China

From BioenergyWiki

Bioenergy > Regions > Asia > China

China

Population:	1,313,973,713 (July 2006 est.)1
GDP (PPP):	$8.883 trillion (2005 est.)1
Petroleum – consumption – imports: – Gasoline to diesel ratio:	6.391 mil.bbl/day (2004)1 3.226 mil. bbl/day (2004)1 ???
Electricity – consumption – Main sources:	2.17 trillion kWh (2004)1 Coal 61.7%; oil 19.3%; renewables & waste 13.7%; gas 2.6%; hydro 1.9%; gas 2.6%2
Renewable energy targets:	10% of electric power capacity by 2010 (expected 60 GW)6; 16% of primary energy by 20205; 15% of transportation energy by 2020.4
Ethanol – production: – target: – feedstocks:	1.02 million tons2 50% E10 by 20103 corn (90%), wheat, cassava3
Biodiesel – production: – target – feedstocks:	100,000 - 200,000 tons (est.)4 none waste oil, jatropha4
1: World Factbook, 2: IEA, 3: Citation needed, 4:FAS USDA, 5: REN21 Global Status Report 2005, p. 22. 6:REN21 GSR 2006, p. 8

Information about biofuels and bioenergy in China.

• China is the world's third-largest producer of ethanol, after Brazil and the United States. (RFA)
• As of 2006, 20% of "gasoline" consumed is actually a 10% ethanol-gasoline blend. (People's Daily Online)
• Although only 0.71% of the country's grain yield (3.366 million tons of grain) in 2006 was used for production of ethanol, concern has been expressed over potential conflicts between demands for food and fuel, as crop prices rose in late 2006.[1]

Events

2010

• 17 March 2010, Washington DC, USA: U.S.-China Cooperation: The Co-benefits of Reducing Black Carbon. (Themes: biomass, black carbon, China, pollution)

• 20-21 May 2010, Shenyang: China Bioenergy Technology and Investment Summit. (Themes: policy, technologies, waste feedstocks)

2008

• 9-11 May 2008, Beijing, China: 2008 China Biomass (Straw) Comprehensive Utilization Seminar & Technique and Equipment Exhibition. (Themes: biomass, straw)
• 1-20 September 2008, Yingkou, China. 2008 International Training Workshop on Technology and Utilization of Biomass Gasification. (Themes: biomass, gasification)
• 23-24 September 2008, Beijing, China: BiomassWorld 2008. (Themes: biomass)
• 23-25 September 2008, Shanghai, China: IFAT China 2008 Global Environmental Solutions (The International Trade Fair for Water, Sewage, Refuse, Recycling and Natural Energy Sources)
• 19-21 October 2008, Beijing, China: 4th World Biofuels Symposium. (Themes: biofuels, ethanol, biodiesel)
• 20-21 November 2008, Hainan, China: Sorghum & Ethanol Summit. (Themes: sorghum, ethanol)

2006

• 10-12 October 2006, Beijing, China: Asia Biofuels Conference and Expo IV.
• 24-27 October 2006, Beijing, China: Great Wall Renewable Energy Forum. Includes a technical conference and trade show.
• 7-9 November 2006; Beijing, China: Hart's 5th Annual World Refining and Fuels Conference: Asia

News

• Aviation turns to China for biofuels capacity development, 13 September 2009 by Biofuels Digest: The "global aviation industry, which has set a target of 3 billion gallons of aviation biofuels by 2020, has begun an historic shift in focus to Chinese leadership in biofuels capacity development".
  • "In related news, Boeing confirmed that it has commenced talks with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and 'several Chinese universities' about a potential development of low-carbon aviation biofuels. CCTV is reporting that near-term opportunities for collaboration between Boeing and China’s alternative energy industry could focus on jatropha development in Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. According to Xinhua News Agency, China is projecting '13 million hectares of biofuel plantations by 2020,' primarily to meet increased internal energy needs."[2]

