Experts paint picture of biomass power generation technology

"Last year, China imported 280 million tons of crude oil, and its foreign dependence on imports was as high as 58%. Is there an alternative source of energy?" In an interview with the reporter, Deputy Director of the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Energy Institute) Wu Nengyou naturally introduced the topic into the conversation.

Scientific orientation highlights features

The laboratory's predecessor, the former Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy and Gas Hydrates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was not well-focused due to the content and direction of the research, and was not conducive to the construction and development of disciplines. The energy sources discussed and decided to redeploy them. Approved by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it was officially renamed the Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013.

In recent years, the key laboratory has done a lot of special work in the research of renewable energy utilization technologies, such as the development of gasification and utilization technologies and devices for agricultural and forestry waste.

In this study, the researcher Wu Chuangzhi led scientists to solve various key technologies such as fluidized-bed gasification, tar cracking, low calorific value gas units, tar wastewater treatment, and system control and optimization, and formed the energy utilization technology of agricultural waste with Chinese characteristics. route.

Through the asymmetric design of the internal structure of the biomass gasifier and the principle of combining the internal and external circulations, they used the hybrid and composite gasification process to integrate the tar cracking technology and the gas purification technology to develop a biomass circulating fluidized bed. The key technologies of gasification and gas purification, independent development of low-calorie gas-fired internal combustion engine sets, and the establishment of China's first agricultural waste gasification combined cycle power generation system.

Among them, the maximum power generation efficiency of the 5MW biomass gasification combined cycle power generation demonstration project reaches about 27.8%, and the comprehensive technical performance has reached the international advanced level. The power generation system has been demonstrated and promoted at home and abroad. Since 2001, 27 biomass gasification power generation projects have been signed, with a total installed capacity of more than 40 MW. The cumulative sales of equipment contracts amounted to nearly 165 million yuan, and the annual new generation of power generation was nearly 100 million degrees. , The annual output value of more than 50 million yuan. This achievement won the second prize of the 2008 National Science and Technology Progress Award.

In addition, other areas have also made significant progress. Intensive use of high-value products and technologies, including biomass gases, liquids, solid fuels, bio-based materials, and chemical products, to create 100-ton grade lignocellulose to produce alcohol fuels and hundreds of tons of catalytic Synthetic bio-gasoline and other demonstration systems have filled the gaps in the country; the demonstration facilities such as the Island Marine Energy Independent Power Generation Demonstration Power Plant, the 10 kW Floating Duck Wave Power Generation, and the 10 kW Floating Wave Power Line Power Generation have filled the domestic gap.

"In recent years, key laboratories have undertaken a series of important national-level projects, such as the national '973' plan, the '863' plan, the support plan project, the National Natural Science Foundation of China's key projects, and major national special projects, major projects of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and There are a total of 319 items for important projects, etc. The total funding for the projects is 215.481 million yuan, said Wu Nengyou.

Forces the international frontier work

“Committed to solving the bottleneck problems of decentralized resources, poor stability, and low conversion efficiency in the development and utilization of renewable energy, and making forward-looking, fundamental, and strategic innovation contributions in important directions to form a group of representative and social influences. The intellectual property rights and research results have become China's first-class research and innovation base, talent cultivation base and high-tech radiation base in the field of renewable energy," Wu Nengyou expressed the development goals of the laboratory.

The laboratories are stepping up efforts to find new green energy sources, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, develop low-carbon economy, and research on rural energy and regional development. In the "one or two or four years" development plan of the Institute, the key is to achieve breakthroughs in the areas of "high-valued transformation and large-scale utilization of biomass energy" and "demonstration of distributed renewable energy independent systems" to address constraints. The bottleneck problem of China's energy development.

“Strengthening systematic research, solving key technologies, and formulating solutions needed by enterprises have always been one of the development ideas of key laboratories. A lot of enterprises in Guangdong Province intend to cooperate with them to find new energy instead of heavy oil, and jointly research and strive to obtain And local key support." Wu Nengyou said.

He said: “In terms of biomass, we are the main unit in China to undertake national projects, and also commissioned by the relevant units to develop a number of 10,000-ton biodiesel demonstration projects with their own technologies. The scale of such projects is 30,000 tons in Tianjin and Wenzhou. Up to 100,000 tons."

“The biodiesel plant we developed last year was sold to Vietnam and this year is also a kiloton-class aviation fuel that we have developed to fill the domestic gap. Since 2009, we are the director of the strategic alliance for technological innovation in the biomass energy industry led by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The long units are striving to solve the technical problems encountered in the development of the biomass industry.” According to Wu Nengyou’s above statements, the key laboratory relying on the Guangzhou Energy Institute is engaged in work that is important to China’s economic development.

Not only that, in the field of biomass energy, laboratories have formed multi-disciplinary multi-level research directions and built multi-channel biomass energy technology routes. The biomass resources used are both agricultural and forestry waste, organic waste, and energy grass. Energy algae. Products include biomass power generation, liquid fuels, gas fuels, solid dense molded fuels and bio-based chemicals, leading the domestic industrial technology development, the results have reached the international advanced level, and become the most influential biomass energy research institutions in China.

Do not fear difficulties and advance with the times

“We are a research institute with a small body size and lack more leading talents.” Wu Nengyou frankly stated that the laboratory is facing many difficulties on the way to development.

