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There is a significant difference in the performance of waste cooking oil-to-energy companies in China. Most biofuel companies face a loss while a few others have high recovery rates and strong profitability. To shed light on this phenomenon and to aide in formulating policy, this paper constructs a framework from the two dimensions of X-Y and investigates the impact of government intervention on biofuel companies' performance by taking two companies located in the kitchen waste-to-resource pilot cities of Changzhou and Suzhou. Results indicate that: (1) the basic policy instruments of information disclosed and fee and penalty mechanisms in Changzhou are inferior to those of Suzhou. On the other hand, capital investment and cooperation between stakeholders are better in Changzhou. As for the value chain dimension, the policies are similar in both cities. This means that companies involved in the recycling of waste cooking oil and biofuel production equally neglect research and development, preferential loan and product sales by government. (2) In terms of effectiveness, recycling rates and company profits for Changzhou Yueda Kate New Energy Co. Ltd. are far below those of Suzhou Clean Environmental Technology Co. Ltd. Whether the biofuel companies are authorized by government or not, fee and penalty mechanisms and information disclosure are the key determinants affecting performance of biofuel companies. (3) There is still some room to improve the performance of Suzhou Clean Environmental Technology Co. Ltd. Policies can focus on the following: strengthening R & D, which improves the technological supply and diffusion capability of biofuel companies; building the demand-typed policy frame and adjusting policy structure; improving the market structure of biofuel companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of combating climate change and maintaining energy security, ambitious bioenergy development projects in emerging economies face considerable challenges, for example an overburdened bioenergy industry infrastructure due to the growing demand for bioenergy products. There are abundant studies on optimizing the bioenergy industry infrastructure. However, they fail to comprehensively simulate the interactions among the predominant actors of the infrastructure, especially the bioenergy plant operators in emerging economies. To fill this research gap, we develop a new dynamic agent-based model of optimized bioenergy industry infrastructure from the perspective of bioenergy plant operators. We then apply the model to Jiangsu Province of China to simulate the coordination of two types of bioenergy plants and project the optimal distribution of these plants and their corresponding transportation networks for the year of 2030. The model results suggest locating bioenergy plants closer to bioenergy feedstock source regions rather than to bioenergy products consumption sites, an answer to the classical facility location problem. A welfare analysis based on the extended model indicates that the biomass densification process aiming at mitigating the growing transport volumes incurred by the delivery of bulky bioenergy feedstock is not economically profitable in our case region. The experiences from this region further show that for emerging economies, a successful bioenergy industry infrastructure needs to take the benefits of smallholder farmers into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper focuses on the relationship between bioenergy industry and energy security. The situation of fuel ethanol, biodiesel, biogas and biomass power industry of China in recent years has been introduced comprehensively. With a quick look at the existing bioenergy industrial development policies, combined with China's energy security situation, we drew the following conclusions: (1) the bioenergy industry is an effective way to achieve China's energy security; (2) as for energy substitution from cost aspect, China has already had the ability to make bioenergy substitute for fossil fuels; (3) from technical aspect, however, China's bioenergy technologies are not mature, this means that in a very long period of time, biomass and fossil energy will jointly develop in a mutually beneficial way. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Effective spatial planning is crucial for cost-effectively and sustainably developing biomass energy resources due to the diffuse nature of biomass and high transportation cost. Using the spatial analysis technology, economic models and scenario analysis, this paper presents a spatial planning framework to identify the appropriate developing areas of biomass energy at regional level. The methodology is applied in a case study of Fujian Province, China. Firstly, spatial distribution of two kinds of biomass resources and the technical potential, i.e. the amount of power generation from agricultural and forestry residues in each supply area, were estimated by incorporating the spatial data and the statistical data. The results indicate that total technical potential of agricultural and forestry residues is estimated at 25.13TWhy−1, equivalent to approximately 19% of total electricity consumption in Fujian in 2010. In the second step, the economic analysis assesses the cost of biomass generation for each supply area on the basis of current market conditions. Ranking of the supply areas is then performed by using the priority development index (PDI), which can measure the priority of each biomass supply area by combining several influencing indicators. Finally, the selection of supply areas for power plants can be carried out according to its order in PDI until the total planed capacity in the region is met. The priority of the subregions and the corresponding cost of biomass generation for different planning scenarios can be explicitly visualized. The methodology can be applied to a wide area and can support the local authorities to define and implement a strategy for future biomass energy development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]