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The Chinese government has made significant effort to promote biomass based electricity generation in recent years. Yet, little is known about consumers’ preferences for biomass electricity and associated environmental impacts. This paper uses discrete choice experiments (DCE) to investigate Chinese consumers’ preference for electricity generated from various biomass sources. Based on 548 responses, the paper finds that Chinese households are willing to pay a premium of around 27 Yuan per month or 0.20 Yuan per kilowatt hour (kWh) to replace coal-fired electricity. Among the various biomass sources, electricity generated from agricultural and forestry biomass is most preferred, followed by biogas electricity and waste-to-energy. It is also found that respondents have a significant willingness to pay for reducing haze. Consumers’ household structure and environmental awareness also affect their preference for biomass electricity. These results have significant implications for the prioritization, design and communication of biomass promoting schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With increasing attention on energy shortage and global warming, bioenergy is a promising alternative energy to mitigate CO 2 emissions. Despite the environmental friendly potential, a certain quantity of bioenergy-related CO 2 is still emitted in China. This paper investigates the temporal dynamics of bioenergy-related CO 2 emissions in 2000–2010 in China, and explores the underlying influence factors based on logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI). Then the core results are verified with a GIS-based approach from a spacial perspective. The results show that four impact factors: emission intensity, energy structure, energy efficiency and economic development have different impacts on bioenergy-related CO 2 emissions, of which economic development is the major factor contributing to its increase, while energy efficiency is the major determinant for the decline. Per capita bioenergy-related CO 2 emissions in different areas are verified in accordance with either economic development factor or energy efficiency factor to some extent. To achieve the dual purpose of sustainable development and CO 2 emissions reduction, this paper provides a practical policy framework for rural bioenergy and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioenergy can be a promising solution to the energy, food and environment trilemma in China. Currently this coal-dependent nation is in urgent need of alternative fuels to secure its future energy and improve the environment. Biofuels derived from crop residues and bioenergy crops emerge as a great addition to renewable energy in China without compromising food production. This paper reviews bioenergy resources from existing conventional crop (e.g., corn, wheat and rice) residues and energy crops (e.g., Miscanthus ) produced on marginal lands. The impacts of biofuel production on ecosystem services are also discussed in the context of biofuel's life cycle. It is estimated that about 280 million metric tons (Mt) of crop residue-based biomass (or 65 Mt of ethanol) and over 150 Mt of energy crop-based ethanol can become available each year, which far exceeds current national fuel ethanol production (< 2 Mt year −1 ) and the 2020 national target of 10 Mt year −1 . Review on environmental impacts suggested that substituting fossil fuels with biofuels could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution (e.g., particulate matter). However, the impacts of biofuel production on biodiversity, water quantity and quality vary greatly among biomass types, land sources and management practices. Improved agricultural management and landscape planning can be beneficial to ecosystem services. A national investigation is desirable in China to inventory technical and economic potential of biomass feedstocks and evaluate the impacts of biofuel production on ecosystem services and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural household energy consumption is an important component of national energy consumption and plays an important role in rural social and ecological environment developments. In this paper, energy consumption of 1440 households in 8 typical counties of 8 China's economic zones was investigated. The investigation data analysis revealed significant difference of different economic zones in rural household energy consumption level and structure. For 8 studying counties, the annual average energy consumption per capita was 26.7 GJ, 10.4 GJ the lowest (Shanghang County) and 86.6 GJ the highest (Shulan County). In energy consumption, straw, biogas, fuel wood and electricity accounted for 44.33%, 23.13%, 12.79% and 9.61%, respectively. Rural families with high incomes preferred commercial energies (e.g. electricity and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)) to biomass energy (e.g. straw and fuel wood). The traditional biomass energy is still the main energy source for China's rural household. Research results provide references to understand current situations and future development of China's rural household energy consumption, and formulate related energy and environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lack of clean energy supply remains a challenge in China, particularly in rural areas with large population. Biogas production from anaerobic digestion of biomass is an efficient technology for energy strategy in China. This paper reviews the importance of household biogas in China and discusses the regional differentiation of rural household biogas (RHB), and related driving factors. Gray correlation analysis showed that regional differentiation of RHB exhibited the highest correlation degree with temperature (0.889), followed by raw materials, rural population, and levels of income and education. According to the total biogas production in China, the development regions of RHB was separated into Region 1, Region 2 and Region 3. The highest development level of RHB was found in Region 2 with a total biogas production