Waste Management 30 (2010) 808813

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Waste Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman

The development of agro-residue densied fuel in China based on

energetics analysis
Longjian Chen a, Li Xing b, Lujia Han a,*
a
b

Center for Biomass Resource Utilization, College of Engineering, China Agricultural University (East Campus), 17 Qing-Hua-Dong-Lu, Hai-Dian District, Beijing 100083, PR China
Service Center for Trading Technology Service, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Mechanization Sciences, Beijing 100083, PR China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Accepted 14 December 2009
Available online 13 January 2010

a b s t r a c t
Agro-residue is one of the important biomass resources in China and its efcient utilization is crucial for
providing bio-energy, releasing risk of environmental pollution, and enhancing rural incomes. Densication is one of the important utilization routes of agro-residues. The objective of this paper is to explore
the development of agro-residue densied fuel in China based on energetics analysis. The energetical
property and energy potential of main agro-residues in China were rstly analyzed and then the development of agro-residue densied fuel in every region was evaluated based on energetics analysis. The
results show that the main agro-residues in China are good feedstocks as densied fuel and they constitute enormous energy potential for developing densied fuel. However, the situation of every region
should be considered for the development of agro-residue densied fuel. The primary energy embodied
per unit of useful energy indicates that most of the regions in China are suitable for developing agro-residue densied fuel as it is energetically advantageous compared with coal, whereas only about 25% of
regions near coal production locations are not suitable as they are less energetically advantageous.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
China is an agricultural country and the yield of agro-residues in
2007 reached about 700 million tones (NBSC, 2008). Due to their
tremendous amount, agro-residues play an important role in biomass resource in China. Currently, these agro-residue resources
have four utilization routes: as industrial material, as fertilizer directly returned to the eld, as livestock feeding, and as fuel. The
relative proportion of agro-residues used as livestock feeding is
also nally returned to the eld. The utilization pathway not only
increases production for animal husbandry, but also maintains soil
organic matter. Compared with other pathways, utilization as fuel
is the most important one with about 50% of total utilization
amount, followed by livestock feeding (about 30%), fertilizer (about
15%), and paper making industry (about 5%) (Han et al., 2003). The
utilization amount of agro-residues only accounted for about 65%
of total yearly output and the remaining agro-residues were discarded as waste (Xiang, 2005). If including the existing fuel utilization, the amount of available agro-residues for developing fuel
industry is over 60% of the total yearly output. This indicates that
developing fuel industry from agro-residues in China has a strong
feedstock support.

* Corresponding author. Address: College of Engineering, China Agricultural

University (East Campus), P.O. Box 191, 17 Qing-Hua-Dong-Lu, Beijing 100083, PR
China. Tel.: +86 10 62736313; fax: +86 10 62736778.
E-mail addresses: clj1020@googlemail.com, hanlj@cau.edu.cn (L. Han).
0956-053X/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2009.12.012

Densication is one of the many important technologies converting agro-residues into fuel (Zeng et al., 2007). Densication
technology has many advantages. Firstly, it can improve the characteristics of agro-residues for collection, transportation and storage. Secondly, densication technology increases energy density,
resulting in higher energy efciency during combustion. Some
researchers investigated energy difference of loose and densied
biomass (Wilen et al., 1987). The results showed that energy density of densied biomass was vefold higher than that of loose biomass. Finally, densied fuel has widely used pathways, such as
serving residential, commercial and industrial applications.
For investigating the development feasibility of agro-residue
densied fuel in China, the energetical property and energy potential of main agro-residues in China were rstly analyzed and then
the development of agro-residue densied fuel in every region was
evaluated based on energetics analysis. The result of this study can
be used to optimize area layout for developing agro-residue densied fuel in China.
2. Physicochemical properties of main agro-residues in China
Unlike conventional energy feedstock, agro-residues have complex physicochemical properties that complicate the processing
and combustion of agro-residue densied fuel (Werther et al.,
2000). The main physicochemical properties of interest can be
characterized by proximate and elemental analyses. For proximate
analysis, moisture content (MC), volatile matter (VM), xed carbon

