I. The Necessity and Urgency of Coal to Biomass Conversion

1. “Coal to Electricity and Gas Conversion” Faces Development Dilemma

CoalCurrently is the main heating energy source in northern China. In the context of smog governance, “coal to electricity” and “coal to gas” as core measures for clean heating have been vigorously promoted. However, two to three years later, some areas face the dilemma of “cannot afford to convert, cannot afford to use, cannot afford to subsidize”. Natural Gas resources mainly rely on imports, and coal to gas creates huge pressure on national energy security. In recent years, “coal-free zones” have seen a resurgence of coal burning, triggering some social contradictions and carbon monoxide poisoning deaths and injuries, causing adverse effects. In rural areas, locally sourced Biomass heating Should receive the highest priority development, to replace some scattered coal burning in rural areas.

2. Nordic Countries' Biomass Heating Achieves Rapid Development

When the oil crisis broke out in the 1970s, EU countries successively began to look for alternative oil solutions, and the Biomass Energy industry was able to develop rapidly. By 2017, there were already 14 EU countries where Biomass heating accounted for more than 10% of the final energy consumption share. Latvia had the highest proportion at 33.21%. Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark, and Lithuania all had proportions exceeding 20%. Croatia, Austria, Romania and other countries reached about 15%. While in China, this proportion is less than 1%.

Nordic countries such as Norway, Finland, and Denmark have successively achieved Biomass-based energy structures in the heating field. In 2016, Biomass and waste fuel accounted for about two-thirds of regional heating in Sweden. In Denmark, known worldwide for wind energy development, Biomass energy is three times that of wind energy in its Renewable Energy structure. In the heating field, Biomass energy ranks First at 35.5%, and Natural Gas accounts for 18.4%. In Finland's heating energy consumption, Biomass accounts for 38.3%. In Germany, the total Renewable Energy heating in 2017 was 162 billion kilowatt-hours, Among them 86.7%, i.e., 141 billion kilowatt-hours, comes from Biomass. Moreover, most of Germany's Biomass is used for heating, and the Biomass used for power generation accounts for less than 32% of the Biomass used for heating.

The development of the Nordic Biomass heating industry has also driven the development of Biomass heating in Western Europe, Southern Europe, and Eastern Europe. Italy, France, and other countries have successively become countries with rapid development of the Biomass heating industry.

In the global trend of transforming from fossil energy to clean energy, our country has already fallen behind on the starting line of Biomass Energy. Considering global Biomass development and domestic energy demand growth, consumption structure, external dependence, greenhouse gas emissions, and rural economic development factors, China Should pay more attention to developing Biomass Energy than any other country.

3. Feasibility of Biomass Energy Development

Our country has rich Biomass energy resources, with theoretical Biomass energy resources of about 5 billion tons. According to the Chinese Academy of Engineering Renewable Energy Development Strategy Consulting Report data, our country's Biomass Energy resources are 2 times that of hydropower and 3.5 times that of wind energy, and are distributed close to high-energy-consuming areas in the eastern coastal regions. The Biomass Energy that can be developed annually is equivalent to about 1.2 billion tons of standard coal, accounting for about 1/4 of the country's total annual energy consumption. However, Currently the Biomass energy scale is relatively small and still has very large development space.

In counties, townships, and villages with resource advantages, Biomass is a heating energy suitable for undertaking major responsibilities in the vast rural areas of our country. From an economic perspective, Biomass heating has the best flexibility, and its stability and controllability are superior to coal burning and Natural Gas. Although its heating cost is slightly higher than coal heating, it is far lower than Natural Gas. Currently, Biomass raw material collection, storage, drying technology, and clean heating process technology, equipment, environmental protection, etc. have become relatively mature, but the popularization rate of excellent products and technology is not high enough. In some cities and counties, Biomass heating has become the main form of heating, forming centralized heating centered on Biomass thermal power plants, distributed regional heating centered on Biomass Boilers, and decentralized family heating centered on household Biomass stoves.

The environmental friendliness of Biomass Molding fuel has been confirmed. Biomass pelletized fuel belongs to clean, Green, Low Carbon Renewable Energy. When burned in a专用 Boilers, only Need appropriate dust removal, it can Reach the same level of smoke and dust, and nitrogen oxide emissions as Natural Gas. Sulfur dioxide emissions are far lower than Natural Gas. On March 27, 2017, in the notice issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection on publishing the "High Pollution Fuel Catalog", it Pointed out that standardized burning Biomass solid pelletized fuel will no longer be included in the high pollution category.

4. Urgency of Coal to Biomass Conversion

Agricultural and Forestry Waste that cannot be properly treated will cause major environmental harm. It is estimated that by 2020, the generation of Agriculture waste in our country will exceed 5 billion tons, Among them Straw will Reach 950 million to 1.1 billion tons, and livestock and poultry manure will Reach 4.1 billion tons. If these Agriculture wastes are casually discarded or discharged into the environment, it will cause serious air pollution, water pollution, and solid waste pollution. Farmers burning Straw has become one of the important causes of smog. Conducting resource utilization of Agriculture wastes is very necessary.

II. “Coal to Biomass” Technical Route

1. Encourage the construction of Biomass Molding fuel factories in Agricultural and Forestry Waste surplus areas

Straw and other Agricultural and Forestry Waste are both raw materials and fuels. By building Biomass Molding fuel factories, a large amount of agricultural and forestry residues are centrally collected and made into fuels for production and utilization. This not only solves the problem of Agricultural and Forestry Waste burning polluting the environment, but also cultivates new growth points for rural economic development. Pelletized fuel has the advantages of high specific gravity, good quality, and large economic transport radius. It is necessary to accelerate the development of pelletized fuel industry and cultivate a cross-county city, cross-region fuel logistics system.

Wood waste disposal is a major challenge in modern urban management in our country, especially a large number of wooden used furniture and large type wood packaging materials in cities. Need to actively guide the flow of urban used furniture and large type wooden objects. Wood waste should be encouraged to flow back to rural areas for heating.

Most rural areas in our country consist of independent residences. Based on the current economic capacity of rural areas, housing structure, technical feasibility, heating effects, etc., “fuel-adapted stoves” are the most economical and effective measures to achieve rural clean heating. Implementing Biomass Fuel stove heating renovation Needs to cooperate with insulation measures to implement building exterior wall insulation treatment.

Biomass Boilers used for regional heating need a large and stable supply capacity of Biomass. Therefore, a complete professional raw material collection, transportation, storage, and supply system is needed, forming a mature market-based collection and storage model to Improve collection and storage efficiency. Biomass Boilers used for industrial Steam production also have a large market demand, and also relatively need a strong raw material guarantee system.

5. Biomass Energy used for combined heat and power generation, focusing on prioritizing heating and improving the heat-to-power ratio.

Biomass combined heat and power generation has lower requirements for fuel. The sources of fuel are abundant and diverse, with the advantage of lower fuel costs. In the selection of combined heat and power generation solutions, heating can be prioritized to Improve the heat-to-power ratio.