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editor's note:

This year's government work report proposes to vigorously develop a low-carbon economy and promote the development of the waste recycling industry. As a type of renewable energy, biomass energy essentially uses biomass waste as energy.

China attaches great importance to the development of biomass energy. The "14th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development" clearly states that the diversified development of biomass energy must be steadily promoted. The "14th Five-Year Plan for Bioeconomic Development" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission has also included biomass energy as one of the key development areas.

After the policy is clarified, how should China's biomass energy develop next? Recently, a reporter from China Energy News conducted an interview focusing on the topic of high-quality development of biomass energy and introduced readers to the international development of biomass energy.

As an important renewable energy source, biomass energy has great potential in replacing fossil energy and assisting energy transformation. China's biomass energy has gone through decades of development, but it still accounts for a small proportion of the energy structure. It has been facing problems such as insufficient development and utilization scale, incomplete industrial system, high raw material costs, and immature business models.

In the eyes of industry insiders, China is rich in biomass resources. Under the multiple benefits of "double carbon" goals, energy transformation, and rural revitalization, China's biomass energy development will usher in new opportunities and burst into new vitality. How should China improve the quality and accelerate the development of biomass energy in the future?

Diversified utilization can be expected

At present, the main utilization methods of biomass energy in China include biomass power generation, biogas and bio-natural gas, biomass clean heating, bio-liquid fuels, etc., of which biomass power generation is the most important utilization method. As of the end of September 2023, the country's installed capacity of renewable energy was approximately 1.384 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 20%, of which the installed capacity of biomass power generation was 43 million kilowatts.

Zheng Zhaohui, vice president of the China Manufacturing Development Promotion Association and president of the Biomass Energy Industry Branch, believes that in the future, China's biomass energy will give full play to its renewable characteristics and build a low-carbon cycle sustainable development model of agriculture-environment-energy-agriculture. "Biomass comes from agricultural waste. After energy and resource utilization, it returns to agriculture and feeds back to agriculture and rural areas."

郑朝晖进一步指出，Biomass energy is the best way to realize energy and resource utilization, and biomass utilization will be more diversified in the future. 。“根据资源禀赋、气候条件、市场需求等因素，利用易电则电，易热则热，易气则气，易油则油，非电利用将成为未来生物质的发展重点。”同时，生物质能源化利用将逐步从低附加值向高附加值过渡。从当下的生物质发电、热电联产、清洁供热逐步向生物天然气、生物柴油等领域过渡，未来在航空、航海领域，大力发展生物航煤、生物甲醇、纤维素乙醇等液体燃料，具有广阔前景。

In the eyes of industry insiders, China's current biomass energy has gradually moved from small, scattered, and chaotic in the early stages to large-scale, standardized, and market-oriented, and the industry is in a period of growth and explosion.

Zheng Zhaohui predicts that by 2030, the domestic installed biomass power generation capacity will reach 46.54 million kilowatts, and the annual power generation capacity will reach 224 billion kilowatt hours. Annual consumption of solid waste exceeds 400 million tons, bio-natural gas production will reach 10 billion cubic meters, and significant progress has been made in the development of bio-liquid fuels. The annual output of bioethanol, biodiesel, biomethanol, and biojet fuel will increase to 5 million tons, 4 million tons, 3 million tons and 1.5 million tons respectively.

The scale of the industry is still small

"Although the prospects are broad, compared with developed countries in Europe, China still has great potential to be tapped in the utilization of biomass energy." Zheng Zhaohui said that taking Sweden, which has better development of biomass energy, as an example, currently accounts for more than 30% of primary energy in Sweden. According to statistics, in 2022, only 461 million tons of biomass resources in China will be utilized as resources., the utilization rate is less than 12%.

Professor procedures at the Biomass Engineering Center of China Agricultural University pointed out that compared with the rapid development of the wind power and photovoltaic industry, China's biomass development is relatively slow. The reason is that it is influenced by many factors, such as the failure to implement support policies well, insufficient support for technological innovation, lack of development mechanisms, etc.

郑朝晖分析，当下生物质能利用仍以发电为主，能源利用效率相对低、对补贴的依赖性强。随着秸秆等原料收购价格的攀升，生物质发电现有的商业模式已不适应新时代的发展需求。同时， At present, the scale of enterprises in the biomass field in China is generally small, and the current profitability of biomass energy utilization projects is weak, resulting in slow iteration of industrial technology updates.。

"Affected by various factors such as industrial scale, market competitiveness and business management model, except for the domestic waste incineration power generation industry, other biomass energy development paths have not yet formed a complete industrial system and core equipment manufacturing system. Some key technologies and core equipment Still rely on imports, at the same time, there is a lack of a complete standard system, and the development of the industry is not standardized." Zheng Zhaohui pointed out.

郑朝晖认为，How to highlight the green value of biomass energy is a priority issue that needs to be solved at present 。“相比于化石能源，生物质能具有低碳环保、循环再生的特点，‘双碳’目标下，能起到非常大的作用。但目前生物质能的绿色价值没能得到凸显，这直接影响了产业的经济价值，也导致了产业发展进一步滞后。”

Expand green value

Regarding how to accelerate the development of biomass energy in China in the future, Hong Hao, vice chairman of the International Biomass Energy Association and vice president of the All-China New Energy Chamber of Commerce, said that biomass energy is the main starting point to achieve carbon reduction and pollution reduction. In the future, scientific analysis must be carried out. Energy terminal market, calculate the development potential of biomass energy based on market demand, cover more biomass varieties, and predict the proportion of biomass energy in China's future energy terminal market.

Hong Hao suggested that we should learn from the policies and measures of advanced countries and regions to support the development of the biomass industry, give full play to the role of biomass in reducing pollution and carbon, and create a good policy environment for biomass to help achieve the "double carbon" goal.

In terms of business model, Zheng Zhaohui believes that in addition to the market value of the product itself, the realization of the environmental value of biomass energy will become an important direction of industrial development. "We must do a good job in top-level design and establish a biomass energy utilization system with the market as the main body; break through the realistic bottleneck of biomass ecological and environmental value. In addition to waste treatment, we must also promote biomass energy to participate in the carbon market, electricity market, etc."

Hong Hao emphasized that the contribution of biomass energy to the environment should be more fully reflected by building a fair carbon market and improving market mechanisms. He also suggested that in the future, we should further promote the integration of industry, learning and research, build a national-level research base with the intersection of basic disciplines, engineering sciences and social sciences, and comprehensively evaluate the path and direction of biomass energy technology research and development from multiple perspectives of society, economy and environment.

"It is also necessary to form an industry innovation system. Enterprises, universities, and scientific research institutions must strengthen cooperation, give full play to their respective advantages, jointly improve their technological levels, and break through multiple industrial bottlenecks, including realizing the manufacturing of equipment in China and reducing operating costs, through digital large models and artificial intelligence to establish an efficient operating mechanism, thereby significantly reducing production costs and better responding to market competition." Zheng Zhaohui said.

original title:The green value of biomass energy needs to be highlighted