809

NA(NA)
0.87(0.61)
0.32(0.27)
0.27(0.08)
0.57(0.67)
0.16(0.07)
0.18(0)
0.30(NA)
0.28(NA)
3.50(NA)
0.15(NA)
0.72(0.43)

MC moisture content, AC ash content, FC xed carbon, VM volatile matter, CV caloric value, NA not available.
The data of rice shuck sourced from Chen et al. (1999), whereas the data of other agro-residues sourced from Liao et al. (2004).
MC, AC, VM, FC and CV were determined using as-received basis.
N, C, S, H and O were determined using as-received basis, whereas K, Na and Ca were determined using dry basis.
c

Ca (g/kg)
Na (g/kg)
K (g/kg)

NA(NA)
21.97(8.06)
15.66(3.72)
14.38(4.44)
14.30(7.68)
9.99(2.77)
9.67(0.82)
6.85(NA)
12.33(NA)
10.89(NA)
9.81(NA)
9.09(0.27)
31.29(NA)
39.28(2.14)
40.51(2.67)
45.97(1.51)
42.69(2.11)
44.76(2.42)
42.79(0.05)
42.47(NA)
45.16(NA)
46.10(NA)
46.66(NA)
43.35(2.63)

O (wt.%)
H (wt.%)

4.92(NA)
6.13(0.49)
6.53(0.46)
6.89(0.10)
6.16(0.81)
6.90(0.13)
6.74(0.27)
7.18(NA)
6.57(NA)
7.06(NA)
6.66(NA)
6.85(0.39)
0.05(NA)
0.29(0.17)
0.32(0.10)
0.11(0.05)
0.21(0.13)
0.20(0.04)
0.18(0.05)
0.28(NA)
0.29(NA)
0.27(NA)
0.39(NA)
0.26(0.09)

S (wt.%)
C (wt.%)

38.07(NA)
38.52(1.03)
42.11(2.12)
44.53(0.50)
42.69(1.47)
43.16(1.13)
45.90(0.54)
40.28(NA)
41.34(NA)
42.42(NA)
44.54(NA)
46.10(0.49)
0.40(NA)
0.69(0.21)
0.58(0.28)
0.49(0.12)
0.99(0.20)
0.95(0.28)
1.17(0.09)
2.06(NA)
0.81(NA)
0.23(NA)
1.23(NA)
1.09(0.10)

N (wt.%)
CV (MJ/kg)

14.78(NA)
14.66(0.71)
16.56(1.05)
16.98(0.64)
16.64(0.38)
16.96(0.62)
18.62(0.21)
15.75(NA)
15.92(NA)
16.65(NA)
17.88(NA)
17.91(0.47)
15.99(NA)
15.54(1.36)
14.96(1.49)
15.8(1.85)
14.83(2.13)
15.62(0.17)
16.85(0.71)
15.66(NA)
17.30(NA)
17.26(NA)
20.74(NA)
18.57(1.14)

FC (wt.%)
VM (wt.%)
AC (wt.%)

60.38(NA)
61.10(2.51)
63.96(7.29)
70.24(6.43)
62.74(6.15)
68.95(1.74)
61.64(1.90)
66.67(NA)
68.93(NA)
72.99(NA)
62.16(NA)
67.36(3.49)

MC (wt.%)

13.24(NA)
15.25(2.64)
12.45(9.02)
7.55(6.91)
13.12(8.79)
6.08(1.10)
12.15(3.02)
9.12(NA)
6.11(NA)
3.60(NA)
6.88(NA)
6.41(3.08)

Elemental analysisd
Average value (standard deviation)
Proximate analysisc
Average value (standard deviation)
Residueb

