EU project to bring biomass to China power plants

Birmingham, UK -- The European Commission has launched a two-year project to evaluate commercial possibilities of co-firing biomass in China’s coal-fired power stations. The €590,000, China EU Bioenergy (ChEuBio) initiative is intended to cut the country’s dependence on fossil fuel and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

China is the world’s largest coal producer and consumer, with over 70% of all energy consumed in the country coming from coal. Co-firing, which is not currently practiced in China, involves burning coal and biomass together – mainly straw, reed, rice husks, and wastes from crops and wood.

The potential impact of substituting coal with a CO2 neutral fuel is large, said Andrew Minchener, project co-ordinator. “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.”

The ChEuBio project team 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 co-firing in China. This will include assessing the logistics of biomass collection and transport, which is a major challenge in China.

Aston University’s Bioenergy Research Group, which is participating in the project, will use geographic modelling to evaluate the potential of using various biomass feedstocks in different regions of China, and will help to communicate the findings to the Chinese power industry and policy makers in the country.

“The fast growing economy in China offers enormous possibilities for bioenergy to make a major contribution to improving the global environment,” commented Professor Tony Bridgwater, head of the Bioenergy Research Group.

ChEuBio will share the results with the European co-firing industry and help companies form technology partnerships with Chinese power stations.