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greenIqoncepDreamstime.comGreen China:Increased Use ofBiofuels to ReduceCO2 EmissionsBy Kevin LiuJust like other countriesin the world today, Chinais faced with issuesrelated to the environmentand climate change aswell as growing concerns onenergy security more thanever before.Energy production is dominated by theuse of large quantities of coal and fossil fuelswhich are polluting, non-renewable, andfacing imminent depletion. Oil prices continueto surge in the global market, therebyputting more pressure on the Chinese governmentto support the country’s growingeconomy, the increasing number of privatecar ownerships, and the mounting impactsof environmental pollution.To address these issues, China has embarkedon a new Five Year Plan for 2011 to2015 with a major thrust in finding renewablesources of energy to support the economyand its booming industries. The use ofbiofuels will play a significant part towardsthis end and a domestic biofuel industry willprovide a viable option for the governmentin its efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.In the recent past, the development ofbiofuels, which include biodiesel and ethanolfuel, was largely supported by incentivesfrom the government. However, the industryis now faced with conflicts between foodsecurity and energy production, promptingthe Chinese government to stop the productionof ethanol from grain crops. China hasno option but to pursue development insecond-generation biofuels which are producedfrom agricultural waste instead of edibleoils, sugar, starch, and other foodstuffs.While the United States and Brazil lead ethanolproduction in terms of volume, Chinamay be on its way as the leader of a secondbiofuel generation, and it has placed this onits political agenda.This focus will be a major step in improvingthe nation’s energy efficiency andreducing the country’s reliance on coal, petroleum,and other fossil fuels. Technologiesin this area are available now and are providingunique opportunities for China for cleanenergy production. Biofuel production willalso be a means of developing a new socialistcountryside by providing new sources of incomeand other employment opportunitiesfor people in rural areas. Biofuel productionwill help ensure continued economic growthby reducing dependence on expensive fossilfuels while at the same time lowering thenation’s overall carbon footprint.Issues and Challenges forBiofuel Use in ChinaThe Chinese government is keen on reducingthe country’s dependence on petroleumand other fossil fuels, and has reliedon biofuel production as a viable alternative.However, China has seen how an increaseddemand for corn as feedstock for ethanolproduction resulted in crowding out land inthe United States and Brazil – land that wasprimarily intended for food production.What this simply means is that convertingland from growing conventional foodcrops and switching to biofuel crops wouldaffect the country’s food production. This isnot a viable scenario for China, with its verylarge population and only 10 percent of itsland area being arable. Food security has alwaysbeen a big issue for China, and it loomslarge in the country’s future struggle to supportits very large population and rapidlygrowingeconomy. In the past, China hasbeen known to implement drastic measuresto mitigate concerns on population andfood security – and the government wouldnot risk going through that entire struggleonce more.This concern for food security promptedthe government to put restrictions on theuse of grain crops for ethanol production.However, there is still an urgent need to producealternative fuels, prompting the governmentto push and support the developmentof alternatives and non-grain crops forfeedstock. The country desires to have foodsecurity for its growing population, and findingalternatives for biofuel feedstock wouldbe a welcome option that the governmentand emerging industry would embrace.Trends in Biofuel Use in ChinaIn 2005, China emerged as the third largestproducer of biofuels next to the UnitedStates and Brazil, with the government’stop planning agency, the National Developmentand Reform Commission, settingproduction targets to meet 15 percent ofthe country’s transportation energy needsby the year 2020. The country now has fourfacilities with a total capacity of 2.2 millionmetric tons, or approximately 47,000 barrels,per day.These facilities can produce up to 1.02million metric tons of ethanol from graincrops plus another 800,000 metric tonsfrom corn. But faced with growing concernson food security and price inflation, Chinamoved away from using corn and grains asfeedstock for ethanol production and hasswitched to non-grain crops for production.The use of second-generation biofuel technologieswill further address this issue andhelp the country reach its goal of using nonfossilfuel energy sources to supply at leastwww.biztechreport.com11 percent of China’s total consumption bythe year 2015.The use of second-generation biofueltechnologies will not only have the potentialof reducing CO2 emissions by as muchas 90 percent from what the country isproducing right now, but it will also have alesser impact on food production, supplies,and prices. Agricultural waste also creates asignificant impact on the environment, particularlyon current disposal methods andthe resulting pollution. Using it as feedstockfor ethanol production will help mitigatethis environmental concern.A good example is the agricultural provinceof Anhui where farmers previouslyburned surplus hay, with the resultant ashused as fertilizer to provide nutrients to thesoil. The problem, however, is that burningstraw would produce severe air pollutionaside from causing interference with localflights. Unilever, however, made good useof this agricultural waste by converting it tofuel for manufacturing laundry detergentpowder in its Hefei factory in Anhui. Thefactory has strict controls for protecting andmaintaining air quality, and the resultantby-products are also used to produce bricks.Last year, the China Petrochemical Corporationpartnered with the China NationalCereals, Oils, and Foodstuff Corporation andNovozymes, a company producing enzymesused for the production of bio-industrialproducts, to build a 10,000 ton-capacity biofuelproduction plant that will make use ofthe leaves and stalks of corn to produce fuel.This pilot plant will be upgraded to 20 timesits current size starting the end of 2011 until2013, where the plant will have a commercialcapacity of up to 100,000 metric tons ofbiofuel production.Aside from using agricultural wastes forbiofuel feedstock, China has also started agriculturaldevelopment in growing non-foodcrops in less agriculturally-productive lands.Such crops include sweet sorghum and jatrophacurcas, which can be grown and extractedfor oil that can be used as feedstockfor biofuels. The seeds from the jatrophaplant produce the highly poisonous toxalbumincurcin, but it also produces about 27 to40 percent oil which can be processed intohigh-quality biodiesel. What makes jatrophaideal for planting in less-productive lands isthat the plant is resistant to high degrees ofaridity and can be grown even in deserts.Sinopec, the country’s largest state oilcompany, invested US$5 billion in jatrophacurcas production for plantations in Chinaas well as in other locations like Indonesia.Last year, the Guizhou Province appliedto the National Development and ReformCommission its plans of building a 50,000-ton biofuel industrialization demonstrationproject using oil from the jatropha curcas asfeedstock. Working with the provincial governmentis the China Petroleum and ChemicalCorporation, which invested US$19 millionfor a 30 percent stake in the project.A 300-ton trial production line has alreadybeen established and plans of upgrading theplant to 1 million ton per year capacity ison its way.China’s Green Future withBiofuelsAccording to the International EnergyAgency, the consumption of biofuels on aContinued on Page 2316 | A-P BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY REPORT