Development Status, Problems and Countermeasures of Large- and Intermediate-Scale Biogas Projects in Beijing’s Mountainous Counties

doi:10.4236/jpee.2013.15010

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Journal of Power and Energy Engineering, 2013, 1, 63-66

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jpee.2013.15010 Published Online October 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jpee)

Development Status, Problems and Countermeasures of

Large- and Intermediate-Scale Biogas Projects in Beijing’s

Mountainous Counties

Zhongren Zhou1,2, Zhujun Zhou1,3

1Institute of Integrated Development of Agriculture, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China; 2Key

Laboratory of Urban Agriculture (North), Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing, China; 3College of Economics & Management, China

Agricultural University, Beijing, China.

Email: [email protected]

Received September 2013

ABSTRACT

Developing large- and intermediate-scale biogas project is an important gripper of Beijing rural energy construction and

“Green Beijing” construction. The existing projects have made obvious energy and environment benefits, but the over-

all effects have not been fully exerted. There is still a large gap between Beijing’s ecological civilization goal and the

operation effect. This paper takes biogas projects of Beijing seven mountainous counties as examples, the development

status, ecological environment construction and existing problems of operating are explained respectively. Finally,

some countermeasures and suggestions are proposed for promoting the sustainable development of biogas project in

Beijing, such as strengthening technical innovation and setting standards, innovating development patterns and planning

reasonable layout, improve the maintenance mechanism and intensify policy support.

Keywords: Biogas Project; Development Status; Countermeasures; Beijing

1. Introduction

Large- and intermediate-scale biogas project is an im-

portant type of renewable energy exploitation and utili-

zation. It can efficiently use the agricultural waste like

making the waste harmless and resourceful, producing

clean energy for farmers to raise their quality of life, and

reducing pollution emissions as well [1,2]. It can also

change the pattern of agricultural growth, develop circu-

lar economy, and extend agriculture chain, which will

improve rural surplus labor’s employment and increase

farmers’ income. In recent years, with the supports from

government policies, such as “New countryside construc-

tion ”, China’ s large - and intermediate-scale biogas projects

have made fast progress. The number of biogas project

increased from 2000 in 1359, to 2009 in 72,695. The total

biogas volume increased from 639,200 m3 to 8567,800

m3 [3]. The projects made a crucial contribution to eco-

logical, economical and social development.

As China’s capital and an oversized energy consump-

tion city, Beijing is facing a more serious energy and

environment, urban and rural issues in the construction of

“Green Beijing” and the process of world city. Large and

medium-sized biogas project as an effective gripper of

these problems, the Beijing municipal government attach-

es great importance to its development. From year 2003

to 2009, 302 million Yuan has been invested into 103

biogas engineering constructions. However, on the other

hand, some technology and management problems have

emerged in the course of rapid development, so that

some projects cannot be used properly, even abandoned

or stopped using [2,4]. They present a severe test of large

and medium-sized biogas projects’ sustainable develop-

ment. This paper takes seven mountainous counties in

Beijing as examples, analyzes the main factors that affect

the development, and consequently provides references

for regional biogas engineering’s sustainable develop-

ment.

2. Current State of Biogas Projects in Beijing

Mountainous Counties

2.1. Basic Information of Beijing Mountainous

Counties

Beijing’s mountainous counties include Fangshan, Men-

tougou, Changping, Pinggu, Huairou, Miyun and Yanq-

ing. Taihang Mountains is located at Beijing west and

Yanshan Mountains in the north. The whole counties cov-

er an area of 10417.2 km2，accounted for 62% of the

Development Status, Problems and Countermeasures of Large- and

Intermediate-Scale Biogas Projects in Beijing’s Mountainous Counties

Beijing area. They are important ecological barriers and

water source protection areas of the capital. What’s more,

environment-friendly industry base is located there. They

have supported the sustainable development of Beijing,

meanwhile provided residents with recreational space.

However, ecological environment construction as a do-

minant strategy limits the regional economic and social

development; as a result, these regions became Beijing’s

economically-weak areas. According to the statistics, in

2010, per capita net income of farmers is 11,460 Yuan,

accounted for 82.6% of that in flat areas, which is 13,867

Yuan.

