Methodology Development of Evaluating Agricultural Biomass Potential for Biomass Power Plant in China

Biomass energy (bio-energy) is a clean energy, which is helpful to environmental construction and CO2 emission reduction. China is the largest energy consumer in the world, building Biomass Power Plant (BPP) is beneficial to make use of agricultural biomass as well as to reduce environmental pollution. However, many factors influence the exploitation of a proposed BPP project. The objective of this paper is to develop a methodology that is able to analyze the agricultural biomass potential for BPP in China. This methodology analyses the related factors then conducts the sensitivity analyses of the main factors. Related factors mainly include local condition, demand of multiduty agricultural residues, logistics while sensitivity of main factors mainly aims to competition of nearby BPP, competition of other utilizations, price of biomass, preferential policy, etc. Based on a field study, an applied illustration of this methodology on evaluating agricultural biomass potential for a proposed BPP project is presented. The case study shows that it is not suitable to build a new BPP. In view that renewable energy projects will be promoted strongly, it is predicted that the methodology would be a potential tool, which can be applied well for BPP in China.