Advances in Biogas Technology - Biotechnology in China: Biofuels and Bioenergy - page 124

Table 2 Selected anaerobic biogas projects in China [ 15 ]
Province/city Number Proportion (%)

Shandong 105 29.09

Sichuan 37 10.25

Jiangsu 36 9.97

Henan 20 5.54

Anhui 17 4.71

Guangdong 17 4.71

Zhejiang 17 4.71

Liaoning 16 4.43

Beijing 16 4.43

Hebei 15 4.16

Jilin 14 3.88

Guangxi 11 3.05

Hunan 11 3.05

Hubei 11 3.05

Tianjin 9 2.49

Heilongjiang 9 2.49

starch, monosodium glutamate, beverage, and paper industries. If the organic
matter contained in these waste streams can be converted into biogas, then 63.5
million m 3 of biogas would be produced per year [ 12 ].
By October 2003, 406 sites of industrial-scale biogas projects had been built.
The total volume of anaerobic engineering facilities reached 1.5 million m 3 , with
an average of 2,500 m 3 per block. The annual capacities for wastewater treatment
and biogas production were 150 million m 3 and 10 billion m 3 , respectively. Tables
1 and 2 list the biogas plants classified by waste type and regional location.
As can be seen from Table 1 , China's biogas projects have been widely applied
for treatment of wastewater from about 20 industries, of which the wastewater
from the alcohol, starch, beer, fermentation, slaughtering and pharmaceutical
industries accounted for about 90%.
Taicang Xintai Alcohol Co., Ltd. produces 56,000 tons of alcohol each year.
Cassava is used as the raw material, and the wastewater discharged was
1,500-2,000 ton/year [ 13 ]. This is a type of acidic organic wastewater that has
high density and high SS concentration. The chemical oxygen demand (COD)
concentration is 50,000-60,000 mg/L with an average of 57,500 mg/L. The SS is
about 20,000-30,000 mg/L and pH is 3-4.
In 1998, the company invested 20 million RMB Yuan to build a biogas tech-
nology-based sewage treatment plant, which covers an area of 1,600 m 2 . The entire
treatment process includes full-mixing anaerobic digestion (CSTR 2,200 m 3 9 6) +
UASB anaerobic treatment (1,000 m 3 ) + SBR aerobic treatment (1,884 m 3 9 2).
To further recover electricity from the produced biogas, in 2002 and 2003 the
company added 8.8 million Yuan investment to upgrade the process based on the
existing gas production plant and captive power plant. A new 600 kW generator
that burns biogas and a set of gas purification equipment for the existing stream