Advances in Biogas Technology - Biotechnology in China: Biofuels and Bioenergy - page 133

5. This project also installed two film dry biogas storage and biogas boilers
(2 tons/h), which ensures zero emission of biogas in the generator maintenance
period.
Currently, challenges for livestock waste-based biogas fermentation technology
in China mainly lie in two aspects: (1) The industry chains of the biogas projects
for livestock and poultry farms are not complete, which lowers the benefit of
biogas projects. Even worse, secondary pollution may occur. (2) The level of
industrialization is limited, because the key parts and matching equipment are
mostly manufactured in small batches. The level of standardization is low.
Specialized complete equipment and standardized biogas projects have not yet
been developed.
2.2.4 Municipal Solid Waste
Along with the change of city garbage status and mode management, China's
urban domestic waste management mode is evolving from pure terminal treatment
to source control and comprehensive management. Many large landfill plants have
been built in recent years. For the landfill disposal process, methane release is one
critical issue needs to be addressed, and the problem is becoming more and
more prominent [ 33 ]. To address this, several departments in China, including the
state planning commission, state environmental protection administration, state
economic and trade commission, and ministries of finance, construction and
science & technology, jointly compiled and released the ''National action plan on
China city waste landfill gas collection and use'' in 2002. It is estimated that, by
2015, the harmless handling of urban waste landfill in China will reach 60-70%,
and the annual garbage treatment capacity will reach 179 million tons, 60% of
which (about 110 million tons) will be subjected to sanitary landfill disposal.
If each kilogram of waste produces 0.06-0.44 m 3 Biogas, and on the assumption
that we recycle all the biogas generated from the landfill, an equivalent of 10-70
billion m 3 of biogas can then be obtained. The minimum value of 10 billion m 3 is
equal to the present coal-bed methane production in China, and the maximum
value of 70 billion m 3 is equal to one fifth of the natural gas production of the
whole country. As can be seen, the amount of biogas generated from the landfill
can be amazing. Meanwhile, reducing the methane emissions is also important for
environmental protection [ 34 ].
In China, the technology of landfill methane production from city garbage
started late, and the relevant research began only about two years ago. In 1997, the
environmental protection administration initiated the program of ''Promoting
China's Urban Waste Landfill Methane Gas Collection and Use'' in Nanjing,
Anshan and Ma'anshan. At present, Nanjing has already successfully reached the
goal of power generation from collected landfill gas. The project ''Collect Methane
Used in Automobile Fuel'' in Anshan and project ''Collect Methane Used in
Hospital Poisonous and Harmful Waste Incineration'' in Ma'anshan have also been