The spatial distribution characteristics of the biomass residual potential in China

Biomass energy as a kind of renewable energy would be one of the industry's future development direction. As a high energy consumption country, China is urgent need of developing the renewable energy. Understanding the distribution and components of biomass could be beneficial to guide the utilizing technologies and investment strategy of biomass residual. The comprehensive statistical methods were applied to calculate the potential biomass residual of each provinces in China. The results show that (1) Nationwide, the residues biomass of agricultural, forest, and urban waste accounted for 64.16%, 10.88%, and 24.96% of total biomass residual, respectively. The intensity of agricultural, forest, and urban waste biomass residual were 1.89, 0.32, and 0.74 PJ per km² year, respectively. (2) The agricultural biomass residual in eastern China was more abundant than that in western China. The straw residues, agricultural processing residues, livestock manure and pruning residues from permanent orchard respectively shared 32.24%, 10.62%, 56.0%, and 1.13%. (3) The stem wood with its intensity 0.29 PJ per km² year was major contributor of forest biomass residual (with its intensity 0.32 PJ per km² year). The forest biomass residual in northern and southern China was larger than that in eastern and western China, but the intensity of forest biomass residual in southern China was larger than that in the other provinces. (4) The intensity of forest biomass was 0.74 PJ per km² year, which was mainly contributed by urban greenery management outside forests (0.736 PJ per km²). The intensity of urban biomass residual in eastern and southern China was usually larger than that in northern and western China.