SHENHUA Group Corp, China's largest coal firm, and General Electric Co yesterday opened their coal gasification joint venture to offer "cleaner coal" technology solutions in China.

The 50-50 Shanghai-based venture comes under a framework they signed in November 2009 as part of Sino-US clean energy cooperation. Gasification is a technology that converts coal into synthetic gas that can then be used to produce chemicals or other products.

The venture will improve the performance of commercial scale gasification and integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) solutions. IGCC turns coal into a gas and removes impurities from the coal gas before it is combusted.

The partners didn't reveal investment details of the venture but Paul Browning, chief of GE Energy's thermal products division, said GE put all its gasification business in China in the venture.

GE's gasification unit is a US$100 million business, according to him.