Table 1
The proximate and elemental analyses of main agro-residues.a

The MC of agro-residues is important not only for the combustion properties (Obernberger and Thek, 2004), but also for the densication process as water increases the contact area of the
particles and thereby strengthens bonding via van der Waals
forces (Mani et al., 2003; Shaw, 2008). Generally cellulosic raw
materials with MC ranging from 5% to 15% are preferable because
the densied fuel within the range had good combustion and densication properties. High MC (P15%) not only decreases energy
conversion efciency, but also results in steam formation in the
briquette machine, and steam explosion may occur when the pressure is released, which breaks the briquettes (Grover and Mishra,
1996; Stevens and Verhe, 2004). Mani and colleagues (Mani
et al., 2003) found that corn stover with low moisture (510%) produced denser, more stable and more durable densied fuel than
that with high moisture (15%). The raw material with low MC
(65%) is also not suitable for densied fuel. The densication of
this type of cellulosic materials is more difcult and needs more
energy consumption compared with those containing appropriate
MC. Moreover the densied fuel at this MC level tends to absorb
moisture from the air and expand signicantly, and thereby become fragile (Li and Liu, 2000). Table 1 shows that MC of main
agro-residues in China ranged from 6.41% to 10.39% and was within acceptable range.
The VM, FC, and AC are closely related with combustion properties of agro-residues. The chemical energy in fuel is stored in two
forms, VM and FC. Generally fuel with high VM content ignited easily and was highly reactive in combustion application (Werther
et al., 2000), whereas fuel with high FC content had long combustion time (Pichtel, 2005). The VM and FM contents provide the
measure for combustion energy of agro-residues. This has been observed by some previous studies, where the VM and FC contents of
agro-residues had positive correlations with their heating values
(Demirbas, 1997; Huang, 2008; Sheng and Azevedo, 2005). The
AC determined the available energy of agro-residues by inverse
proportion relationship (Huang et al., 2008). From Table 1, it can
be observed that AC of main agro-residues in China ranged from
3.60% to 15.25% and VM was in the range of 60.3872.99%, whereas
AC and VM in bituminous coal were 20% and 28%, respectively.
Therefore, agro-residues had the advantages of low AC value and
high VM value (Liao et al., 2004). Another parameter of proximate
analysis is CV which denes the energy content of fuel. It can be
used to evaluate energy potential, nd usage area, determine its
price, and properly design thermal systems (Akkaya, 2008). The
CV of main agro-residues in China ranged from 14.66 to
18.62 MJ/kg. These values are comparable to CV of lignite coal
(Jiang et al., 2006) and are equal to 0.50.6 standard coal equivalent (Zheng et al., 2007). All the parameters of proximate analysis
indicate that most of main agro-residues in China are ideal

10.39(NA)
8.11(1.51)
8.63(2.03)
6.41(2.81)
9.31(2.05
9.34(1.88)
9.36(0.41)
8.56(NA)
7.66(NA)
6.15(NA)
10.23(NA)
7.66(1.86)

2.1. Proximate analysis

Rice shuck
Rice straw
Wheat straw
Corn cob
Corn straw
Soybean straw
Peanut shuck
Peanut stalk
Sesame stalk
Rape stalk
Cotton shuck
Cotton stalk

(FC), and ash content (AC) in agro-residues are determined as

weight percent, and caloric value (CV) is determined in MJ/kg.
On the other hand, elemental analysis species the content of
the elements in the material as, for example, carbon (C), hydrogen
(H), oxygen (O), sulfur (S), nitrogen (N), potassium (K), natrium
(Na), and calcium (Ca). Although some previous researchers reported some specic values of these parameters (Chen et al.,
1999), these properties may vary signicantly with regional location. Liao et al. (2004) collected representative samples based on
the investigation of the distribution and quantity of agro-residue
resource in China. These agro-residue samples were obtained from
the main production regions such as East China, South China, North
China and North-west China. Table 1 lists the proximate and elemental analyses of main agro-residues in China (Chen et al.,
1999; Liao et al., 2004).

