Current status and future prospective of bio-ethanol industry in China

Abstract

Development of fuel ethanol is one of the important strategies to ensure energy security, many countries and regions of the world have promoted fuel ethanol industry. China became the third-largest ethanol producer and accounting for about 4.0% of the world. In this review article, we systematically introduced and analyzed the policy system, layout, and historical yield. Based on the fact of ethanol industry in different countries, we consider that China ethanol industry is more sensitive to price of corn, and technology also need improvement for first generation ethanol industry in China. We also provide a novel tool used for estimating the quantity of straw resources in China based on the previous data. The main technology and research progress on cellulosic ethanol production (including pretreatment, hydrolysis, ethanol fermentation by ethanolgenic Saccharomyces cerevisiae or Zymomonas mobilis) were also analyzed comparatively in this review. It is suggested that the large-scale development and utilization of cellulosic ethanol in China should be further promoted in the future. For the sustainable development of China's fuel ethanol industry, we should not only understand its strengths and opportunities, but also consider its weakness and threats.