Aston University introduces biomass to China’s coal-fired power plants

Aston University’s Bioenergy Research Group is part of a European-Chinese team that will assess market opportunities for EU companies to introduce cofiring of biomass in China’s coal fired power stations in a new project launched this month.

The €590,000 ChEuBio (China EU Bioenergy project), funded by the European Commission, is a two-year initiative that will evaluate commercial possibilities of cofiring biomass in China’s coal fired power stations to help cut the country’s dependence on fossil fuel and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Cofiring, which is not currently practiced in China, involves burning coal and biomass together – mainly straw, reed, rice husks, and wastes from crops and wood. Cofiring cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions and can help to reduce global warming because biomass is a ‘carbon neutral’ fuel releasing the same amount of carbon when it is burned as it absorbs while growing.

China’s economy is dauntingly complex. Its distributed farms make the logistics of biomass collection and transport challenging. ChEuBio will gather data on the biomass sources and availability, undertake case studies of various plants to assess possibilities for cofiring in China’s coal power plants, and determine the commercial potential for cofiring in China.

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