of 1.2×10 10 m 3 , accounting for 77.6% of the total TBP of China in 2012. Moreover, the RHB development levels in Region 1 and Region 3 were 1.84×10 9 and 1.69×10 9 m 3 , respectively. Basing on the results of regional differentiation of RHB and characteristic of the primary influence factors in different regions, this study proposes that RHB development must be further promoted by combining actual situation of different regions to avoid blind development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: As the largest developing country, China has abundant wind, biomass and solar energy resources. Under the large demand for electricity and the shortage of fossil energy, it is essential to develop renewable energy generation in China. This paper analyzes the resources, scale, market operation, profitability and policies of China’s wind, biomass and solar power generation and gives a discussion of the investment risks in the current situation. It is expected that the analysis in this paper could be helpful for the potential investors to make decision. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: China is the largest developing country in the world. At present, more and more energy demand gives immense pressure to Chinese government. The inappropriate energy structure must be improved by Chinese government in order to achieve the sustainable development of economy and society. Development and application of renewable energy, such as wind energy, solar energy, biomass energy, etc., have been regarded by the government and the local people in the past 10 years, and more and more actual examples have been established, which are supported by government and plants in China. It is well known that there are abundant wind and solar resources in China. This paper presents the distribution zone and development and application practice status in China. However, a common drawback is existing in the stand-alone wind energy and solar energy generating power system, which is the unpredictable output electric power, and the output power depends on the unpredictable weather and climatic changes. Fortunately, the wind–solar hybrid generation system can partially overcome the problems. The conventional structure and key technology of stand-alone wind–solar hybrid generating system, the current status and outlook of wind–solar hybrid energy system are presented in the paper, for example, the city road lighting system, distributed generation, photovoltaic (PV) water pumping for irrigation, etc. At the end, the policies and laws of China central government and local governments are described, and the development barriers and recommendations are introduced. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Biomass is a sustainable and renewable energy source with relatively low pollution emissions. It can be transformed into gaseous, liquid and/or solid biofuels as well as other raw chemical materials and products. Among the biomass conversion technologies, densified solid biofuel is one of the means that is storable and transportable with low heating cost. In order to achieve the target of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 40–45% until 2020 as set at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and realize the goal of China׳s 12th Five-year Plan (2011–2015) for the development of biomass energy, given that carbon emissions will peak in 2030 as estimated in 2014 during Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference, China should vigorously develop densified solid biofuel, so as to sharply minimize the unorganized burning of crop residues. This paper introduces the current status of China׳s densified solid biofuel and the industry in following aspects: (a) the classification of densified solid biofuel; (b) development of densified solid biofuel industry; (c) molding technology of densified solid biofuel; (d) characteristics of densified solid biofuel combustion; (e) the problems faced during molding, handling, transportation and storage; (f) existing Chinese standards for densified solid biofuel and the assessment of densified solid biofuel; and (g) market analysis and perspectives of densified solid biofuel and the industry. Moreover, this study provides a comprehensive overview of the development of China׳s densified solid biofuel and the related industry, proposes some recommendations for further development of the industry for domestic and international biomass energy researchers as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past several years, the biomass power generation industry in China has witnessed notably rapid development. However, many biomass power generation manufacturers in China are currently making small profits or suffering losses, and the entire biomass supply chain does not function well, which not only poses a challenge for the stable operation of enterprises but also may impact the smooth development of the biomass power industry. From the perspective of supply chain risk, this paper explores the reasons for the current plight and the future obstacles that the Chinese biomass power generation industry may face. Identifying such risks as market risk, production risk, technology risk, economic risk and management risk in the upstream, midstream and downstream of the biomass supply chain and ordering the degrees of risk controllability by the government and enterprises, it is determined that joint effort by both the Chinese Government and the biomass power generation enterprises is an ideal choice for risk control coming out of the plight. However, at present, more problems should go to the government for solutions than to the enterprises. To guide the healthy development of the industry, the Chinese government should play a more prominent role in promulgating supporting policies in each stage of the supply chain and strengthening the supervision and control of biomass projects. Last, specific measures taken by the Chinese Government and the enterprises are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing importance of lignocellulosic biomass as a renewable energy source has led to an