• (China) Biofuels: learning from Obama, 21 August 2009 by China Dialogue: A 2005 "report from the energy bureau at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planners, found that China could collect between 800 million and one billion tonnes of biomass from regular agricultural and forestry activities....By 2020, China would be able to reap an annual estimated harvest of two billion tonnes of biomass."
  • "China already has the foundation it needs to commercialise cellulosic ethanol production. [For instance,] China was previously a world leader in acid and enzyme hydrolysis."
  • "In accelerating the development of biofuel energy, China must coordinate on a national level and concentrate on two aspects....First, while commercialising mature technology as soon as possible, China should also strengthen basic research in key fields."
  • "Second, while supporting commercial demonstration projects, industry need to coordinate development of upstream production, such as large-scale sustainable feedstock, and downstream issues, such as transport and sales infrastructure and the optimisation of vehicles for use with E85 alcohol fuel mixture. Legislation, such as standards for environmentally friendly vehicles and low-carbon fuels, must be put in place. This will ensure the materials, the market and the regulations that are needed to meet our targets."[3]
• Sustainable palm oil gets boost in China, 14 July 2009 by WWF: "Major China-based producers and users of palm oil have announced they intend to provide more support for sustainable palm oil, an important boost for efforts to halt tropical deforestation."
  • "The public statement, made at the 2nd International Oil and Fats Summit in Beijing on July 9, committed the companies to 'support the promotion, procurement and use of sustainable palm oil in China,' as well as 'support the production of sustainable palm oil through any investments in producing countries.'"
  • "China is currently the world's largest importer of palm oil, accounting for one third of all global trade. Increasing demand for palm oil, which is used in everything from soap to chocolate bars, is causing considerable damage to fragile rainforest environments, threatening endangered species like tigers, and contributing to global climate change."[4]

• Small-scale biofuels production holds more promise, says USAID, 21 June 2009 by BusinessMirror: "Decentralized biofuel production, or small-scale factories built on degraded or underused lands, has the potential to provide energy to half a billion people living in poverty in rural Asia."
  • " The report, Biofuels in Asia: An Analysis of Sustainability Options…focused on China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. It analyzed key trends and concerns and highlighted sustainability options for biofuel production."
  • "Compared with large-scale biofuels production, small-scale biofuels production for local use may deliver greater social benefits, including improvement of rural livelihoods, support of local industries, and a lower tendency toward exploitation of workers and co-opting of land from indigenous peoples."

• (Aviation) Commercial use of biofuels may take time, 25 April 2009 by TradingMarkets.com: "Despite broad optimism in the aviation industry about the commercial use of biofuels, experts in Asia believe this won't happen very soon."
  • "On April 1, at the conclusion of an industry summit in Geneva, about 400 aviation and environment leaders set an industry timeline for aviation biofuels....By the end of the year, a set of environmental sustainability standards for aviation biofuels should be in place, they said in a summit declaration."
  • "In a separate interview, biofuels specialist Florello Galindo, director of Manila-based Asian Institute of Petroleum Studies Inc. (AIPSI), said China and Japan, being the region's main players in aviation manufacturing, would likely determine the fate of aviation biofuel use in Asia."[5]

• Chemical Breakthrough Turns Sawdust Into Biofuel, 23 July 2008 by ABC News: "A wider of range of plant material could be turned into biofuels thanks to a breakthrough that converts plant molecules called lignin into liquid hydrocarbons."
  • "Breaking down complex plant molecules such as cellulose and lignin is a tricky business."… Now scientists "at Peking University in Beijing, China ... have come up with a lignin breakdown reaction that more reliably produces the alkanes and alcohols needed for biofuels"

• China and Singapore to jointly engineer dedicated energy crops, Biopact, 11 December 2007, Two scientific institutions in Singapore and China have agreed to begin joint research into developing energy rich hybrid plants. Sweet sorghum is to be a main focus.

