3.5 billion tons, 2 billion tons! ＂Turning waste into treasure＂ and adding value： Diversified development of biomass energy utilization in China

CCTV News:Located in Fengning, Hebei Province, a cattle farm, garden-style pastures and fresh air make tourists linger. However, this cattle farm was not like this a year ago. It was repeatedly interviewed by the local environmental protection department just because of the disposal of cow dung, and it faced the risk of closure. Just when the cattle farm was at a loss, a biomass energy enterprise took the initiative to find the door.

It is understood that a Niu Yi produces 60 kilograms of excrement every day, and there are more than 1,000 cows here. If the cow dung produced every day is not disposed of in time, it can be said that it is a mountain. Just when the cattle farm was at a loss, a biomass energy enterprise took the initiative to find the door and sent a tanker to take away the cow dung for free every day, and the more the better.

Near-zero carbon biogas power plant uses cow dung to generate electricity.

Where did all that cow dung go? In a near-zero carbon biogas power plant a few kilometers away, cow dung was first put into a large pool for pretreatment, then sent to a large storage tank for anaerobic fermentation to generate biogas, and finally biogas was used to generate electricity.

Visiting China’s Near-zero Carbon Biogas Power Plant

Zhang Zhongliang, the person in charge of the enterprise, said that the biogas residue produced by the project combined with biological control technology can produce 14,000 tons of organic fertilizer per year, and the traditional biogas slurry is difficult to be treated. In the project, the first domestic dry-wet coupling anaerobic gasification process was adopted, and the near zero emission of biogas slurry was realized through this process.

At present, this project handles 47,500 tons of aquaculture wastes and 2,920 tons of crop straws annually, and can achieve an annual biogas output of 4.38 million cubic meters, an annual power generation of 9 million kWh, an annual organic fertilizer output of 14,000 tons and an annual carbon emission reduction of about 40,000 tons.

What comes in here every day is stinking cow dung and straw, but what comes out is clean electricity and green organic fertilizer, where agricultural and livestock wastes are really eaten dry and squeezed out. Through technological innovation, biomass energy is promoting China’s traditional industries to accelerate the realization of the "double carbon" goal.

The application of biomass energy makes "gutter oil" turn into biodiesel.

In addition, biomass energy can also be made into biofuels instead of fossil energy.

The kitchen waste collected from urban communities and catering enterprises is also known as "gutter oil". In this garbage disposal factory with the highest comprehensive utilization rate of garbage in China, raw materials for biofuel preparation can be produced through refining technology.

Feng Quanwu, the person in charge of the enterprise, said that this project can handle 400 tons of catering waste and 400 tons of kitchen waste every day. These wastes can extract about 3,200 tons of crude oil and 2,500 tons of biodiesel every year.

Zhu Liyang, president of China Circular Economy Association, said that compared with ordinary petrochemical fuels, these biomass fuels have more advantages in fuel performance, lubricity and renewability, and can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Compared with ordinary diesel, biodiesel can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 80%, and bio-jet fuel can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 70% at most compared with traditional petroleum-based jet fuel.

Biomass energy is one of the important directions of energy development in the future.

The data show that the annual output of biomass resources in China exceeds 3.5 billion tons, and the development potential is about 460 million tons of standard coal. The huge potential and sustainability of biomass energy make it one of the important directions of energy development in China in the future.

By 2030, the utilization of biomass energy will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 900 million tons for the whole society. By 2060, greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by more than 2 billion tons. Biomass energy will replace fossil energy in the fields of electricity, heating and transportation, and will become an important way for China to achieve the goal of "double carbon" and high-quality economic development.

Say goodbye to simple combustion. Biomass energy utilization is diversified

The data shows that in the first quarter of 2024, the newly installed capacity and power generation of biomass power generation in China increased by 7% and 6% year-on-year. As can be seen from the data, China’s biomass power generation capacity is further improved. Behind the growth, as an important part of biomass power generation, garbage incineration power generation is facing new challenges.

Incineration of domestic waste has always been one of the main ways of biomass power generation, which not only effectively alleviates the trouble of "garbage besieged city", but also adds value by "turning waste into treasure".

The data show that at present, the number of waste incineration power plants in China is close to 1,000, with a daily disposal capacity of 1.035 million tons. In the past 13 years, the number of waste incineration power plants in China has increased by nearly nine times, and the processing capacity has increased by 16 times. However, the hidden dangers buried by "explosive" growth have gradually been exposed in the past two years.

Experts said that under the guidance of achieving the goal of "double carbon", the state proposed to promote domestic waste incineration facilities to mix municipal sludge, biogas residue, concentrated solution and other wastes to realize the sharing of incineration capacity. In addition, by re-digging the aged garbage in the landfill to mix and burn it, it can not only effectively alleviate the current situation of scarce land resources, but also solve the problem of insufficient garbage disposal capacity in the incineration power plant, and also explore a new treatment mode of collaborative disposal of kitchen waste and industrial solid waste.

Zheng Zhaohui, president of the Biomass Energy Industry Branch of China Industry Development Promotion Association, said that the utilization of biomass energy is diversified, and besides power generation, advanced biofuels will become another important direction of biomass energy development. Under the background of global decarbonization, with the progress of decarbonization in various fields, advanced biofuels with high added value such as biogas, biodiesel, renewable methanol and sustainable aviation fuel are expected to play a greater role in these fields.