China to build new bio-oil plant in eastern province
29/8/2006 16:40
China is to begin construction of a refinery and a machinery plant in
Hefei, capital of eastern Anhui Province, which can turn out one ton of bio-oil
from every two tons of crop stalks.
With an investment of 97.8 million yuan
(US$12.2 million), the project is expected to begin operation in a year's time
and generate 360 million yuan (US$45 million) in profit every year.
The
refinery will process 2,000 tons of biomass every year to produce bio-oil as a
substitute for heavy oil, diesel and coal tar. Bio-oil can be used directly to
heat boilers and as fuel for motor vehicles after further refining. Ethanol can
also be extracted from bio-oil.
Scientists from the University of Science and
Technology of China announced in late June that they had made an important
breakthrough in reducing the cost of converting crop stalks, chaff and sawdust
into bio-oil.
Bio-oil produced with this technology is 56.8 percent cheaper
than diesel oil and 39.1 percent cheaper than heavy oil, said Professor Guo
Qingxiang with the Biomass Clean Energy Laboratory of the university in Anhui
Province.
The technology, which can produce more than 6 kg of bio-oil from 10
kg of sawdust and 5 kg of bio-oil from 10 kg of crop stalks, has been approved
by the provincial department of science and technology.
Scientists at the
laboratory have also invented a machine that can process 120 kg of biomass per
hour.
Research into converting biomass into an liquid energy source began in
the 1980s, but the high cost of conversion has so far prevented scientists from
producing an economically viable energy source..
xinhua
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