As an important renewable energy, biomass energy has abundant resources, diverse utilization methods, diversified energy products, and significant social and economic benefits.
China’s biomass energy resources mainly include crop straws, tree branches, energy crops (plants), industrial organic wastewater, urban domestic sewage and waste, etc. According to data released by the Energy Administration, China’s annual output of crop straw is about 600 million tons. Except for some of it is used as feedstock for animal husbandry and papermaking raw materials, about 300 million tons can be used as fuel, which is equivalent to 150 million tons of standard coal. The annual yield of forest tree branches and forest wastes is about 900 million tons, and about 300 million tons can be used as energy, which is equivalent to 200 million tons of standard coal. Energy crops (plants) such as sweet sorghum, jatropha, pistacia, and tung tree can be planted with an area of more than 20 million hectares, which can meet the raw material demand for bio-liquid fuel with an annual output of about 50 million tons. In theory, livestock and poultry breeding and industrial organic wastewater can produce about 80 billion cubic meters of biogas annually; the annual output of urban domestic garbage in the country is about 120 million tons. At present, the potential of China’s biomass resources to be converted into energy is about 500 million tons of standard coal. With the expansion of afforestation area and economic and social development in the future, the potential of biomass resources to be converted into energy can reach 1 billion tons of standard coal.
During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, China’s biomass energy industry began to develop rapidly, the scale of development and utilization continued to expand, and some areas have been initially industrialized, playing an active role in replacing petrochemical energy, promoting environmental protection, and driving farmers’ income. The “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period is an important stage for transforming energy development methods and accelerating energy structure adjustment. It is a critical period for completing the 2020 non-fossil energy development goals and promoting energy conservation and emission reduction. It is also an important development opportunity for the biomass energy industry. The “Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Biomass Energy Development” analyzes the development status of biomass energy at home and abroad, and elaborates the guiding ideology, basic principles, development goals, planning layout and construction of China’s biomass energy development during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period. The key point is to put forward relevant safeguard measures and implementation mechanisms, which are the basic basis for the development of China’s biomass energy industry during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period.
The development element of modern biomass energy is to efficiently and cleanly convert biomass into high-quality energy, including electricity, gas, liquid fuel and solid fuel.
- Biomass power generation
Biomass power generation mainly uses agricultural, forestry and industrial waste or municipal waste as raw materials to generate power through direct combustion or gasification to convert biomass energy into electrical energy.
In November 2011, Guangdong Yudean Group announced that the biomass power plant with the largest installed capacity in the world invested by the group was officially put into commercial operation. Guangdong Yudean’s Zhanjiang Biomass Power Generation Project consists of two 50,000-kilowatt units, of which Unit 1 was put into operation at the end of August 2011; Unit 2 has now passed the 72+24-hour full-load trial operation. During the trial operation, the unit The average load rate is 100.6%, and the various technical parameters are excellent. From 2007 to 2013, the global installed capacity of biomass power generation continued to rise, reaching 70.9 million kilowatts in 2012: In 2013, the growth of global biomass and waste-to-energy installed capacity slowed down, and the annual new installed capacity of 5.5 million kilowatts , The cumulative installed capacity scale reached 76.4 million kilowatts. From 2006 to 2013, China’s biomass and waste-to-energy installed capacity increased year by year, from 48,000 kilowatts in 2006 to 9.8 million kilowatts in 2012, with an average annual compound growth rate of 9.33%. In 2015, China’s installed capacity for biomass power generation Reaching 13 million kilowatts, China’s biomass power generation industry has entered the fast lane of development.
China’s biomass power generation mainly includes the gasification power generation of agricultural and forestry wastes such as bagasse, garbage, rice husk, and biogas power generation. Based on the introduction of foreign waste incineration power generation technology and equipment, through digestion and absorption, it is now basically capable of manufacturing waste incineration power generation equipment, and some landfill gas power generation demonstration projects have been built. Although China’s biomass power generation is relatively fast, in general, China still has a certain gap with the international advanced level in terms of biomass power generation’s raw material collection, purification treatment, and combustion equipment manufacturing.