China

China produces over 1 Billion tons of woodwaste on an annual basis. As the nation's industrial and economic power has grown so has its search for alternatives to fossil fuels. China has increased its biomass technology and utilization research by 25 percent over the past three years and as a result it produces 5.5 Billion cubic meters of biogas annually. The host nation for the 2008 Summer Olympics will use bioplastics in all of its packaging for the games.

The Chinese government has issued a need to be even more dependant upon biomass resources in the future. They issued a biomass target of 10% total consumption by 2020 and the production of 500 Million tons of pelletized fuel by 2015. A fermentation plant in Harbin in Manchuria has recently developed a pathway to produce hydrogen for fuel cells.

Contact: Dehua Liu, Tsinghua University