EU project to help China use biomass in coal plants
China's relentless economic growth - entirely based on coal as an energy source - is the biggest threat to the world's climate. The country is building a new coal-fired power plant each week and 544 new ones are being planned. If China keeps utilizing the climate destroying fossil fuel as it does today, the amount of carbon-dioxide released into the atmosphere over the coming years will negate all the efforts aimed at reducing greenhouse gases by all other countries combined. China may even surpass the world's biggest polluter, the US, by 2009.
The country must go green now, or else dangerous climate change reaches a tipping point from which there is no way back. Through a new project launched this month, the EU is trying to speed up China's switch to climate-neutral fuels, by rapidly introducing technologies and know-how needed to co-fire biomass in coal plants.
The €590,000 China-EU Bioenergy project is a two-year initiative that will evaluate commercial possibilities of co-firing biomass in China’s coal-fired power stations. Funded by the European Commission, the project aims to help cut the country’s dependence on fossil fuel and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Project Co-ordinator Andrew Minchener: "The potential impact of substituting coal with a CO2 neutral fuel is large. If half of the biomass wastes currently produced in China could be utilised in the existing power plants, it could displace over 200 million tonnes of coal." With over 70 per cent of all energy consumed in China coming from coal, the market is promising for EU companies keen to introduce their co-firing technology to new markets.
Burning coal and biomass together
Co-firing, widely used in the EU but not currently practiced in China, involves burning coal and biomass together – mainly agricultural wastes or wood chips and biomass pellets made from dedicated energy crops. In a world premiere, one energy company in Belgium even succeeded in converting an old coal plant into one entirely fuelled by biomass instead (earlier post).
The technology cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions and can help to reduce global warming because biomass is a carbon-neutral fuel, releasing the same amount of carbon when it is burned as it absorbs while growing. China's economy is dauntingly complex, and its distributed farms make the logistics of biomass collection and transport challenging:
bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: climate change :: greenhouse+gases :: coal ::biomass :: co-firing :: EU :: China ::
The China-EU Bioenergy project will gather data on the biomass sources and availability, undertake case studies of various plants to assess possibilities for co-firing in China’s coal power plants, and determine the commercial potential for the technique in China.
Aston University’s Bioenergy Research Group, a partner in the project, will use geographic modelling to evaluate the potential of using various biomass feedstocks in different regions of China. The team will also help to communicate the findings to the Chinese power industry and policy makers in the country.
Professor Tony Bridgwater, Head of the Bioenergy Research Group, said: "The fast-growing economy in China offers enormous possibilities for bioenergy to make a major contribution to improving the global environment."
China-EU Bioenergy will share the results with the European co-firing industry and help companies form technology partnerships with Chinese power stations.
The country must go green now, or else dangerous climate change reaches a tipping point from which there is no way back. Through a new project launched this month, the EU is trying to speed up China's switch to climate-neutral fuels, by rapidly introducing technologies and know-how needed to co-fire biomass in coal plants.
The €590,000 China-EU Bioenergy project is a two-year initiative that will evaluate commercial possibilities of co-firing biomass in China’s coal-fired power stations. Funded by the European Commission, the project aims to help cut the country’s dependence on fossil fuel and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Project Co-ordinator Andrew Minchener: "The potential impact of substituting coal with a CO2 neutral fuel is large. If half of the biomass wastes currently produced in China could be utilised in the existing power plants, it could displace over 200 million tonnes of coal." With over 70 per cent of all energy consumed in China coming from coal, the market is promising for EU companies keen to introduce their co-firing technology to new markets.
Burning coal and biomass together
Co-firing, widely used in the EU but not currently practiced in China, involves burning coal and biomass together – mainly agricultural wastes or wood chips and biomass pellets made from dedicated energy crops. In a world premiere, one energy company in Belgium even succeeded in converting an old coal plant into one entirely fuelled by biomass instead (earlier post).
The technology cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions and can help to reduce global warming because biomass is a carbon-neutral fuel, releasing the same amount of carbon when it is burned as it absorbs while growing. China's economy is dauntingly complex, and its distributed farms make the logistics of biomass collection and transport challenging:
bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: climate change :: greenhouse+gases :: coal ::biomass :: co-firing :: EU :: China ::
The China-EU Bioenergy project will gather data on the biomass sources and availability, undertake case studies of various plants to assess possibilities for co-firing in China’s coal power plants, and determine the commercial potential for the technique in China.
Aston University’s Bioenergy Research Group, a partner in the project, will use geographic modelling to evaluate the potential of using various biomass feedstocks in different regions of China. The team will also help to communicate the findings to the Chinese power industry and policy makers in the country.
Professor Tony Bridgwater, Head of the Bioenergy Research Group, said: "The fast-growing economy in China offers enormous possibilities for bioenergy to make a major contribution to improving the global environment."
China-EU Bioenergy will share the results with the European co-firing industry and help companies form technology partnerships with Chinese power stations.
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