Against the wave of green countryside, a green energy revolution has become the main impetus of rural zero-carbon development. From December 4 to 5, Henan Yu-Tian New Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "YTNE") and the Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (hereinafter referred to as "the Biogas Institute") launched the "ADB-Henan Cleaner Fuel Conversion Investment Program" at the headquarters of Zhongyuan Yuzi Investment Holding Group (hereinafter referred to as "ZYIG"). Both sides also conducted in-depth discussions and field research on the YTNE Biogas Comprehensive Utilization Program in Shangshui County (hereinafter referred to as “Yutian Shangshui Biogas Program”).
Wang Dengshan, Director of the Biogas Institute; Wang Junling, a member of the Party Committee of ZYIG; Zhou Liujie, Chairman of YTNE; Liu Tianze, Deputy General Manager of YTNE; Zhang Mingming, Chief Scientist of the Policy Team of the Biogas Institute along with other relevant leaders, scholars and experts were present to share new ideas, new progress and new images of the rural green energy development system. This meeting was chaired by Liu Fenglin, Deputy General Manager and Director of the ADB Program Office of YTNE.
·Deep institute-enterprise cooperation draws a beautiful blueprint for the countryside
In 2019, with strong support from Department of Finance of Henan Province and Development and Reform Commission of Henan Province, the Henan Cleaner Fuel Conversion Investment Program was approved for a loan by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), becoming China's first results-based loan program in the energy industry.
As the implementing agency of the program, YTNE innovated the energy supply system, and promoted Gas Penetration in Rural Areas Program. The company has served more than 2 million rural natural gas customers, and laid natural gas pipelines of more than 30,000 kilometers across Henan Province. Meanwhile, it carried out a distributed biogas complementation program using agricultural organic waste such as straw as raw materials, and established an all-dimensional ecological industrial chain service circle suitable for the situation of Henan Province, comprehensively improving the quality of rural energy and ensuring food security.
The Biogas Institute, as the only national research institute devoted to the research of biogas science and technology in China, undertakes strategic, fundamental and commonweal research tasks in the field of biogas science. It aims to support and ensure the sustainable and healthy development of China's biogas industry, thus contributing to rural revitalization as well as carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in the agricultural sector.
In the context of supporting "dual carbon", boosting rural revitalization and empowering a rural energy revolution, YTNE collaborates with the Biogas Institute to carry out an industry-university-research program. The program focuses on research topics such as how to guarantee food security, improve the level of modern energy supply for agriculture and rural areas, and intensify the management of agricultural and rural pollutants, with an aim to provide replicable and promotable references and solutions for the rural energy transition and development in Henan Province.
·Efficient Straw Utilization Injects Green Impetus into Rural Revitalization
Based on the energy network for "Gas Penetration in Rural Areas", in 2021, YTNE implemented a biogas project with straw as raw materials in Shangshui County, a major grain-producing county in China. The company explored a path of ecologically friendly energy recycling in the main grain-producing area. By utilizing local materials and realizing local consumption, the project, on the one hand, solved rural environmental problems, and, on the other hand, provided energy security. It offers an "agriculture-gas complementary" business model for the development of the biomass-based environmental protection and energy industry in Henan in the new era, and promotes gas from straw to become a pillar source of gas for "Gas Penetration in Rural Areas".
Through practice, YTNE created a straw harvesting and storage mode that integrates the government, enterprises, cooperatives, and operators. This model offers an efficient process for the collection, treatment, storage, transportation and utilization of straw. Thus, it reduces the costs of harvesting grains and removing straw from fields, and prevents problems such as soil acidification and degradation, pests and diseases caused by the direct treatment of straw in fields. In this way, the efficiency of each link in the biogas industry chain is improved, and so are the benefits for biogas stakeholders.
It is reported that the Yutian Shangshui Biogas Program plans to process 200,000 tons of corn straw per year and produce 18 million cubic meters of natural gas, 75,000 tons of solid bio-organic fertilizers, 22,000 tons of food-grade carbon dioxide, and 20,000 tons of liquid digestate. The program can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 350,000 tons annually. It has passed ADB's 2023 annual outcome verification and will reach its expected production capacity by mid-December 2023 and be officially put into production in January 2024.
·Promote Deep Industry-University-Research Integration and Explore New Paths for Zero-carbon Development in Rural Areas
In the process of promoting a rural energy revolution in a manner adapted to local conditions, YTNE cultivated the habit of using clean energy among rural residents, improved the level of modernization of rural residents' lives, and ensured energy supply and grain production security, providing strong support for consolidating and expanding the outcomes of poverty alleviation and comprehensively advancing rural revitalization. Next, how to make green energy accessible and affordable to more farmers is an urgent issue that needs to be discussed.
In this regard, Wang Junling pointed out that the cooperation between YTNE and the Biogas Institute enjoys right timing and favorable geographical and human conditions. He hoped that both parties could pursue resource sharing, scientific research innovation, value sharing, and win-win cooperation, making significant achievements in the thorough implementation of Henan Province's green and low-carbon transformation strategy.
"The Biogas Institute will fully leverage its advantages in scientific research and technological strength to provide scientific and technological support and policy recommendations for the rural energy transition and the modernization of agriculture and rural areas in Henan Province," stated Wang Dengshan.
At the meeting, Zhang Mingming reported that the research team of the Biogas Institute will conduct in-depth studies on micro-practices based on fundamental theories and macro strategies, collate the typical practices and innovative experience of YTNE in the modern energy supply in rural areas, and refine the operational model of YTNE to boost the modernization of agriculture and rural areas through energy transformation, to provide solutions and case outcomes for green development and low-carbon transition in Henan.
At the meeting, experts and scholars actively gave feedback and exchanged ideas on the topic development, research content, and implementation plan of the program. After the meeting, a party of staff members from YTNE, experts and scholars went to the site of the Yutian Shangshui Biogas Program for investigation.