NA(NA)
4.54(1.51)
6.53(3.88)
9.81(6.79)
9.23(4.21)
16.16(1.18)
10.91(2.75)
23.30(NA)
19.35(NA)
10.77(NA)
9.73(NA)
10.35(6.31)

L. Chen et al. / Waste Management 30 (2010) 808813

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L. Chen et al. / Waste Management 30 (2010) 808813

K (6.85 g/kg), Na (0.15 g/kg) and Ca (4.54 g/kg) contents,

respectively.

Table 2
Energy potential of main agro-residues in China in 2007.a
Crop

RCRb

PCc (104 tonne/year)

gd (tce/tonne)

Q (107 tce/year)

Rice
Wheat
Corn
Soybeans
Peanut
Sesame
Rape
Cotton
Total

0.6
1.3
2.0
1.5
1.5
2.0
3.0
3.0

18603.4
10929.8
15230.0
1720.1
1302.7
55.7
1057.3
762.3

0.429
0.500
0.529
0.543
0.500
0.500
0.529
0.543

3.23
4.80
10.88
0.95
0.66
0.04
1.13
0.84
22.53

a
RCR ratio of crop to residue, PC the amount of product crop, g coefcient
equal to tonne of standard coal equivalent (tce), Q energy potential.
b
Source: MAO/DOE Project (MOA/DOE, 1998).
C
Source: China Statistical Yearbook (NBSC, 2008).
D
Source: MAO/DOE Project (MOA/DOE, 1998).

feedstocks for densied fuel because they have high VM/FC/CV and
low MC/AC.

2.2. Elemental analysis

The agro-residues are composed of elements C, H, O, N, S, K, Na
and Ca where the former three are the major, representing more
than 95% of the organic mass. From Table 1, it can be observed that
the results of the elemental analysis of main agro-residues in China
are not signicantly different from those of main agro-residues in
other regions (Gaur and Reed, 1998). The contents of three main
elements (C, H and O) were in the ranges of 38.0746.10%, 4.92
7.18% and 31.2946.66%, respectively. The elemental contents partially determine energetical properties of agro-residues. Some previous researchers found that CV of biomass increased with C and H
contents (Demirbas, 1997). Recently, our laboratory also obtained
similar results on the rice and wheat straw of China (Huang
et al., 2009). Elements Na, K and Ca are also called the ash-forming
elements (Liao et al., 2004). These elements were easily reacted
with silica present in the ash and hereby resulted in some combustion problems, such as slagging, fouling and sintering (Liao et al.,
2004; McKendry, 2002). Therefore, ideal feedstock as fuel is expected to have low ash-forming elements content. In these agroresidues, peanut stalk, cotton shuck and rice straw have the lowest

3. Energy potential of agro-residues in China

Energy potential was estimated by the production and heating
value of agro-residues. The model for estimating energy potential
was written as follows:

n
X

ni  PCi  RCRi  gi

i1

where ni is the ratio of the i-th agro-residue available for densied

fuel and it was set to 0.675 according to the present utilization of
agro-residues in China (Han et al., 2003; Xiang, 2005), PCi is the
amount of the i-th crop product (tonne/year), RCRi is residue to crop
ratio, gi is the coefcient equal to tonne of standard coal equivalent
(tce) for the i-th agro-residue, and Q is the energy potential (tce/
year).
It should be noted that the research only evaluated energy potential resource and did not take into account the conversion efciency. The estimated energy potential of agro-residues in 2007 in
China was 2.25  108 tce (Table 2). This is approximately equal to
10% of total energy consumption of China in 2007 (NBSC and NBEC,
2009). This indicates enormous potential for developing densied
fuel from agro-residues. The three largest contributors to energy
potential, amounting to more than 84%, are from corn, wheat,
and rice, respectively. The distribution of energy potential in China
in 2007 was also analyzed (Fig. 1). It is shown that signicant differences exist among agro-residue energy potential of different
provinces. For example, three provinces including Henan, Shangdon and Hebei contribute to about 30% of total energy potential
from agro-residues in China, whereas six provinces including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hainan, Xizang and Qinghai only account
for about 1% of total energy potential from agro-residues in China.
This indicates that the region factor plays an important role in
developing densied fuel from agro-residues.
4. Energetics analysis of densied fuel from agro-residues
The primary energy embodied per unit of useful energy is an
important index of energetics analysis of fuel. It can be used to

Fig. 1. The distribution of energy potential in China in 2007 (NBSC, 2008).

