Jun. 16 – The country’s first bioenergy research center was launched last Sunday in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region’s capital city of Nanning as part of Beijing’s new energy development plans.

The research center aims to find ways to effectively use cassava, sugar cane and sweet sorghum for new energy development; commodities that are abundant in the region.

China’s bioenergy resources are estimated at five billion tons. The first cassava-for-alcohol fuel project in the country with an annual capacity of 200,000 tons began in Beihai city of Guangxi in 2007.

The Nanning research center will be supported by talent from the Guangxi Academy of Sciences. According to a report made by the Chinese Academy of Sciences on June 10, bioenergy will be commercially viable on a massive scale in the country by 2050 and should replace 30 percent of the oil imports.