Laws and regulations are relaxed, agricultural wastes are encouraged to switch to energy fuels, and livestock manure and urine are co-fermented with fruit and vegetable residues

Share + 1 Tweet Email

Agricultural waste amounts to millions of metric tons a year, which is not only used for composting and feed, but also a good renewable energy. In response to the trend of green energy, the Council of Agriculture amended the measures for the Management of the reuse of Agricultural wastes and the measures for the examination of the permissible use of Agricultural facilities for Agricultural Land. Once the amendment is passed, Wastes such as livestock manure, mushroom cultivation waste bags, livestock and poultry slaughtering scraps, dead livestock and poultry, fruit and vegetable residues, flower residues and cultivation media can be directly used as renewable energy raw materials or fuels without further application. This time, energy operators will also be allowed to set up biogas power generation joint processing centers on agricultural and animal husbandry land, so that they no longer have to apply for land change.

Agricultural waste can be used as "derived fuel" energy.

According to the Council of Agriculture, most of the agricultural wastes are animal and plant residues, and most of them are reused in situ, concentrated composting, or as feed raw materials or fed directly to livestock and poultry, etc., however, some agricultural wastes have high calorific value and combustion efficiency, and low pollution during combustion, so they have the potential to be made into waste derived fuels (refuse derived fuel, RDF), and can also be mixed with anaerobic treatment for co-fermentation. It can increase the production of biogas, etc.

In order to expand and promote the renewable energy policy, the Council of Agriculture, in the measures for the reuse and Management of Agricultural wastes, under the waste items such as livestock manure, mushroom cultivation waste bags, livestock and poultry slaughtering scraps, dead livestock and poultry, fruit and vegetable residues, flower residues and cultivation media, add relevant regulations such as raw materials or fuels that can be reused as renewable energy. After the amendment and announcement, the above agricultural wastes can be directly reused. No individual application is required and administrative procedures can be effectively simplified.

You don't need to apply to the agricultural administration unit for a project, you just need to examine and approve it by the local environmental protection organ.

Cai Xianyan, head of the pollution Prevention and Control Section of the Animal Husbandry Department of the Council of Agriculture, explained that the reuse of agricultural waste can be divided into tabulated reuse and case reuse. In the past, there were no regulations related to renewable energy raw materials or fuel in the "measures for the reuse of agricultural wastes". Only a case application can be passed. "for example, a co-fermentation biogas power generation must be applied on a case-by-case basis, although basically an application will be passed, but an application must be submitted and a review meeting must be held. Administrative procedures are complicated. "in addition, if you need to use fruit and vegetable residues and livestock farm manure as raw materials for renewable energy, you must apply together with the gardeners. Now, after the laws and regulations are relaxed, the procedures can be simplified and can be used directly without going through an application.

Agricultural waste is reused as fuel. Cai Xianyan pointed out that mushroom cultivation waste bags, residual flowers, etc., these have a little calorific value, but the burning calorific value alone is not high enough. If you mix sweet potato vines, fruit tree pruning, and so on, they can be made into biomass fuel rods. Even the operators are studying beating fluffy cow dung into compact fuel rods for power generation. "these are all individual applications now. However, after the amendment law is passed, there is no need to apply to the agricultural administration unit. "

However, Tsai stressed that in the past, applications for the reuse of agricultural waste were divided into two stages: first, they applied to agricultural administrative organs, and after approval, they applied to local environmental protection organs. "after the amendment is passed, the procedures will be simplified by farmers and can be used directly. But it still has to be examined and approved by local environmental protection agencies."

Encourage the energy industry to set up a "biogas power generation common treatment center" for nitrogen and carbon co-fermentation

At the same time, the Council of Agriculture also amended Article 23 of the measures for the examination of applications for Agricultural Land for the allowable use of Agricultural facilities, stipulating that "facilities for recycling waste urine from livestock" should be listed as one of the categories of animal husbandry facilities. Tsai explained that the Council of Agriculture was already promoting biogas power generation in pig farms, but this release is mainly aimed at pig farms, where energy operators can set up biogas power generation joint treatment centers on agricultural and animal husbandry land to collect and centralize agricultural waste.

Wang Zhongshu, deputy director of the Animal Husbandry Department, said that biogas power generation needs both nitrogen and carbon. At present, biogas power generation is mainly based on livestock manure and urine, with high nitrogen and low relative carbon ratio, while fruit and vegetable residues and mushroom cultivation waste bags have a high content of carbon fiber. if only nitrogen or carbon, the fermentation effect is not good, "a reasonable proportion of nitrogen and carbon, joint treatment produces the best effect."

Cai Xianyan said that so far, there is no common treatment center for biogas power generation. After treating wastewater from livestock farms, they are used to make biogas waste electricity. There is no separate joint treatment center on agricultural and animal husbandry land. "in the past, if these energy operators wanted to collect livestock manure and urine on agricultural and animal husbandry land, they had to go through land change. Although there is a law for you to apply, no one has applied for it. On the one hand, because spatio-temporal environment is different. The wholesale purchase rate is not high, coupled with the complexity of land change applications, it will take at least two or three years to apply. "

Wang Zhongshu further points out that there are regional problems now. Livestock manure and fruit and vegetable residues do not exist in every region at the same time. After the laws and regulations are relaxed, the joint treatment center for biogas power generation will be used to deal with these wastes at the same time. "there are many wholesale markets for fruits and vegetables in Changhua, Yunlin. Most of these fruit and vegetable residues are taken to compost, and in the future, they can be sent to the biogas power generation joint treatment center, together with livestock waste, to do co-fermentation. At present, few people are doing co-fermentation, and what they do in private is not mature, the scale is not large, and the gas production is not enough, "Wang Chung-Shu points out. Therefore, it is not only necessary to relax laws and regulations, but also to find experts and technology to guide the people to promote co-fermentation on a large scale.

Will there be any food safety concerns when the laws and regulations are relaxed?

Will the deregulation of regulations lead to agricultural waste being improperly reused or even transferred back to the human dining table? Tsai stressed that there will be no problems, "because they still have to apply to local environmental protection units." Environmental protection units will go to the scene to see where the raw materials come from and what to do, and even the food waste eaten by pigs in pig farms will have to apply. " In the case of dead livestock and poultry, it will also be monitored by environmental protection units. after coming out of the slaughterhouse, only specific vehicles issued by local epidemic prevention organs can transport these dead livestock and poultry, and the vehicles are equipped with GPS, so there will be no misgivings about returning to consumers.

From zero waste to energy self-sufficient │ Ogi-cho, Japan, and Almel circular economy in the Netherlands, how to create incentives?

(first picture photo credit: Khuroshvili Ilya via photopin (license))

Share + 1 Tweet Email