CROPS FOR BIOFUEL to follow up CHINA DAILY June 16 2009. China's first bioenergy research center was inaugurated Sunday in Nanning, the capital city of southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, amid government's plans of new energy development to combat global energy crisis. The research center is set up based on the national guidance on energy and grain security, and will look to cassava, sugar cane, sweet sorghum as the main sources for new energy development.
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Bioenergy has good prospects in tackling energy crisis and protecting grain security and ecological environment since it has low emission and in contest with human beings for resources, said Huang Ribo, director of the research center.
China has abundant bioenergy resources, which is expected to total five billion tons. The tropical Guangxi has rich reserve of cassava, sugar cane, which takes up more than 65 percent of the nation's total, he said.
China's first cassava-for-alcohol fuel project, which has an annual capacity of 200,000 tons, was started in Beihai city of Guangxi in 2007.
The Guangxi Academy of Sciences will support the research center with research talents and facilities.
According to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences on June 10, bioenergy is expected to realize commercial production on a massive scale in China and replace 30 percent of the oil imports by 2050.
NO HUNGER FOR BIOENERGY
By Hao Zhou (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-04-24 17:10 Comments(0) PrintMailChina will strictly control bioenergy development at the cost of grain and oil crop shortage, declared Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai, on April 21 in a talk with the Danish Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Eva Kjer Hansen, in China on a visit.
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As crude oil prices have continuously broken new highs in reaching the current level of $110 per barrel, developing bioenergies is heating up around the world. Some 40.5 million tons of fuel ethanol and 5.4 million tons of bio-diesel were produced worldwide in 2006, increasing two and three fold respectively from the figures in 2001.
However, around 12 percent of corn in the world and 20 percent in the United States is used for producing fuel ethanol, and 20 percent of rap oil in the world and 65 percent in the European Union, as well as 30 percent of Southeast Asia’s palm oil is used for producing bio-diesel, and has contributed the current global grain and edible oil prices.
Both the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and International Monetary Fund have expressed their concerns that roaring demand for biofuels would pressure farm produce prices globally in the long-run.
In this case, China should mainly utilize agricultural wastes, such as wheat straws and corn stalks, animal feces, as well as rotten leaves, and non-grain farm produces, like cassava, sweet potato, sweet sorghum, sugar beet, and jerusalem artichoke, as its own approach to develop bioenergies, rather than at the expense of grains that already short in supply, said Sun.
China has about 100 million hectares of mountains, shoals, and saline or alkaline lands which are not suitable for growing grains but energy plants.
Sun said roughly 26 million Chinese families in rural areas had started making use of self-produced methane last year, and five million more are expected to join in this year.
According to the Renewable Energy Development Plan for the 11th Five-Year period released last month by the National Development and Reform Commission, by the year of 2010 renewable energies will account for 10 percent of the national energy consumption structure, and electricity generated by biological materials will reach an installed capacity of 5.5 million kW.
Meanwhile, some 2.2 million tons more of fuel ethanol produced by non-grain materials are set forth for the 11th Five-Year period, and annual bio-diesel consumption will reach 200 thousand tons by 2010.
GENERAL BIODIESEL BRINGS FOUR PROJECTS TO CHINA
By Li Huayu (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-01-09 11:47
The US new-energy firm General Biodiesel plans to launch four projects in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wenzhou of East China's Zhejiang Province, said company CEO Yale W. Wong in Beijing yesterday.
Currently on visit to China, Wong said that the planned initial investment for the four projects is about $500,000, and after a year the company will increase its total investment to $100 million.
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With an office in Beijing, the Seattle-based company specializes in producing high-quality biodiesel by processing vegetable oils - primarily palm, canola, soy, linseed, coconut, mustard and cotton - and by cleaning and recycling cooking oils.
As energy saving and environmental protection in China are increasingly pressing issues, the country has launched a slew of policies to encourage the development of new energies. For instance, the Chinese government has set the target of increasing biodiesel output to 200,000 tons by 2010 and two million tons by 2020.
Eyeing the huge potential, General Biodiesel is also seeking a joint-venture partnership in China. Wong said that the company has picked some potential partners, and is expected to ink a deal during this visit.
One of the potential partners is in the aviation sector, disclosed Wong, without revealing the company's name. He said his company is testing feasibility of using biodiesel products as jet engine lubricants or jet fuel.
Being a member of a clean-energy trade mission headed by US Assistant Secretary of Commerce David Bohigian and scheduled to visit China and then India, Wong said he would fly back to the United States after the China leg. "China is enough for us," he said.
Biodiesel is the natural equivalent to diesel. Diesel comes from petroleum, a nonrenewable resource, while biodiesel comes from organic, and all renewable, sources –such as soybean or rapeseed oils, animal fats, waste vegetable oils, or microalgae oils.
Wong said with the process from his company, biodiesel production will consume 99 percent of waste oils and no water at all. One of its by-products is glycerin, which can be made into fertilizers or distilled to 99 percent purity or higher and sold for cosmetic and pharmaceutical markets use.
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