The term “straw” refers to the residues of crops discarded after harvesting the seeds, like stems, leaves, stalks, shells, alfalfa and ear. Rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and organic matters, straw is a kind of multi-purpose renewable biological resource and a kind of new energy with the highest potential of development and utilization and has good economic, ecological and social benefits.

Current Status of Straw Waste Utilization

High Theoretical Resources and Low Utilization Rate of Energy in Power Generation

In recent years, with the increase of China's support for modern agriculture, the crop planting area has been increasing, and the number of straw has also been rising sharply. According to relevant survey data, the theoretical resource of straw in 2018 was expected to reach 886 million tons. Insufficient comprehensive utilization of such huge straw resource wastes will not only cause a series of environmental problems but also waste valuable biological resources.

To this end, in October 2018, the Ministry of Agriculture proposed at the Northeast Straw Treatment Action Field Exchange and Results Exhibition Meeting, “By 2020, the comprehensive utilization rate of straw in the country will reach more than 85%” and issued the Action Plan for Agricultural and Rural Pollution Control War jointly with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. According to data, at present, the comprehensive utilization rate of crop straw in China is close to 82%, 47.2% for fertilizer utilization, 17.99% for feeds and only 17.99% for power generation. It can be seen that the comprehensive utilization rate of crop straw in China is close to the national planning target, but the utilization rate of power generation is relatively low.

Straw waste treatment market

Rapid Increase in Scale and Revenue Scale

Straw is an ideal green renewable resource. It was only used as a kind of rural living energy and livestock feed in the past. Now, it has entered into the modern industry and the energy field to rapidly improve comprehensive benefits. In 2017, the market size of China's straw waste treatment industry has reached RMB 331.7 billion, an increase of 3.5% compared with RMB 320.5 billion in 2011; The industry income reached RMB 188.40 billion, an increase of 0.8% year-on-year, and the industry's rate of return reached 56.8%; It is expected that the market size of straw waste treatment industry is to reach RMB 332.9 billion in 2018, and the scale of industry income is expected to continue to grow to RMB 189.09 billion.

The utilization rate of straw waste treatment in China has been continuously improved, and the relevant technical level has been continuously improved. In the future, the market scale and the industry income scale of the straw waste treatment industry are expected to achieve sustained growth in the scale of the industry market under the huge straw output.

Straw Comprehensive Utilization Experiences Tortuous Development Yingherui SAHP Technology Boosts Industrialization Process

Among various utilization methods of straw, straw feed has the highest income with net benefit reaches RMB 717 / ton; followed by straw power generation with net benefit of RMB 173 / ton; The net benefit of the straw biogas also exceeds RMB 100 / ton, RMB 125 / ton.

However, as an important means of clean utilization of straw and an important part of biomass power generation, the development of straw power generation industry in China is tortuous. From the perspective of variety distribution, China's straw varieties mainly include rice, wheat and corn. Among them, the proportion of corn stalks is the highest, reaching 32.5%, followed by straw and wheat straw.

These raw materials all have problems of high dry matter content and low moisture content, resulting in fiber shrinkage and outstanding hydrophobicity of the crystal structure. This makes the technical difficulty of anaerobic degradation increase, thus the whole industry is limited by the high cost and slow progress. 

Under the impetus of national policies, specific to the characteristics of Chinese raw materials, Yingherui has cooperated with German advanced laboratories to complete a lot of experiments and researches and made constant improvements and perfection. It has developed the SAHP technology suitable for Chinese raw materials. The technology can obviously improve the hydrolytic acidification rate of raw materials to rapid the degradation rate of raw materials and boost the further improvement of the comprehensive utilization rate of the straw.