Straw can be turned from waste into treasure without burning, and resource utilization brings many benefits
?The ecological, economic and social benefits of biomass fuel technology are very significant
On one side, the chimney of the curing barn belches black smoke, choking people so much they can hardly breathe; on the other side, no gas emissions can be seen from the chimney, and the air is fresh and pleasant...
Recently, at the flue-cured tobacco production base in Zhefang Town, Mangshi, Yunnan Province, the author saw a sharp contrast in emissions from two tobacco curing barns.
"The two curing barns use different fuels and technologies." Zhao Mingkuai, Party Secretary of Zhefang Town, introduced that flue-cured tobacco is an important pillar industry locally, but flue-cured tobacco production has always used the traditional process of burning firewood and coal, which not only destroys forests and wastes precious energy, but more seriously emits large amounts of harmful gases and pollutes the green mountains and clear waters.
"Last year, we introduced a new type of intelligent biomass fuel flue-cured tobacco furnace to carry out smokeless curing demonstration work. The environmental protection effect is very obvious. It not only improves the working environment of the curing barn workers and increases the income of tobacco farmers, but more importantly, it saves coal resources and protects the environment."
The new intelligent biomass fuel flue-cured tobacco furnace mentioned by Zhao Mingkuai is a biomass energy burner and supporting facilities independently developed by Yunnan Huayi Technology Company. This achievement uses agricultural and forestry waste such as bagasse, tobacco stalks and straw to process biomass pellet fuel to replace coal as fuel. The combustion efficiency is as high as more than 90%, and harmful gases such as smoke dust, sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide in the combustion exhaust have basically achieved zero emissions. At present, it has obtained multiple national patent technologies, among which the "anti-coking slag technology" is very advanced, breaking through bottleneck problems such as tar and coke slag from biomass fuel blocking the furnace chamber, exhaust residue polluting the environment and equipment corrosion. Compared with traditional coal-fired intensive curing barns, this automated biomass energy intensive curing barn can increase heat utilization rate by 129%, reduce curing costs by more than 43%, and reduce the comprehensive index of environmental pollution by more than 70%. Its ecological, economic and social benefits are very significant.
????Large-scale promotion can reduce the harm of smog
Shen Xingliu, a technician with 30 years of flue-cured tobacco experience, said that with the new environmentally friendly curing furnace there is no longer smoke and fire, and the work originally done by 5 people is now enough with 1 person, "and the first-grade product rate has been greatly improved."
It is understood that after the overall transformation of "biomass pellet" new energy equipment, Zhefang Town has so far completed 480 barns of tobacco leaf curing, creating a historical record of no failures in tobacco leaf curing, greatly improving the curing quality of tobacco leaves, increasing tobacco farmers' income by 20%, raising the qualified rate of tobacco leaf curing by more than 10%, and at the same time reducing labor costs by more than 80%.
This new environmentally friendly product has been recognized and praised by all parties locally. However, He Deyi, chairman of Huayi Company, said that in the process of promoting the new product, they also encountered difficulties in funding, subsidies and other aspects. A person in charge of the local science and technology bureau believes that this environmentally friendly product has mature technology and significant environmental protection effects. If there is some tilt in biomass energy subsidy policy, it is believed that large-scale promotion will be achieved faster.
At present, China produces more than one billion tons of agricultural and forestry waste each year, and its comprehensive utilization rate is less than 50%. Almost half is burned in fields and at field edges, which both wastes resources and pollutes the atmospheric environment. He Deyi calculated an environmental protection account: after traditional curing barns switch to biomass fuel, each curing barn can save 8,400 kg of coal per season, sulfur dioxide in combustion exhaust drops by more than 90 times, and CO and NO2 drop by more than 20 times. "This clean and environmentally friendly technology can also be widely used in fields such as curing Chinese medicinal materials, curing agricultural and sideline products, and heating greenhouses. If promoted on a large scale, it can not only save large amounts of coal and wood resources, but also effectively reduce the smog harm caused by straw burning." Zuo Changrui