He frankly stated that from a development point of view, the key laboratories and the Guangzhou Institute of Energy, which they rely on, are still lacking in leading researchers. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen talent work and keep pace with the times in order to make greater contributions.

Wu Nengyou believes that in the future, in the aspect of biomass energy, the establishment of national key laboratories will be targeted for the application demonstration of multi-channel transformation of biomass energy, break through the constraints of the dispersion of bio-energy resources and higher costs, forming a suitable for China's resources characteristics The commercialization of biomass energy solutions will create an open research platform with clear strategic positioning, resource sharing, and international influence.

In the area of ​​non-carbon renewable energy: The development of large-scale, low-cost direct use of solar energy core technologies (including industrial heat utilization, photocatalytic utilization, etc.) will promote new models for solar non-power generation industries; development of ocean energy/deep geothermal efficiency Key technologies for power generation provide support for large-scale utilization of new renewable resources in the future. Through the application of individual technologies, we will lead and promote the development of non-carbon renewable energy technologies.

In the area of ​​distributed renewable energy systems, different technological routes will be adopted according to the different needs of communities, towns, villages, and islands, and the multi-energy complementary distributed renewable energy system will be used to build and operate in a stable manner to improve the independent renewable energy system. The stability will break through the constraints of the dispersion and instability of renewable energy resources and promote the transformation of renewable energy utilization patterns.

In terms of low-carbon development, we will face the important global trend of developing a low-carbon economy, study low-carbon development mechanisms and strategies, vigorously develop low-carbon technologies and application demonstrations, and provide basis for national and regional energy development and economic low-carbon development.

Talking about the future of key laboratories, Wu Nengyou believes that on the one hand, it is necessary to integrate relevant research forces, exert their respective advantages, improve the ability to synthesize and innovate, and compete for and complete major tasks; on the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen team building and improve the overall team. Quality, reasonable absorption of mobile talent.

List of major achievements

1. Research and application of series technology for recycling and recycling of organic solid waste

Scientists in the laboratory proposed a model for comprehensive utilization of maximum resources and energy based on the differences in organic solid waste degradation, and developed biotransformation and thermal conversion system technologies, complete sets of equipment, and a series of high-value green products.

In the course of the experiment, technologies such as automatic garbage sorting, high-value pretreatment and secondary pollution reduction control, and key technologies for the production of heat conversion such as combustible gas, hot steam, and electricity were developed, which are solid waste energy cleanup utilization systems. The project provides key technical support.

The city's municipal solid waste resource utilization technology has been developed, with a capacity reduction rate of over 95% and a resource utilization rate of 85%. The results have been promoted and applied at home and abroad. The cumulative treatment capacity has exceeded 45.5 million tons, and 6.7 million mu of bio-organic fertilizer has been promoted. The annual savings of heavy oil is 84,200 tons and the economic benefit is about 3 billion yuan. The project won the second prize of 2011 National Science and Technology Progress Award.

2. Key technologies and industrial applications of biodiesel continuous green production

The project promotes the application of solid catalysts in the biodiesel production industry, and breaks through the bottleneck of continuous production of biodiesel from waste oil as a raw material. For the first time, the domestic use of anhydrous purification purification biodiesel, to achieve bio-diesel pollution-free, green production. Through modularized process design, the development of biodiesel equipment standardization is promoted, the existing domestic biodiesel industry structure is optimized, and the competitiveness of the biodiesel industry is enhanced. At present, it has established extensive cooperation with many companies such as Longyan, Tianjin, Hong Kong and Wenzhou, which has created great economic benefits for enterprises and the society and promoted the application and technology market of biodiesel industry.

3. Kiloton biomass gasification synthesis dimethyl ether demonstration device
Biomass DME can replace LPG as a household life energy, and can be used as vehicle power fuel, chemical raw materials, fine chemical products and so on. Using proprietary intellectual property technology, a 1,000-ton biomass gasification synthesis dimethyl ether demonstration unit was built at the Guangdong Boroo pilot base, and a successful commissioning trial was completed to achieve complete process integration. The current operating results show that the target product dimethyl ether selectivity of more than 90%.

The system uses resource-rich agricultural and forestry waste as raw materials, and is converted into high grade dimethyl ether (DME) fuel through gasification synthesis and co-produces electricity and high value-added products. The success of the 1,000-ton biomass gasification synthesis demonstration device for dimethyl ether indicates that China's independent property rights for biomass gasification and dimethyl ether synthesis have preliminary industrialization capabilities, and have a positive impact on the high-end development of biomass chemicals.

4. High-efficiency solar heat-absorbing coating R&D and industrial application

After a technical breakthrough, the project finally formed a mature technology solution for the preparation of a solar energy selective absorption coating on a flat collector core using a continuous vacuum coating method, and successfully developed the first solar collector core coil in China. An annual production capacity of 30,000 m2 pilot production line around the coating, to achieve a continuous, stable, low-cost, non-polluting solar thermal coating.

The project has solved many problems in key materials, preparation processes, and production equipment. It has obtained a complete set of patented technology with completely independent intellectual property rights, and independently developed a set of production equipment that costs only 1/5 of the international counterparts. The entire production process Zero pollution, zero emissions, pure green preparation. The production of magnetron sputtering coating with low cost and high performance will inevitably break the monopoly of the domestic market by German coating products, and provide strong support for the flat plate collector industry in China to develop towards high performance and enhance global competitiveness. .