The bioenergy is the long-standing technology that has been applied in human history. It is also internationally recognized as the one of technologies required for net-zero emissions and as one of the important goals as well as strategies for energy transition. Each country all over the world has replaced fossil fuels with bioenergy at scales to reduce carbon emissions and actively developed a wide variety of its equipment and applications. Compared to other renewable energies, the bioenergy has more diverse applications; it can be directly burned to produce energy or converted to biofuel to be used for electricity generation and dynamic machine operations. In the energy supply, pulp and paper, chemical engineering and cement industries that have vast energy demand, it can replace traditional fossil fuel to effectively reduce GHG emissions.
To achieve its 2050 net zero emission goal, the Taiwanese government announced its phased goals toward net zero transitions and 12 key strategies in the end of 2022. They indicate that the goal of biomass electricity generation capacity should achieve 805~1,329MW by 2030 and 1.4~1.8GW by 2050. In 2022, the electricity generation capacity was 158GWh, where the two main technologies are Waste-to-Energy and biogas electricity generation, while other technologies have higher production costs. Therefore, the primary goal of the Taiwanese government is to build a supply system of zero carbon fuels; in the short term, it aims at importing biofuels overseas to drive the domestic demand for biofuels, while improving the domestic biofuel R&D and production techniques to increase the biofuel self-sufficiency rate of Taiwan in the long run.
The bioenergy industry consists of the upstream biomass raw materials supply, midstream conversion equipment, and downstream biofuel products. The biomass refers to organic materials derived from animals and plants, such as wood, shells, greases, microorganisms, and so on. Its main sources include the forests and cash crops. The conversion techniques can be simply divided into the s solid biofuel conversion, hydrogenation, anaerobic digestion, thermal treatment and other biological treatments, which can produce solid biofuels (wood pellets, palm kernel shells, and wood chips), bio alcohols (ethanol), Syndiesel (bio pellets, petroleum and aviation fuels) and biogas (syngas and methane).
The biofuel products in Taiwan have been mainly used to convert the heat inside them into mechanical energy, thermal energy, or electrical energy. Their applications include mobile machines, industrial combustion facilities, cogeneration boilers, and steam for power generation. The bioenergy has become one of the most important carbon reduction measures in the world. Taiwan has gradually developed the bioenergy development strategies and objectives to enhance the development of biofuel techniques and expand its application areas.
※ [1] Solid Biofuel:Bio Pellets、Wood Chips、Palm Kernel Shell (PKS)、Biochar、Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF)
※ [2] Liquid Biofuel:Bio Alcohols、Bio Butanol、Biodiesel、Syndiesel、Other Fuels
※ [3] Gaseous Biofuel:Biogas、Bio-syngas、Hydrogen