Significant co-benefits of air pollutant and CO2 emission reduction from biomass energy utilization in power plants 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 2018. The OAB and PAB of power plants are estimated to be 423-1013 Mt, with higher values found in the provinces with higher population and crop yields. Unlike crop and forestry residue, the PAB can access to OAB for waste, mainly because the waste is easier to collect and transfer to a power plant. When 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 PAB will not be sufficient to meet the biomass power growth estimated for 2040, 2035, and 2030 under the baseline scenario (BS), policy scenario (PS), and reinforcement scenario (RS), respectively, whereas the CO2 emission will dramatically decrease by 1473 Mt in 2040 under the BS, 1271 Mt in 2035 under the PS, and 1096 Mt in 2030 under the RS. 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. Furthermore, more advanced technologies, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), are expected to be used in power plants in the future, which will probably result in significantly lower CO2 emissions and promote the achievement of the CO2 emission peaking target and carbon neutrality. Our results provide useful information for developing a strategy for the coordinated reduction of air pollutants and CO2 emissions from power plants.