BEIJING -
Northeastern China's Jilin province will open its
first power plant using biological materials at
the end of the year.
"With a total
investment of 520 million yuan [US$67.35 million]
and covering 8 hectares, the plant will convert
300,000 tons of stalks into 300 million kilowatts
of electric power annually," said Wang Lingfang,
chairman of the board of Shandong Luneng
Construction Group.
Stalks, the stems of
plants, used as feed for livestock, can be
easily found in villages of
China.
Construction of the Jilin Luneng
Nongan biological-power plant, a subsidiary of the
Shandong Luneng Construction Group, started on
April 22.
Located in Nongan, one of the
major grain-production counties in China, the
annual output value of the power plant is expected
to be 220 million yuan.
"Our annual grain
production is 2.5 million tons, which accounts for
10% of the whole Jilin province. Each year, 7.5
million tons of stalks are available in the
county," said Li Zhongbin, head of Nongan county.
The power plant will greatly boost
development of the local economy, and increase
farmers' annual income by 60 million yuan, he
added.
More than 8,000 tons of ash
fertilizer annually will also be provided to
farmers for free after the plant begins
operations.
Statistics show that China
produces 350 million tons of vegetable stalks
every year, 24% of which is used as livestock
feed, 15% as fertilizers and 40% as fuel, while
18.7% is discarded.
The country has
abundant biological resources, and together with
its stalks production it exceeds 720 million tons,
of which 604 million tons can be used as energy.
"Compared with coal, stalks have a low
carbon and sulfur content. To promote this type of
power plant throughout the country will not only
improve the quality of the environment, but also
effectively solve the shortage of coal which many
enterprises face," said Sun Li, director of the
Energy Research Institute of Shandong Academy of
Sciences.
Shanxian county in eastern
China's Shandong province opened its first
biological-power plant at the beginning of the
year. Eastern China's Jiangsu province and
Heilongjiang province in the northeast are also
embarking on plans to build such plants.
Denmark was the first country in the world
to build plants using stalks to generate
electricity. Its first plant opened in 1998.
Today, the largest power plant using
stalks is the Elyan power plant in England. It has
a power-generating capacity of 38 megawatts.
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