Refuse power stations in China

China is the largest coal producer and consumer in the world. Its coal output which amounted to 1,390 million tons in 1997, made up 25% of the total output of the world and 74% of the consumption of the primary energy in China. It is estimated that the energy structure with coal as the leading actor will not to be changed in the country until the middle of next century. The preparation rate of raw coal is rather low in China, only 22.2% (in 1997). It will go up to 34.8% in the next few years because the government has set a still higher demand on environmental protection. As a result, the environment around the users will be getting better, but the pollution in the mining area will be heavier, piles of great quantities of refuse will cause self-ignition and then badly influence the environment and people's health around the mining area. Generating electrical power by using refuse is not only a way for disposing refuse, but also a way to solve the problem of power shortage, providing good economical, environmental, and social efficiency for enterprises. Currently, this technique has been affirmed as one of the state major projects formore » development.« less