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L. Chen et al. / Waste Management 30 (2010) 808813

evaluate energetical viability of fuel. Recently, Purohit and colleagues (Purohit et al., 2006) proposed a model to calculate the primary energy embodied per unit of useful energy (PPEI) as follows:

PPEI

PEIP PEIT
PEIU

where PEIP, PEIT and PEIU are energy consumption for producing fuel
(MJ/t), energy consumption for transporting fuel from producing to
end-use point (MJ/t), and useful energy embodied in fuel product
(MJ/t), respectively. The PEIT and PEIU are calculated by using the following equations:

PEIT EIt  Dt

PEIU CV  w

where EIt is energy intensity of fuel transportation (MJ/(tkm)), Dt is

the distance between producing and end-use point (km), and w is
the efciency of utilization of fuel in the boil.
For describing energy viability of agro-residue densied fuel
more straightforwardly, the PPEI of agro-residue densied fuel
was compared with that of coal because the coal is dominated fuel
used in boiler application in China. The agro-residue densied fuel
is energetically justied only if the primary energy embodied per
unit of useful energy delivered by agro-residues briquettes is less
than that by coal, i.e. PPEIc P PPEIb, where subscripts c and b denote
coal and agro-residues, respectively. If substituting Eqs. (3) and (4)
into PPEIc P PPEIb, thus

PEIPc EItc Dtc

PEIPb EItb Dtb
P
CV c gc
CV b gb

From Eq. (5), the critical distance of coal transportation beyond

which agro-residue densied fuel can be preferred over coal transportation, Dtc, can be determined as

Dtc

1
EItc



CV c wc
EItb Dtb PEIPb  PEIPc
CV b wb


6

The values of model parameters in Eq. (6) are listed in Table 3.

Transport mode determines transport energy consumption intensity. In China, coal is mainly transported by train, truck and ship,
which accounted for 60%, 10% and 30% of coal transport amount
(Zhao and Yu, 2007). The transport energy consumption intensity
of the three routes (Hu, 2008) is 0.35 MJ/(tkm), 2.89 MJ/(tkm)
and 0.79 MJ/(tkm), respectively. Therefore, EItb is easily calculated
by the following equation: 0.35  0.60 + 2.89  0.1 + 0.79 
0.30 = 0.74 MJ/(tkm). Compared with coal, agro-residue densied
fuel usually has short transport distance and hence its transport
is mainly executed by truck (EItc = 2.89 MJ/(tkm)). The CVb value
depends on agro-residue type and part (Table 2). The Dtb value is
set to 50 km in this study considering transport energy consumption and utilization range. Under the set of Dtb = 50 km the radiated
area of p  50  50 = 7850 km2 is obtained, which indicates considerable utilization range for densied fuel production. Another

