Effect Of Biomass Energy Utilization In Power Plants On Co-benefit Of Air Pollutants And CO₂ Emission Reduction In China

Replacing coal energy with biomass energy in power plants is important in reducing air pollutants and CO2 emissions in China.We first calculated the optimal economic transport radius(OETR)to evaluate the optimally available biomass(OAB)and the potentially available biomass(PAB)for the year of 2018.The OAB and PAB of power plants are estimated to be 423-1,013 Mt,with higher values found in the provinces with higher population and crop yields.The OAB of waste in China is 312 Mt,which is 4.6 and 7.2 times to the crop and forestry residue,respectively.If the OAB was burned in the biomass power plant or coal-biomass co-firing power plant,the NOx,SO2,PM10,PM2.5,and CO2 emissions would decrease by 10.6 kt,24.9 kt,25.8 kt,5.6 kt,and 187.8 Mt,respectively.Moreover,if all the PAB were consumed,the NOx,SO2,PM10,PM2.5,and CO2 emissions would decrease by 41.7 kt,115.3 kt,117.6 kt,26.0 kt,and 701.2 Mt,respectively.The scenario analysis results showed that the OAB will not be sufficient to meet the biomass power growth in 2030,2027,and 2025 under the baseline scenario(BS),policy scenario(PS),and reinforcement scenario(RS),respectively,whereas the CO2 emission will decrease by 294 Mt,265 Mt,and 247 Mt in 2030,2027,and 2025 under the BS,PS,and RS,respectively.Under scenario S2,the PAB will not be sufficient to meet the biomass power growth estimated for 2040,2035,and 2030 under the BS,PS,and RS scenarios,respectively,whereas the CO2 emission will dramatically decrease by 1,473 Mt in 2040 under the BS,1,271 Mt in 2035 under the PS,and 1,096 Mt in 2030 under the RS.The WRF-CMAQ was used to evaluate the changes of air pollutants concentrations under different scenarios for the year of 2018.The simulation results show that:Under the scenario S1,the average annual concentrations of NOx,SO2,PMio and PM2.5 are 32.53 μg/m3,10.98 μg/m3,30.37 μg/m3 and 24.13 μg/m3,respectively.Compared with the BS,the decrease rates were 5.31%,17.20%,20.17%and 12.25%,respectively.Under the scenario S2,the average annual concentrations of NOx,SO2,PM10 and PM2.5 are 30.52 μg/m3,8.73 μg/m3,24.00 μg/m3 and 18.42μg/m3,respectively.Compared with the BS,the decrease rates were 11.14%,34.13%,36.91%and 33.02%,respectively.Our findings indicate that the abundant biomass resources in China will bring significant co-benefits,reducing air pollutants and CO2 emissions,if biomass energy can be applied in power plants.