acute need for reliable and detailed information on its assessment, consumption and supply. With the passage of China’s legislative targets for renewable portfolio standards, agricultural residue resources have the potential for an increasing role in meeting liquid fuels demand in China. An assessment of current and near future agricultural residue resources (including agricultural crop residues and secondary agricultural processing residues) in China at national scale was conducted. This paper gave the theoretical quantity, collectable quantity, usable quantity and potential quantity for liquid biofuel production of agricultural residues in China. The spatial and seasonal distributions of crop residues were analyzed. The theoretical output of crop residues in China at national scale in the near future were forecasted by means of an artificial neural network (ANN) model. The availability of agricultural residues in China was presented, as a result, the potential of liquid biofuels from agricultural residues was discussed. The ANN predicted results have shown that the theoretical output of crop residues in China at national scale will be up to 930.8 million tons in 2015. About 44 million tons per year of bioethanol or 131 million tons per year of bio-oil would have been produced, if the total usable output of agricultural crop residues were used to produce bioethanol through biochemical conversion process or bio-oil through fast pyrolysis, which could replace 26.9 million tons of gasoline or 58.2 million tons of diesel at national scale in 2015, respectively. The above results will be helpful for commercialization of bioenergy industry and their market-oriented development strategy, so as to accelerate the development of industrialization of biofuel technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forestry biomass resource has many advantages, which makes it a significant new energy to substitute fossil energy as an important role of biomass resources. For the utilization of China׳s forestry biomass resources, this paper analyzed the possibilities of its development from the aspect of policy, resource endowment, market and technology, and discussed its development challenges from the aspect of policy, economy, society, technology and resource endowment. Forestry biomass resources are very abundant in China. It has made a significant breakthrough in forest biomass resource utilization, with great prospects. Although there are still some difficulties and challenges in the policy, resource endowment and other aspects, these challenges are not insurmountable. Therefore, forestry biomass resources should develop in a way with Chinese characteristics considering the national condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper systematically collects and sorts out China polices of biomass power generation policy, mainly from 2006 to 2012, based on the actual demand of the biomass power generation project. According to the effect of the policy implementation, it analyzes the problems about the policies, such as the development goal being too large, tax policies not being easy to implement, the relevance amongst some policies being poor, and provides some suggestions. Finally, it concludes that biomass power generation should be developed steadily in China, and fiscal supporting should not be introduced any more. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: At present, countries around the world set off a round of upsurge of exploitation and utilization of geothermal energy. As one of renewable energy resources, geothermal energy has the advantages of great resource potential, low carbon emissions, widespread distribution, easy development and so on. China׳s geothermal resources are enormous and have huge potential for exploitation. However, due to the lack of reasonable industry planning and policies support, and lag of technologies, the industrial development speed and scale are far behind the wind, solar and biomass energy. The 12th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People׳s Republic of China explicitly issues that in future China will vigorously develop the geothermal energy and provide more policy support for geothermal industry development from medium to longer term. This paper describes China׳s geothermal resource potential and status quo of geothermal industry, and analyzes the obstacles of the industry development. Then, it accordingly puts forward the development pattern of China׳s geothermal industry and gives out related countermeasures. At last, it outlines the prospects in this field. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Garden waste biomass is a potentially underutilized renewable biofuel feedstock, which is increasing dramatically with rapid urbanization worldwide. China has experienced fast-paced urbanization over the past three decades: the settlement area has increased at a rate of 6.1% annually, with greenspace increasing by 12.7% annually from 1996 to 2008. This paper provides a synthesis of literature and experimental data to trace the potential of garden waste biomass for green renewable energy production in China. Our results show that the total potential biofuel produced by garden waste biomass was estimated at 260 petajoules (PJ), accounting for 20.7% of China's urban residential electricity consumption, or 12.6% of China's transport gasoline demand in 2008. Thus the use of garden waste biomass for energy production will contribute to the construction of low-carbon cities. However, there are still many difficulties—the main challenges are how to quantify the available garden waste biomass accurately, and technical and financial issues with the exploitation of garden waste biomass for energy production. Finally, we provide several practical suggestions for the future development of garden waste biomass for energy production. The use of garden waste for energy production in urban areas could be a win–win approach for mitigating both the burden of disposed costs and the energy crisis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Converting waste cooking oil into biofuel represents a three-win solution, dealing simultaneously with food security, pollution, and energy security. In this paper, we encode the policy documents of waste cooking oil refining biofuel in China based on content analysis, and explore the related policies from the two dimensions as basic policy tools and enterprises supply chain. Research indicates the weak institution coordination of policy issuing entities. Also, the findings show that tools of regulatory control and goal planning are overused. Policies of government procurement, outsourcing and biofuel consumption are relatively scarce. Generally, government focuses more on formulating policies from the strategic, administrative and regulatory aspects, while less on market-oriented initiatives as funding input and financial support. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Nowadays, China is faced with many issues, such as increasing farmers’ income, protecting environment and adjusting energy structure, which may be solved by developing the biomass power generation industry. However, the lack of technical capability, inadequate raw materials and challenges for grid feed-in are all obstacles that prevent large-scale production and industrialization in the biomass power generation industry. Therefore, government should provide necessary policies to support and advance the biomass power generation industry. This paper systematically analyzes the current laws, regulations and policies implemented recently in China and provides a comprehensive review of the fiscal subsidies, reduction and exemption of taxes, tariff concessions, the policies of investment and financing and the support of R&D. Suggestions for relevant policies are proposed to address the existing problems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: China, like many other countries, is promoting the development of liquid biofuel, including bioethanol and biodiesel. The Chinese government has set biofuel development targets for the coming decade and sanctioned a series of supportive policies. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of current liquid biofuel development in China, related government policies, and the potential opportunities and challenges for its future expansion. Our assessment is based on two rounds of in-depth fieldwork and a thorough literature review. The assessment shows that the prevailing concern on food security has pushed China to move from cereal-based to non-cereal-based biofuel production. Emphasis has also been put on utilizing new marginal land for feedstock production. Our assessment indicates that the targets of China''s biofuel development are cautious and feasible, but on the other hand there are still severe challenges for the sustainability of such development. A better understanding of China''s experience in striking a balance between energy security, food security and environmental protection would inform the debates across country boundaries and contribute to the efforts for global sustainability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The accurate estimate of the availability of crop residue resources is very important for the development of bioenergy in China, a large agricultural nation. Previous efforts to evaluate the bioenergy potential from converting straws to energy were mainly based on agricultural statistical data on the provincial/county level. Straw yield calculations generated by most of those works significantly overstate the amount of crop straws for ignoring environmental requirement and harvest constrain. The paper presents a GIS-based approach for the assessment of the availability and distribution of crop residues in China, taking into account a number of conservation issues: resources (total amount, spatial and temporal distribution), economy (transportation costs), environment, and technology. All data are converted into unified geographic unit (100m×100m pixels), and integrated analysis is implemented with GIS software. The results indicate that considering conservation requirements, the production of net available crop residues is about 505.5 million tons per year. The bioenergy potential is about 253.7 million tons standard coal per year (7.4EJ/year), which account for 8.27% of total energy consumption of the country in 2009. The results and dataset will present significant support for energy planning both at national and regional scale. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze consumers’ awareness and attitudes towards biofuels implementation in road transportation sector of China with respect to different consumption groups. Firstly, the status and future trends have been reviewed, which focuses on the private vehicles development, energy demands of road transportation sector and biofuels. Furthermore, a comprehensive survey has been conducted for 374 private vehicle drivers (owners) in Nanjing. A questionnaire survey method is implemented to collect information including respondents’ awareness, brief of biofuels, selection attitudes to biofuels and views on policies. Furthermore, the biofuels selection motives of respondents have been concluded into two main factors, “purchasing pressures” and “product attraction”. Then the respondents were divided into three clusters and compared. The results indicate that 90% of the respondents need to know more about biofuels implementation, and the majority of the respondents emphasize the active significance of reducing GHG emissions to improve energy security and mitigate energy crisis. But 55.6% of the respondents think that biofuels technology is still not mature. It is found that the different perceptions of biofuels between 192 passenger vehicle drivers (PVD) and 182 freight vehicle drivers (FVD). The former focuses on fuel price and fuel performance, while the latter pays more attention to fuel availability. Besides, PVD concentrate on fuel-related attributes while FVD focus on policy-related factors. The survey results give rise to some deeply consideration about the various preferences and awareness on biofuels among different consumer groups. These findings in this study will help to understand the consumer''s energy consumption behaviors and improve the further implementation for biofuels in Nanjing city. