Storyline China launches first supercritical CO2 geothermal heating project In Zhengzhou of central China's Henan Province, the country's first geothermal heating project that uses supercritical CO2 technology has started official operations. The project extracts underground heat by circulating supercritical carbon dioxide through geothermal wells reaching depths of 2,500 meters. Unlike conventional geothermal projects that typically use water as the heat-transfer medium, the new system uses supercritical CO2. It has higher density and lower flow resistance, which improves heat extraction efficiency by around 20 percent while reducing heating energy consumption by roughly 10 percent. When fully operational, the facility is expected to provide winter heating for more than 18,000 square meters of residential housing. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]