COFCO: Helping "carbon peak, carbon neutrality" to solve the dilemma of the fuel ethanol industry

Source: Orient Net

The national carbon emissions trading market will officially open on July 16 this year. According to statistics, after the launch of the national carbon market, the coverage emissions will exceed 4 billion tons, becoming the world's largest carbon trading market covering greenhouse gas emissions. This measure has become an important step for China to accelerate the realization of the goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", and also shows China's determination to fulfill its commitments.

Since September 2020, When China solemnly announced to the world that "carbon dioxide emissions will strive to peak by 2030 and strive to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060", relevant major measures have been accelerated.

In this context, as an important part of China's strategic emerging industries, the development of biofuel ethanol has received more and more attention. Some experts said that in terms of transportation emission reductions, although electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles are often regarded as the main solution, even if all new cars are changed to electric vehicles from now on, the renewal of the entire automotive industry will still take decades, with extremely high time costs and opportunity costs, while biofuel ethanol is seen by many countries as a more direct solution.

According to a comprehensive study by the International Energy Agency and the International Food and Agriculture Organization, both bio-liquid fuels can reduce greenhouse gas emissions to some extent. Statistics show that between 2008 and 2020, the United States used bio-liquid fuels, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 980 million tons. Biofuel ethanol is playing an increasing role in combating climate change and decarbonizing transport fuels.

In China, biofuel ethanol has achieved rapid development in recent years. As early as 2000, under the great attention and support of the state, China's first biofuel ethanol production line was put into operation at the Zhaodong factory of COFCO Technology under COFCO Group, which opened the curtain on the development of the domestic biofuel ethanol industry. After more than 20 years of promotion, the production capacity of biofuel ethanol has increased from less than 400,000 tons/year in early 2000 to more than 5 million tons/year at present, and the promotion area has also expanded from the initial Heilongjiang and Henan to the current 12 provinces and regions (cities) in the country.

Among them, among all kinds of biofuel ethanol, cellulosic ethanol as an important development direction of biofuels and a realistic choice for alternative fuel petroleum, the development has attracted much attention. As early as 2006, COFCO group carried out the research and development of cellulosic fuel ethanol technology through independent innovation and integrated innovation, and broke through key technical barriers, developed key supporting equipment for cellulosic fuel ethanol suitable for national conditions, and filled the gap in the domestic industry. At present, the advanced technology and equipment supporting scheme of cellulosic fuel ethanol developed by COFCO are in the international advanced and domestic leading position, which has laid a good foundation for the industrialization and promotion of cellulosic fuel ethanol.

The manufacture of cellulosic fuel ethanol is based on agricultural and forestry waste or energy plants as raw materials, and compared with the first generation fuel ethanol produced from corn, wheat and other food crops and the 1.5 generation fuel ethanol produced from non-grain crops such as cassava, the raw material sources are extensive, and the emission reduction compared with fossil fuels is more than 70%. Moreover, China's agricultural and forestry waste resources are abundant, the development potential is large, in the domestic grain supply and demand for a long time in the context of tight balance, the development of cellulosic fuel ethanol will be an effective way to solve the dilemma of China's fuel ethanol industry.

According to the International Energy Agency, global bio-liquid fuel consumption will reach 1.1 billion tons by 2050, accounting for 27% of the world's transportation fuels, and will rely mainly on the development of cellulosic fuel ethanol technology. Recently, the National Energy Administration issued the "2021 Energy Work Guidance" clearly stated that it is necessary to accelerate the demonstration of non-grain biofuel ethanol industry such as cellulose, pointing out that the development of cellulose fuel ethanol will be the key direction of biofuel ethanol.

After years of development, the bioenergy industry represented by biofuel ethanol has begun to take shape, the supply chain system is becoming more and more perfect, and the industry continues to develop steadily. In the context of the goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", with the strong support of relevant policies, it is believed that the cellulosic fuel ethanol industry will have great potential.