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Energy plants play an important role in the development of bioenergy. In the world, there are many kinds of energy plants, but they are not utilized sufficiently. In the current paper, we discussed the situation of the research and development of traditional energy plants and some new energy plants in the world. At the same time, we focused on the distribution of some special energy plants and discussed their advantages in China. At last, we provided some suggestions for developing global energy plant field. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: China has the abundant agro-residue resources, producing more than 630 million tons of agro-residues in 2006, and amounting to about 20% of total energy consumption in rural areas. Efficient utilization of enormous agro-residues resource is crucial for providing bioenergy, releasing risk of environmental pollution, and increasing farmers’ income. The paper presented the feasibility of densified solid biofuels technology for utilizing agro-residues in China. The output and distribution of agro-residues in recent 10 years, the R&D of briquetting technology, and the market of densified solid biofuels from agro-residues in China have been analyzed. The result indicated that the abundant agro-residue resources can provide the economical and sustainable raw material for densified solid biofuels development in China. The R&D of briquetting technology at present can strongly support the large scale production of densified solid biofuels. With continued improvement and cost reduction of briquetting technology, along with the support of nation energy policy on biomass energy, the market of densified solid biofuels from agro-residues in China will be more fully deployed. Based on the above mentioned key factors, development of densified solid biofuels from agro-residues in China will be promising and feasible. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper analyzes utilization of carbon-negative biofuels from low-input high-diversity grassland biomass on degraded lands (LIHD) for energy including energy equivalent to green house gases (GHG) capture and storage. The results show that the energy output of LIHD biomass on degraded soil is nearly equal to that of ethanol from conventional corn grain on fertile soil. It has also been shown that LIHD biofuel is far more economical than the conventional biofuels such as corn ethanol or soybean biodiesel. China is a large agriculturally developing country, with its rural area largely populated and vast land degraded. It is in this respect that we analyzed the utilization of LIHD. The potential of using energy from LIHD biomass on degraded lands in China is estimated. The results show that the potential energy production of LIHD biomass reaches 6350971.32TJyear−1, accounting for about 15% of China’s energy consumption in 2002. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As the largest developing country in the world, China is urgently in short of energy and natural resources. However, biological resources such as crop residues are burnt in the field, which cause serious environmental pollution. Still it is not clear how much storage and potential of these huge crop residues are in China. This paper firstly reported the distribution, utilization structure and potential of crop biomass and provided the tangible information of crop residues in rural China through careful collecting and recalculating data. From 1995 to 2005, China produces some 630 million tons of crop residues per year, 50% of which comes from east and central south of China. The amount of crop residues is 1.3 times of the total yield of crops, 2 times of the total fodder of grassland, which covers 41% of China''s territory. Crop residues of corn, wheat and rice amounted to 239, 137 and 116 million tons, respectively, accounting for nearly 80% of the total crop residues. Unfortunately, the utilizing structure is seriously improper for such abundant biomass resources. Although 23% of the crop residues are used for forage, 4% for industry materials and 0.5% for biogas, the large parts are used with lower efficiency or wasted, with 37% being directly combusted by farmers, 15% lost during collection and the rest 20.5% discarded or directly burnt in the field. Reasonable adjustment of the utilizing pattern and popularization of the recycling agriculture are essential out-ways for residues, with the development of the forage industry being the breakthrough point. We suggested that utilizing the abandoned 20.5% of the total residues for forage and combining agriculture and stock raising can greatly improve the farm system and cut down fertilizer pollution. Through the development of forage industries, the use efficiency of crop residues could be largely enhanced. Commercializing and popularizing technologies of biomass gasification and liquefaction might be substitute solutions of China''s energy shortage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: China is a big agricultural country and one of the most abundant straw resources in the world, producing more than 620million tons of straw in 2002, and representing about 33–45% of energy consumption for livelihood in rural areas. Utilization of straw as energy with high efficiency and rationality not only meets the demands for energy as the economy grows, but also provide a basis for environmental protection and sustainable development of society in China. This paper reviews the present utilized technologies of straw in biomass energy, including improved stove, biogas, straw gasification and straw briquette, which are already commercialized and popularized in China. Other technologies, such as liquefaction, straw carbonization and bio-coal, are also presented. Based on the technology status and potential, the future research and development of straw in the biomass energy portfolio in China are proposed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]