reason for not setting higher Dtb value is transport energy consumption. The densied fuel is mainly transported by truck and
its transport energy consumption intensity is high to 2.89 MJ/
(tkm) (Hu, 2008). This study does not also adopt lower Dtb value
(<50 km) for ensuring the utilization range of densied fuel. Therefore, we use Dtb = 50 km as a starting point in this study. The PEIPb
includes all the energy consumptions during the collection and
processing of agro-residues and is determined by briquette production capacity and raw material processing condition (Purohit
et al., 2006). In this study, briquette production capacity is set to
500 kg/h due to small-scale production mode in rural areas of China. In this level, the values of PEIPb on ne granulated, coarse granulated and stalky agro-residues under dry condition are set to 659,
1147 and 1345 MJ/t, respectively (Purohit et al., 2006).
Based on the above-mentioned model parameters, the calculated Dtc values by Eq. (6) for main agro-residues in China are listed
in Table 4. As shown in Table 4, the energetical viability of briquetting agro-residues strongly depends on the part and type of agroresidues. Generally speaking, the critical distance based on agroresidue shuck material is about 1050 km, whereas the critical distance based on agro-residue stalky material is about 2400 km. The
difference in the critical distance is also observed for different
types of agro-residues, such as the critical distance varied from
912 km for peanut shuck to 1248 km for rice shuck.
We have investigated Dtc model response to the variation of a
single parameter within the range of 20% variation, keeping the
other parameters constant at the reference value. The minimum
(Dtcmin) and maximum (Dtcmax) critical distances of coal transportation, which are obtained with the Dtc model when changing the
parameter value, have been used to calculate the variability index
(VI) of the studied parameter according to the following equation:

VI 1 

Dtcmin
Dtcmax

The VI values for each parameter in Dtc model are shown in

Table 5. The VI value ranges from 0 to 1. A value close to 0 means
that the parameter has a low impact on Dtc, whereas a value close
Table 4
The critical distance of coal transportation for main agro-residues in China.
Agro-residue

Critical distance of coal transportation (Dtc, km)

Rice shuck
Rice straw
Wheat straw
Corn cob
Corn straw
Soybean straw
Peanut shuck
Peanut stalk
Sesame stalk
Rape stalk
Cotton shuck
Cotton stalk

1248
2663
2314
1898
2301
2251
912
2453
2422
2300
966
2111

Table 3
Input parameters used in Eq. (6).
Parameter

Value

Reference

Transport energy intensity of coal (EItc), MJ/(tkm)

Transport energy intensity of agro-residue densied fuel by truck (EItb), MJ/(tkm)
Caloric value of coal (Grade Q-21, No. 195) (CVc), MJ/kg
Efciency of utilization of coal in the boiler (wc)
Efciency of utilization of agro-residue densied fuel in the boiler (wb)
Distance between producing and end-use point (Dtb), km
Energy consumption in coal production (PEIPc), MJ/t

0.74
2.89
19
0.7
0.6
50
281.3
659 (Fine granulated material)
1147 (Coarse granulated material)
1345 (Stalky material)

Hu (2008)
Hu (2008)
Jiang et al. (2006)
Liu (2007)
(Liu (2007)

Energy consumption in the production of agro-residue densied fuel (PEIPb), MJ/t

Zheng et al. (2007)

Purohit et al. (2006)

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L. Chen et al. / Waste Management 30 (2010) 808813

Table 5
Sensitivity analysis of parameters in critical distance model of coal transportation for
main agro-residues in China.a
Agro-residue

Rice shuck
Rice straw
Wheat straw
Corn cob
Corn straw
Soybean
straw
Peanut shuck
Peanut stalk
Sesame stalk
Rape stalk
Cotton shuck
Cotton stalk

Variability index (VI)

