Biomass industry and energy and food security

Introduction: in recent years, with the gradual depletion of disposable fossil fuel resources, especially the soaring price of oil, a new term "biomass" has entered people's life, a new biomass industry is showing the horizon, and provides an effective way for China to build a conservation oriented society and develop a circular economy The development of biomass industry has become the general trend The modern biomass industry originated from the development of surplus agricultural products such as soybean and corn in the United States in the 1930s, producing denatured starch, soybean printing ink, soybean biodiesel and other products However, due to the development of petroleum and petrochemical technology, the industrialization process of biomass was delayed The oil crisis in the 1970s aroused the research on biofuels instead of oil Corn was used in the United States and Brazil At the turn of the century, with the gradual depletion of fossil energy, the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect the environment, and the realization of the goal of human sustainable development, the development of biomass industry has become an important national development strategy By 2020, the United States plans to replace 10% of the national fuel consumption with biofuels, 25% of the petrochemical raw materials with bio based products, reduce the carbon emissions equivalent to 70 million vehicles by about 100 million tons, and increase the income of farmers by 20 billion dollars every year The European Union, Japan, Brazil, Canada, India, etc are also scrambling to take part in this international competition and want to be the top China's biomass industry also started in the new century In 2000, the pilot work of fuel ethanol was started, with an annual output of 1 million tons Ethanol gasoline has been used in three provinces in Northeast China, Henan Province and Anhui Province; Anhui Fengyuan Group has successfully used crops to produce ethylene, ethylene oxide and other alternative petroleum based products In this new field, it is in the starting line close to developed countries Up At present, there are more than 2500 petroleum based chemicals in the market, which consume about 7-8% of the world's hydrocarbons Anhui Fengyuan Group has undoubtedly made a good start to change the raw material structure of general chemicals and reduce the excessive dependence on petroleum Its significance lies in proving that biomass can indeed replace petroleum to produce economically competitive chemical products However, it should be emphasized that China's national conditions are that there are more people and less land, food security is the first, and not competing with agriculture for land is the principle of developing biomass industry China's population is still increasing, while the cultivated land is gradually decreasing How to develop the biomass industry to reduce the excessive dependence on oil, while ensuring energy security and food security? In one of his articles, academician Shi Yuanchun gave a brilliant answer: "every year, 50% of the crop straw, 40% of the livestock manure, 30% of the forestry waste, and about 5.5 million hectares of marginal land are used to plant energy plants and build about 1000 biomass conversion plants The production capacity can be equivalent to 50 million tons of oil annual production capacity, equivalent to a Daqing (48 million tons of annual production capacity ）Or 29% of the total national oil production and 35% of the net import in 2004 At present, the raw materials of biomass industry can be used to produce surplus grain; at the same time, expand the sources of raw materials, develop non edible biomass resources, such as potato, sweet sorghum, sugarcane and other energy crops as raw materials of bioenergy and biochemical products in the near future; increase the support for the research on the utilization of straw lignocellulose, and strive to make it a biomass industry within 5-10 years The main raw materials The utilization of biomass can not only meet the needs of food and feed in China's limited arable land, but also replace the fermented industrial grain (accounting for about 5% of the total annual grain output) to produce amino acids, antibiotics and other products, which is equivalent to 5% of the grain output Therefore, the development of biomass industry is in line with China's energy and food security Emerging industries need growth space At present, two kinds of vague understanding of biomass industry need to be clarified One is that the biomass industry is in short supply and has little contribution to alleviating energy shortage The other is that the biomass industry is to replace oil with grain and turn "granary" into "oil tank" For the former, Fengyuan people have given excellent answers with practical actions; for the latter, it may be related to people's good wishes for renewable oil substitutes to enter the market, but we can't ignore that food is the source of human food and animal feed Even if food is used as raw material, it only plays the role of "dynamic regulator of food production" and "sells food" locally and temporarily In the case of "difficult", we should digest the surplus grain and protect the enthusiasm of farmers for grain production To solve the "three rural" problems, to protect the environment and improve the ecology, to ease the energy bottleneck, to build a conservation oriented society, to develop the circular economy, all call for the emerging biomass industry In the near starting line with developed countries, China has made significant progress in key technologies of biomass utilization, such as lignocellulose hydrolysis, microbial utilization, bioreactor and product purification technology Compared with the United States, China has certain advantages and can take the international leading position in this new industry We can't miss the historical opportunity We urgently need to formulate and implement a national major special plan to promote China's biomass industry, give full play to China's existing advantages in resources, technology, talent and system, and take a leading position in the international competition in the field of resources and materials in the new century (by Li Shizhong, professor and deputy director of China Agricultural University Student Material Engineering Center)