• US and China sign biofuels cooperation pact, Biopact, 11 December 2007, The two governments have signed a memorandum of understanding that they will share technology through scientific exchanges. It is hoped that this initiative will help meet both countries' lofty goals for biofuels, and assist farmers in the process.

• China fires up biomass plants - 4 December 2007 by Reuters, reports that eight new biomass plants with a combined capacity of 200 megawatts have been launched in China by National Bio Energy Co. (a subsidiary of State Grid Corp.), "in leading grain-producing provinces in hopes of cutting carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation." The facilities "are expected to burn 1.6 million tons of stalks a year." (Keywords: biomass, carbon)
• China Holdings to build second 50MW biomass co-generation plant in Anhui, 7 November from Biopact, the CAPS II pyrolysis system will provide 50MW of power as part of China's stated goal of reaching 30GW power from biomass by 2030.

• CASP agreement to benefit biofuel producers in Mekong, 11 April 2007 from Biofuelreview.com. Agriculture ministers from 6 countries, Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam have endorsed the Core Agricultural Support Program, which will work toward increasing trade and investment in agriculture in the Greater Mekong Subregion. A major focus will be helping farmers reap the benefits of new energy crops and related technologies.

• Chinese Biofuels Expansion Threatens Ecological Balance, March 27, 2007 from Renewable Energy Access. A recent agreement between China's top forestry authority and one of the nation's biggest energy giants to develop biofuels plantations in the southwest may come at great environmental loss to the region's forests and biological diversity.

• China plans to plant an area the size of England with biofuel trees 8 February 2007 from China Daily. China will plant 13 million hectares, an area the size of England, with Jatropha trees to produce oil amounting to nearly 6 million tons of biodiesel every year. The jatropha trees can also provide wood fuel for a power plant with an installed capacity of 12 million kilowatts, will account for 30% of the country's renewable energy by 2010.

• Ethanol fuels hopes of China's small farmers 29 January 2007 from The Standard. Beijing's push to create more ethanol from cassava and sugar cane may benefit farmers in Guanxi, but with China already a net-importer of tapioca and sugar it is not clear that there will be enough feedstocks to go around.

• Biodiesel Sweeps China in Controversy 23 January 2007 from Renewable Energy Access. China is looking at new biodiesel feedstocks including a new variety of rapeseed, Chinese Pistachio and jatropha. However, standards and regulations are lacking and concerns over food vs fuel are growing.

• Biofuels eat into China's food stocks - 21 December 2006 from Asia Times Online. China has clamped down on the use of corn and other edible grains for producing biofuels due to concerns that it will impact on food security.

• China Clean Energy outlines plan to expand biodiesel capacity using palm oil leavings as a feedstock - 18 December 2006 from Biofuel Review.

• China halts expansion of corn-based ethanol industry to arrest food food price rise - 20 December 2006 from newKerala.com.

Policy

International net loss and net gain in 'forest' by country for the period 1990-2005 (modified from the World Resources Institute)

• The Renewable Energy Law of the People's Republic of China - English translation of the law, which took effect 1 January 2006.

Targets

• Target of 10% renewable energy of the country's total energy consumption by 2010. (Citation needed)
• Alternative fuels: 6 million tons by 2010 and 15 million tons by 2020.[6]
• Target of 50% use of ethanol-blended gasoline by 2010. (Citation needed)
• China has an annual production capacity of 1.02 million tons of ethanol. (source:People's Daily Online)

Issues

Biofuel production

• "Corn accounted for 76 percent of the 1.02 million tons of ethanol produced" in 2005.[7]

Biogas

• Implementation of Biogas Digestion to Clean up China’s Livestock Industry and Provide Rural Energy (an Environmental Health Research Brief by the Woodrow Wilson Center) - reports on biogas projects in China, including how biogas digesters can help make use of livestock waste while providing energy in farming areas.
  • This report notes that while "biogas power systems currently only account for a little over 100 MW in China, and are used mainly for cooking, lighting, and heating by individual farm households, the development of eco-agricultural systems that incorporate large-scale biogas production and animal farming is becoming a greater priority of the government", as reflected in the adoption in 2003 of a National Rural Biogas Construction Plan.[8]

Organizations

Regional Organizations

• Core Agriculture Support Program - A program that includes southern China and the countries of the Mekong Subregion in South-East Asia, that provides support for biofuel feedstock and other agricultural programs.