PEIPc

EItc

EItb

CVc

CVb

wc

wb

Dtb

PEIPb

0.11
0.06
0.06
0.08
0.06
0.07

0.33
0.33
0.33
0.33
0.33
0.33

0.41
0.37
0.38
0.39
0.38
0.38

0.41
0.37
0.38
0.39
0.38
0.38

0.09
0.04
0.04
0.05
0.04
0.04

0.41
0.37
0.38
0.38
0.38
0.38

0.41
0.37
0.38
0.38
0.38
0.38

0.35
0.34
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35

0.09
0.04
0.04
0.05
0.04
0.04

0.15
0.06
0.06
0.06
0.15
0.07

0.33
0.33
0.33
0.33
0.33
0.33

0.44
0.38
0.38
0.38
0.44
0.38

0.44
0.38
0.38
0.38
0.44
0.38

0.10
0.04
0.04
0.04
0.10
0.04

0.44
0.37
0.37
0.38
0.43
0.38

0.44
0.37
0.37
0.38
0.43
0.38

0.38
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.37
0.35

0.10
0.04
0.04
0.04
0.10
0.04

a
PEIPc energy consumption in coal production, EItc transport energy intensity
of coal, EItb transport energy intensity of agro-residue densied fuel, CVc caloric
value of coal, CVb caloric value of agro-residues, wc efciency of utilization of
coal in the boiler, wb efciency of utilization of agro-residue densied fuel in the
boiler, Dtb distance between producing unit and end-use location of agro-residue
densied fuel, PEIPb energy consumption in the production of agro-residue densied fuel.

to 1 means a large impact. Therefore it can be concluded from Table 5 that CVc, CVb, wc and wb have the largest impact on Dtc, followed by PEIPb, EItc, PEIPc, Dtb and EItb.
China have extremely unbalanced coal distribution and representing 55% of total coal production in 2006 was restricted to
two provinces located in north of China (NBSC and NBEC, 2009),
i.e. Neimengu, and Shanxi province. Mapping of the distances from
the two provinces to other provinces of China is shown in Fig. 2.
These distances are divided into three parts according to critical
distances based on agro-residue shuck and stalk materials, i.e. below 1050 km part, between 1050 and 2400 km, above 2400 km. It
is shown that the space distances of 7 provinces from Neimengu or

Shanxi province are below 1050 km. This indicates that agro-residue densied fuel in these regions is less energetically advantageous than coal as these regions are near coal production
locations. Among the remaining 22 provinces, there are 16 provinces whose distances from Neimengu or Shanxi province are between 1050 and 2400 km. This indicates that the densied fuel
from agro-residue shuck material in these regions is more energetically advantageous than coal, whereas the densied fuel from
agro-residue stalk material in these regions is less energetically
advantageous than coal. Most of these regions have not only enormous energy requirement (NBSC and NBEC, 2009), but also considerable energy potential from agro-residues, such as Liaonin,
Jiangsu and Sichuang provinces. The energy potential from agroresidues of all the three provinces amounted to 1  107 tce/year.
Therefore, the development of agro-residue densied fuel in these
regions may consider the combination process of shuck and stalk
materials. The distance of 6 provinces from Neimengu or Shanxi
province is above 2400 km. This distinctly shows the energetically
advantageous of agro-residue densied fuel over coal in the six regions. These regions are located at a marginal area of China and
their transportation system is not capable of supporting long distance transportation of coal. Therefore, developing agro-residue
densied fuel in these regions is preferable based on energetics
point or region situation.

5. Conclusions
Agro-residue is one of the important biomass resources in China. The energetical property and energy potential of main agro-residues in China were rstly analyzed and then the development of
agro-residue densied fuel in every region was evaluated based
on energetics analysis. The results show that main agro-residues
in China are good feedstocks as densied fuel and they constitute
enormous energy potential for developing densied fuel. However,
the situation of every region should be considered for the development of agro-residue densied fuel. The primary energy embodied

Fig. 2. Mapping of the distances from Shanxi and Neimengu province to other provinces of China except Taiwan, Xianggang and Aomen. The distances were estimated by the
distances between two provincial capital cities.

L. Chen et al. / Waste Management 30 (2010) 808813

per unit of useful energy indicates that about 25% of regions in China are not suitable for the development of agro-residue densied
fuel as in these regions it is less energetically advantageous than
coal. The development of densied fuel in about 55% of regions
of China should consider the combination process of shuck and
stalk material because the densied fuel from agro-residue shuck
material in these regions is more energetically advantageous than
coal, whereas the densied fuel from agro-residue stalk material in
these regions is less energetically advantageous than coal. The
remaining six marginal provinces are preferable to develop agroresidue densied fuel based on energetics point and region
situation.
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