Progress in energy utilization from agrowastes in Taiwan

Taiwan is a high energy-importing nation with more than 95% of its energy supplied by imported fuels. Environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are becoming significant environmental issues. In this regard, renewable energy like waste-to-energy are thus becoming attractive due to the energy policy for the sustainable development and environmental pollution mitigation in Taiwan. The objective of this paper is to present an updated overview of energy utilization from mass agrowastes in industries. The description is thus centered on new/revised promotion legislation/regulations especially concerning the agro-waste-to-energy in the measures of environmental protection and economic/financial incentives. The Statute for Renewable Energy Development is being enacted to further enhance and promote the green energy utilization, which is also addressed in the paper. Finally, we present the biomass energy utilization of three mass agrowastes (i.e. bagasse and rice husk from mills, and piggery wastes from swine farms) in progress. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.