Government Organizations

• english.gov.net is the main English language portal for the Chinese Government. Many agencies do not yet have English language pages.

China's circulars on bioenergy policy have been co-released by the following agencies:

• National Development and Reform Commission English overview of the NDRC, which is "a macro-economic regulatory department, with a mandate to develop national economic strategies". It deals with China's targets for biofuels.
  • NDRC (Chinese only)
• State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)
• Ministry of FinanceThe Ministry of Finance helps regulate subsidies and tax policy for bioenergy.
  • MOF (Chinese)
• Ministry of Agriculture (Chinese)
• State Forestry Administration (Chinese)
• State Administration of Taxation

Government websites (English)

• Cleaner Production in China with an overview of Chinese environmental law, policy and case studies relating to cleaner production and the circular economy.
• China Climate Change Info-Net Information on laws, events, organizations and news dealing with climate change and renewable energy in China.

Non-Government Organizations (NGOs)

Companies

• National Bio Energy Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of State Grid Corp.) - operator of biomass energy plants.

• China National Petroleum Corporation
  • CNPC, through its subsidiary Jilin Fuel Ethanol Ltd. Co, built China's first ethanol plant using corn as a feedstock and now runs several other ethanol projects. Press Release: China's First fuel ethanol line into production in Jilin 27 November, 2003.

• China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (Chinese only)
  • Plans to invest more than US$1 billion in ethanol projects to increase production capacity to 3 million tons.
  • Currently owns an ethanol plant in Heilongjiang Province and has a 20 percent stake in another plant in Jilin Province, both using corn as a feedstock
  • The company is constructing an ethanol plant, which will use cassava as a feedstock, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
  • Is awaiting Government permission to build two 300,000-ton-per-year ethanol plants in Hebei Province, using corn and sweet potatoes, and Liaoning Province, using only sweet potatoes.

(source: Climate Change China Info-Net (.gov site))

• BBCA (Mostly Chinese) Large scale ethanol and biomass producer, using corn and cassava. Also doing research into cellulosic ethanol.

Publications

See books, reports, scientific papers, position papers and websites for additional useful resources.

• Sustainable Production of Second-Generation Biofuels: Potential and Perspectives in Major Economies and Developing Countries (PDF) by the International Energy Agency, February 2010. "The paper focuses on opportunities and risks presented by second-generation biofuels technologies in eight case study countries: Brazil, Cameroon, China, India, Mexico, South Africa, Tanzania and Thailand."

• People's Republic of China Bio-Fuels: An Alternative Future for Agriculture 2006 prepared by Kevin Latner, Caleb O'Kray, Junyang Jiang; USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, 8 August 2006.
• Environmental and Social Impact Analysis: Stora Enso Plantation project in Guangxi, China UNDP, 5 February 2006. This analyzes the social and environmental impact of a large-scale forest plantation project. Although this project is intended to supply pulp, its impacts are the same as if it were supplying bioenergy.
• Liquid Biofuels for Transportation: Chinese Potential and Implications for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy in the 21st Century (PDF file) - GTZ, 2005.
• Health, Ecological, Energy And Economic Impacts Of Integrated Agricultural Bioenergy Systems In China And Institutional Strategies For Their Successful Diffusion (pdf) by John Byrne, Young-Doo Wang, William Ritter (supervisors); Center for Energy and Environment Policy, U. of Delaware, October 2004.

Navigation

What is bioenergy? | Benefits/Risks | Who is doing what? Events | Glossary | News | Organizations | Publications | Regions | Technologies/Feedstocks | Policy | Timeline | Voices Wiki "sandbox" - Practice editing | About this Wiki | How to edit