2.2. Large- and Intermediate-Scale Biogas

Projects in Beijing Mountainous

Counties

By the end of 2010, Beijing has established 108 large-

and intermediate-scale biogas projects, 64 of them are

located in Beijing’s seven counties, accounted for 59% of

the total number. Existing biogas engineering applica-

tions of anaerob ic reacto r are u p -flow solids reactor (USR),

continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR), high concentra-

tions plug flow reactor (HCF), but generally dominated

by USR technology. The specific distributions are: Fang-

shan County has 30 projects，Then Yanqing, Changping,

Miyun, Pinggu and Huairou, each has 5 to 9 projects,

Mentougou has only one project, but is already stopped

using because of relocation. Therefore all the 64 projects’

operation status are: 57 of them are operating, and the

rest 7 are disused or abandoned. All of the biogas projects

which su pply 16,500 farm e rs (See Table 1).

2.3. Ecological Environmental Effects

There are mainly two ecological environmental benefits

of large- and intermediate-scale biogas projects. First, by

means of digesting the livestock waste, it is possible to

produce high quality fuel instead of traditional fossil

energy that can promote energy conservation and emis-

sions reduction. Second, using biogas residue and slurry

to develop circular agriculture, improve the soil, produce

green organic products, and improve food safety. Accord-

ing to the test, if all the 64 biogas projects operated nor-

mally all the year round for 1.65 × 104 households, then

2.68 × 106 tons livestock manure would be disposed; 6.0

× 106 m3 gases produced; 1.65 × 104 tce saved; 1.15 ×

106 tons CO2 reduced; 8300 tons of SO2 and NOx re-

duced [5,6]. Moreover, biogas residue and slurry could

be used as fertilizers, so that they can enhance crop re-

sistance to diseases, insects, drought, and cold; increase

ecological benefits. According to the analyses, the suc-

cessful implementations of biogas projects have a signif-

icant effect on mountainous suburb eco-environment con-

struction, especially reduced emission of greenhouse gases

such as CO2, SO2 and pollution gas NOx (See Table 2).

Table 1. The operation status of biogas stations in Beijing mountainous suburb (2010).

County Total Actual supply number (household) Operation status(biogas station)

operating Disused or Aband oned

Mentougou 1 0 0 1

Fangshan 30 7036 28 2

Changping 7 1840 5 2

Pinggu 5 1383 5 0

Huairou 5 1776 5 0

Miyun 7 3170 5 2

Yanqing 9 1250 9 0

Total 64 16,455 57 7

Table 2. Supply situation of biogas stations in Beijing mountainous suburb.

County Number

(biogas station) Beneficiary

(farmer house hold) Coal-saving (tce) CO2 emission

reduction (×105to ns) SO2 emission

reduction (ton) NOx emission

reduction (ton)

Mentougou 1 0 0 0 0 0

Fangshan 30 7036 7036 4.93 1836.45 1688.47

Changping 7 1840 1840 1.29 480.25 441.56

Pinggu 5 1383 1383 0.97 360.98 331.89

Huairou 5 1776 1776 1.24 463.55 426.20

Miyun 7 3170 3170 2.22 827.39 760.72

Yanqing 9 1250 1250 0.88 342.34 317.26

Total 64 16,455 16,455 11.53 4310.96 3966.1

Footnote: According to investigation and statistics of “Three Starting” projects, each household user saves 1 tce per year.

Development Status, Problems and Countermeasures of Large- and

Intermediate-Scale Biogas Projects in Beijing’s Mountainous Counties

3. Main Problems

In general, Biogas projects in Beijing mountainous sub-

urb have made remarkable achievements. But there is

still a large gap between operation status and Beijing’s

future ecological construction goal. The main problems

are as follows:

3.1. High Operating Cost, Poor Project

Profitability

At first, the biogas projects of Beijing mountainous coun-

ties were oriented to welfare management, so the gas

charges are commonly low, about 1 to 2.1 Yuan/m3,

equals to 1/3 to 2/3 the same amount of liquefied petro-

leum gas (LPG) expenditure. However, projects’ fixed

investment was higher for the first stage, and the overall

running cost would be much higher if costs like raw ma-

terial, management, maintenance and heating in the win-

ter are included. With current charging standards, most

of the projects cannot self-operate. Only when the gov-

ernment invests special funds of management and the

village collective money, the projects can keep running

smoothly. It means that some projects in economically-

weak areas cannot be operated nor mally.

