow ultra-heavy oil production base. Its high-quality naphthenic crude can be refined into premium products for aerospace, transportation, and power sectors. However, ultra-heavy oil is extremely viscous\u2014comparable to molasses\u2014and requires heating to flow and be produced. Globally, the dominant recovery method relies on superheated steam generated by natural gas- or coal-fired boilers, which results in high energy consumption and significant carbon emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According to Ren Ning, a senior engineer at the New Energy Research Institute of the Petrochemical Research Institute under Xinjiang Oilfield, the project has pioneered a balanced energy supply model combining \u201cabove-ground solar steam generation with underground steam chamber energy storage.\u201d By utilizing subsurface steam chambers as natural thermal storage reservoirs, the system effectively addresses the intermittency of solar energy and achieves 100% utilization of zero-carbon steam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Estimates indicate that the project can produce 52,000 tonnes of steam annually, directly replacing approximately 3.9 million cubic meters of natural gas\u2014equivalent to the annual gas consumption of nearly 20,000 households. The project provides a replicable \u201cgreen model\u201d for ultra-heavy oil recovery both in China and internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 12 September 2025, the project\u2014constructed by Shandong Electric Power Construction Third Engineering Company (SEPCOIII)\u2014was successfully commissioned. It adopts independently developed small-sized heliostats with a mirror area of 2.17 square meters. These heliostats offer high optical efficiency, strong wind resistance, excellent terrain adaptability, ease of installation, portability, and low water consumption. These features significantly enhance the project\u2019s overall techno-economic performance while reinforcing its environmental and energy-saving benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project has also achieved four major technological breakthroughs, including the integration of CSP with Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD), a \u201cheliostat\u2013receiver\u2013control\u201d integrated system, an adaptive steam quality control system, and a modular skid-mounted engineering approach. These innovations deliver leading performance across six key metrics: steam supply parameters, solar concentration accuracy, calibration efficiency, system reliability, localization rate, and economic efficiency\u2014providing critical support for transforming oilfields from energy-intensive operations into low-carbon benchmarks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the Fengcheng oilfield operations area of Xinjiang Oilfield, the Zhong-37 tower-based water-steam concentrated solar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1673,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions\/1673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.esplaza.com.cn\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}