Biomass Resources and Current Status Of Biofuels In China

With the increase in population and development of industry, energy crisis and environment pollution caused by the fossil energy system have turned out to be two serious problems in the world. In China, the situations appear to be more severe according to the sharp rise in the importation of petroleum in the recent ten years(Fig.1). Biomass is a promising energy source which will be one of the imperative components contributing to the future energy system due to its renewability, cleanness and CO₂ neutral. Laws concerning renewable energy have been issued and some projects were funded in order to promote bioenergy development in China. In this paper, potential biomass resources in China are analyzed(Table 1), current status of biofuels including biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol, liquid alkane and butanol are summarized. Relevant laws and rules are also introduced. Furthermore, development tendencies of biomass energies are predicted.       

Fig.1 Petroleum importation in China from 1997 to 2009

Table 1. Potential analysis of biomass resources in China (unit:10⁸ tons of standard coal)

		2006	2010	2020	2030	2050
Biomass resources in existance		5.0	5.0	5.0	5.0	5.0
	In application	2.2	2.0	1.8	1.5	1.0
	Available	2.8	3.0	3.2	3.5	4.0
Growth in biomass resources		0.0	0.3	2.3	4.7	5.8
	Agricultural and forestry wastes		0.2	1.4	3.0	4.0
	Planting of energy crops		0.1	0.4	0.7	0.8
	Planting on marginal soils		0.0	0.5	1.0	1.0
Total		5.0	5.3	7.3	9.7	10.8