3.2. Lack of Long-Term Plan, Part of the

Engineering Material Cannot Be

Guaranteed

At first, construction site must have enough raw mate-

rials of animal manure in biogas engineering. Actually,

there are many other problems existing in the course of

implementing, such as lacking of consideration on at-

mosphere and water resources protection. In the mean-

while, the adjustment of urban-rural development may

limit livestock breeding, or the livestock farms are re-

quired to move. As a result, some materials of projects

cannot be obtained right on the spot, running cost are

increased because of external purchase.

3.3. By-Products Are Not Efficiently Uti lized,

Influence Comprehensive Benefits

One of the most important purposes of developing biogas

projects is to solve organic waste pollution and produce

high quality organic fertilizer. But nowadays, most of

biogas residue and slurry in Beijing suburb are left un-

used or abandoned. For this reason, biogas manures didn’t

exert their values. In addition, some of them are partially

aggregated or overused that exceed environment capacity,

results in secondary pollution. Therefore, the biogas ma-

nures did not reflect their green economic benefits, so

that the comprehensive profits of biogas projects are in-

fluenced.

3.4. Lack of Policies Support, High Pressure on

Engineering Management and Maintenance

Since the biogas engineering serves agriculture, rural areas,

and farmers, it has some public goods properties, like

strong externalities. However, it only takes the form of

government purchase for demonstration and promotion

in earlier stage; after that, the actual op erations didn’t get

the government subsidies, so that it brings about high

pressures on engineering management and maintenance.

At present, supporting policies about biogas engineering

development are limited, particularly special policies. For

example, in 2011, municipal government had established

“Beijing Municipal Peoples Government’s advice on

strengthening rural infrastructure maintenance and man-

agement”, but biogas engineering management and main-

tenance funds of some counties are not guaranteed in

place.

4. Countermeasures and Proposals

4.1. Strengthening Technical Innovation, Setting

Norms and Standards

The government should strengthen technical innovation;

focus on increasing unit volume gas production rate, es-

pecially low temperature fermentation problem solving.

Improve operation stability, reliability, and automation

level of biogas equipment. Consolidate technical support

system of biogas project development of Beijing. For-

mulate different technology processes, routes and plans

for large- and intermediate-scale biogas projects. Setting

norms and standards for engineering in Beijing, standar-

dizing stereotypes applied to related and associated equip-

ment. Promote the standardization of engineering con-

struction.

4.2. Innovating Development Patterns, Planning

Reasonable Layout

Biogas engineering has minimum scale of economic op-

eration. I t’s not econ omical if the proje ct scale is to o large

for the resource capacity, because it not only leads to

more resources idled and wasted, but also increases the

unit cost of investment. The biogas engineering should

be integrated with cycle agricultural development, pro-

duce high added-value of biogas manure, improve the

overall economic performance, and strengthen the engi-

neering’s self-operation capacity. On the present basis of

biogas projects, we should innovate development patterns,

implement intensively scale development. The projects

should supply gas to big central villages, or combined

villages that adjacent. Meanwhile, on the new biogas

projects layout, we should take the requirement of cities

and towns development planning and ecological envi-

Development Status, Problems and Countermeasures of Large- and

Intermediate-Scale Biogas Projects in Beijing’s Mountainous Counties

ronment protection into consideration to avoid separation

between the engineering and raw material bases.

4.3. Improve the Management and Maintenance

Mechanism, Intensify Policy Support

As the saying goes, “Construction accounts for 30%, the

management accounts for 70%”. The operation perfor-

mance of biogas engineering is closely related to man-

agement and maintenance. In that case, the existing in-

stitutional building should be improved and professional

biogas service department be built to provide complete

service assurance. The contribution of biogas projects to

Beijing rural energy construction and “agriculture, rural

areas, and farmers” must be recognized. During the initial

stage of biogas industrialization, the government should

positively carry out supportive policies, due to the high

operating cost and weak market competitiveness of bio-

gas projects, build up diversified and multichannel engi-

neering financing system. At the same time, we should

scientifically evaluate engineering’s ecological and social

benefits in order to carry out ecological compensation.

As the support on policy-making is enhanced, policy

advantages can be transformed into industrial, technical

and economic advantages. Finally, the biogas projects

will achieve the g oal of marketization, econ omies of scale

and low-cost.

5. Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by a Innovation Fund

of Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences

(Project no. CXJJ2013) and a research named “Study of

Promoting Consulting & Services ability (2012-2013)”

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