Biodiesel From Conventional Feedstocks - Biotechnology in China: Biofuels and Bioenergy - page 66

including Tsinghua University, Beijing University of Chemical Technology,
Sichuan University, China Agriculture University, Chinese Academy of Forestry,
Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion and Harbin Forest University are
actively engaged in biodiesel R&D [ 3 - 7 ].
However, China's biodiesel industry is in its infancy. The total output nation-
wide was only tens of thousands of tons in 2010, although the production capacity
was more than 1 million tons. The major industrial players involved in biodiesel
production are given in Table 2 .
6 Summary
Biodiesel is an emerging industry in China, and presents increasing market
potential. Inspired by the business opportunities evident in the ''Dual Concepts'' of
green energy and support for the agriculture industry, many enterprises enter this
industry. Through an overview on biodiesel development in developed countries
such as America, Germany, and Japan, and less developed countries such as South
Africa, Brazil, Korea, India, and Thailand, we found that they provide China with
good examples of the development of this alternative fuel industry from the
aspects of policies, technologies, facilities, vehicle manufacturing, etc.
In 2020, the number of motor vehicles in China will reach 130-150 million, and
the demand of fuels will correspondingly increase to about 256 million tons (Mt),
about 85 Mt of gasoline and 171 Mt of diesel from petroleum or biodiesel. The
available amount of biodiesel by that time will depend on land resources
for woody oil plants as sustainable feedstocks for biodiesel production. Even if
conflicts between energy forestry and traditional forestry, which focuses on timber
production, could arise due to China's long-term forestry formulation policy,
research on biodiesel production and investigations on land availability for energy
forestry have been carried out.
When people know more about its advantages, biodiesel will be accepted more
widely. The gap between market demand for biodesel and its limited output will
make the product be in short supply, and thus increase its economic competi-
tiveness. Meanwhile, tight product quality control and waste treatment will be
applied to biodiesel production, and producers should increase their investment in
technology innovation and improve their product quality.
References
1. Tan TW, Shang F, Zhang X (2010) Current development of biorefinery in China. Biotechnol
Adv 28(5):543
2. Du W, Li W, Sun T, Chen X, Liu DH (2008) Perspectives for biotechnological production of
biodiesel and impacts. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 79(3):331
3. Min EZ, Du ZX (2010) Perspectives of biodiesel industry in China. Eng Sci 12(2):11
(Chinese)