Every year during the summer harvest, the comprehensive use of wheat, rape and other crop straws has been a focus of society. To tackle the problem entails collection, transportation and disposal, which is costly concerning human resources, materials resources and financial resources. How to promote the comprehensive use of crop straw is not only a must-answer question when pursuing green agricultural development, but also becomes an important initiative to improve the quality of arable land and the ecological environment of agriculture and villages and to accelerate green and low-carbon development of agriculture.

These years, enterprises across the country have made attempt to transform the waste into fertilizer, feeds, energy and others in a bid to turn straw from "ecological bane" into "green wealth". As one of the first biomass enterprises to achieve combined heat and power generation in China, Jiangsu Luen Mei Bioenergy Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as "Luen Mei Bioenergy"), a subsidiary of Luen Mei Quantum (600167.SH), has improved the comprehensive utilization efficiency of residues by continuously innovating biomass-based energy utilization technology to use agricultural and forestry biomass in large scale adopting a more industrialized, intensive and intelligent approach.

The project of the comprehensive utilization of rape straw in Zhangdian Town, Jiangsu Province serves as a shiny example. Luen Mei Bioenergy has borne fruit in the most crucial part of biomass power generation, which has played a demonstrative role for localities.

Zhangdian Town is located in Jiangyan District, Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province with an arable land area of 75,000 mu, where rice and wheat become dominating crops. In addition, the town is suitable for rape cultivation in that sandy soil abounds there. There are about 15,000 mu of rape fields every year, which generates some 4500 tonnes of straw. Farmers are inclined to plant the vegetable around their houses or at plots on the edge of fields. It can beautify the environment and the yield per mu can increase annual income by more than 1200 yuan on average.

However, it is just because of the scattered planting that rape harvest can not be mechanized like rice and wheat, and hence its straw can not be crushed and buried on fields. Furthermore, rape straw could only be burnt, discarded, and buried" in the past in that it is large in size yet light in weight, and costly in terms of transportation. Therefore, it has caused more environmental pressure that makes the party committee, government at local level and individuals haunted by the problem of how to dispose of more than 4,500 tons of rape straw each year efficiently. To solve the problem, Zhangdian town carries out the comprehensive utilization of rape straw this year for the first time and unifies piling, clearance, packing and disposal. Besides, the government subsidizes those who remove the straw off fields and store them for use according to the amount, thus benefiting farmers, transporters, cooperatives and recycling parties. The final key link of the whole process is power generation, which is handled in a unified manner by Luen Mei Bioenergy.

One ton of rape straw can generate 650 KW of electricity. Given the converting ratio, rape straw in this town is estimated to generate approximately 2,812,500 KW, of which about 2,250,000 are contributed to the national grid, thus bringing economic benefits of about RMB 1,687,500, said You Peng, deputy general manager of Luen Mei Bioenergy. Also, the residue produced from power generation can be used as organic fertilizer for fields. Finally, rape straw has also completed its mission as it transforms from waste on land to biomass power.

"At present, straws recycled from rape fields alone totaled about 8,000 tons, while the figure doubled this year," said You Peng. The comprehensive utilization rate of rape straws is high. After being utilized to generate power, it is turned into residues that can be used as building materials and ashes as organic fertilizer and insulation materials.

Except for rape straw, Luen Mei bioenergy’s biomass raw materials also include agricultural waste, forestry wood waste and energy plants of specific use.

Using agricultural and forestry waste and other biomass fuels for power generation and heat supply, Luen Mei Bioenergy provides centralized steam heating and power and other supporting services to more than 40 well-known enterprises, including Taizhou Economic Development Zone, pharmaceutical Industry park and surrounding buildings, as well as Nestle Health Sciences, AstraZeneca and CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Limited.

The project has been in operation since March 2012 and gained experience in the field. For instance, as the first biomass combined heat provider in China to adopt high parameter units, Luen Mei Bioenergy has lower steam consumption and fuel unit consumption than its counterparts and stronger adaptability to biomass fuels. At the same time with a stable integrated energy system, the company can utilize the resources multiple times and ensure zero carbon emission management throughout the whole lifecycle.

As an A-share leader of clean thermal energy and one of the "Best 50 in A-share ESG ", Luen Mei Quantum (600167.SH) has adhered to the philosophy of "clean, efficient, intelligent and low-carbon", supplied clean energy using clean coal, water source heat pump, biomass and other means with fine and smart control systems to maximize environmental protection efficiency and provided clean energy solutions for urban communities, large public buildings and industrial parks.

In the future, Luen Mei Quantum will continue to pursue sustainable and healthy development, actively practice green concept and implement the national "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" strategy in practice.