Huacai Liu

Logistics management of biomass fuel supply in China

Due to finite supplies of fossil fuel and growing energy demands, biomass energy is now being globally promoted. China has abundant biomass resources, which can be used as energy in addition to livestock feed, soil conditioner and industrial material. With the development of the Chinese economy and improvements of living standards, straw is no longer the primary fuel for cooking and space heating in many rural communities in China. As such a large amount of straw is abandoned or incinerated in the fields, resulting in environmental pollution and a waste of resources [101]. Based on the current applications of biomass energy conversion technologies in China, biomass power generation and biomass fuel pellets can provide a good solution to the problems mentioned above, and a good counter measure against climate change. By the end of 2010, the overall installed capacity of biomass power in China had reached 5.5 GW and the annual consumption of biomass fuel pellets had reached approximately 3 million tons [1]. Moreover, China has set goals in state plans for mediumand long-term development of renewable energy to achieve 30 GW of biomass power capacity and 50 million tons of annual pellet consumption by 2020 [102]. At present, approximately 90% of biomass power plants in China are located north of the Changjiang River, in areas characterized by flat terrain, easy traffic access and dry climate. These areas are supposed to be suitable for straw collection and storage; however, feedstock supply has become a bottleneck, since biomass is characterized by relatively high costs of harvest, storage and transportation, and fuel quality may show discouraging variations from time to time. The household contract responsibility system employed in China has made biomass fuel supply worse, since agricultural production is mainly carried out based on households, resulting in small average planted areas and, thus, scattered straw resources. The collection of straw involves thousands of households; this basic fact, together with the features of low density and seasonality, makes the supply a major barrier to large-scale use of biomass fuel. The delivery system and management strategy adopted in developed countries, such as described by Petrolia [2] and Sokhansanj et al. [3], may not be feasible in China due to significant differences in the agricultural phase. However, a lot of work has been done to solve supply-related problems [4,5]. There are two main patterns of logistics management in China, which are referred to as centralized Logistics management of biomass fuel supply in China Commentary

Relevance between chemical structure and pyrolysis behavior of palm kernel shell lignin

Palm kernel shell (PKS) lignin obtained by enzymatic/mild acid hydrolysis (EMAL) was thoroughly elucidated by FTIR (fourier transform infrared), 13C-1H 2D-NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), quantitative 31P NMR combined with DFRC (derivatization followed by reductive cleavage), and Py-GC/MS (pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry) with and without TMAH (tetramethylammonium hydroxide). Pyrolysis behavior was then characterized by TG-FTIR-MS (thermo-gravimetric-FTIR-mass spectrometry) and Py-GC/MS. The PKS lignin is demonstrated to be a p-hydroxyphenyl-guaiacyl-syringyl (H-G-S) lignin with abundances of p-hydrobenzoates and low S/G ratio of 0.15. 2D-NMR indicated that the main substructures are β-O-4-ethers (~85%), and 31P NMR/DFRC quantified the total β-O-4 content of 2295μmol/g. Py-GC/MS with and without TMAH confirmed that phenol mainly originated from p-hydroxybenzoates units. Thermal-stability, evolution behavior of typical volatiles, and selectivity of phenolic compounds (H-, G-, S-, C-type) during PKS lignin pyrolysis were explored. Relationship between chemical structure and pyrolysis behavior are also obtained. This work will provide a deep insight to the effective utilization of PKS.

Comparative evaluation of biomass power generation systems in China using hybrid life cycle inventory analysis.

There has been a rapid growth in using agricultural residues as an energy source to generate electricity in China. Biomass power generation (BPG) systems may vary significantly in technology, scale, and feedstock and consequently in their performances. A comparative evaluation of five typical BPG systems has been conducted in this study through a hybrid life cycle inventory (LCI) approach. Results show that requirements of fossil energy savings, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, as well as emission reductions of SO2 and NOx, can be best met by the BPG systems. The cofiring systems were found to behave better than the biomass-only fired system and the biomass gasification systems in terms of energy savings and GHG emission reductions. Comparing with results of conventional process-base LCI, an important aspect to note is the significant contribution of infrastructure, equipment, and maintenance of the plant, which require the input of various types of materials, fuels, services, and the consequent GHG emissions. The results demonstrate characteristics and differences of BPG systems and help identify critical opportunities for biomass power development in China.