40 percent of the global energy consumption will come from organisms in 10 years, forecast Wang Tao, academician with Chinese Academy of Engineering, at a green forum of the First China Afforestation Exposition in Nanjing on Tuesday.

According to Wang Tao, biomass energy resources are from plants' photosynthesis by absorbing solar energy on earth. Through biomass energy conversion technologies, the energy can be utilized effectively to turn out various kinds of clean fuels for substituting mineral fuels, including coal, petroleum and natural gas, so as to minimize the dependence on mineral energy resources, preserve energy and reduce environmental pollution caused by energy consumption. So biomass energy is a kind of renewable energy resources.

Wang Tao said that facing austere energy challenge, various countries in the world, especially the developed nations, are devoting themselves to developing high-efficient and pollution-free biomass energy technologies. Biomass fuel oils are renewable energy resources produced by processing raw materials, including plants, animals and their by-products. The fuel oils are used as substitutes for petroleum and diesel oil, which has drawn high attention from countries worldwide.

In the past 10-odds years, biomass fuel oil industry has been rapidly developed in various countries across the world, becoming a newly emerged trade globally. Rich supplies of renewable biomass materials are needed for achieving the industrialized production of biomass fuel oils. There has been faster development in the research of biomass energy, involving plant fuel oil, since 1980s. By 2015, more than 40 per cent of total global energy consumption will come from biomass energy resources. This will be mainly realized through the industrialization of biomass energy power generation and liquid fuels.

Wang continued to say the latest survey shows that 10 woody plants are available in China for producing biomass fuel oil with great potentials. There will be a broad prospect with suitable development.

Wang further added that energy oil-yielding plants are a kind of plant species containing energy oil plant elements. The oil plants contain oil in their organs. Through processing, plant fuel oils can be abstracted to supersede petrochemical fuel oil substances. China has found out 1,554 species of oil plants, among them, seeds of 154 plants contain more than 40 per cent of oil. Nearly 30 of trees and shrubs can be used as oil plant materials for establishing mass production bases, as they are widely spread with strong adaptability. There are 10 woody-oil plants across the country. Forests of the plants can be used for building material bases for producing biomass oil. In addition, they can be planted in suitable barren mountains and sandy soils that can be used for fine-breed supply bases.

By People's Daily Online