Investigation, Chemical Composition Analysis And Screening On Non-food Biodiesel Plant Resources In China

Under the background of energy shortage and the existence of many environmentalissues, biodiesel fuel has become a research hotspot all over the world because of itscharacteristics of renewable, environmental friendly and good alternative. Considering thebasic national conditions that China is a large population country and per capita arable landarea is very little, it is a great innovation to use lots of marginal land resources for thedevelopment of non-food biodiesel. This needn’t take up the limited arable land, but also canimprove the marginal land ecological environment and relieve the pressure from energyshortage. Therefore, investigating the non-food biodiesel energy plant resources in China andscreening the potential energy plants are of great significance.On the basis of collecting the field investigation data and reviewing relevant literature,the non-food biodiesel energy plant resource situation was analyzed holistically. And the seedoil content and fatty acid composition were determined by Soxhlet extraction and GasChromatography. Potential non-food biodiesel energy plants were screened according to theevaluation criteria for biodiesel. The main results of this research were as follows:(1) The diversity of non-food biodiesel energy plants in China was obvious. There were atotal of1390species, belonging to141families and141genera. Families with more oil-richspecies were Lauraceae, Rosaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Theaceae, Celastraceae, Cucurbitaceae,Magnoliaceae and Cruciferae.(2) Because of the warm climate, rich heat resource and abundant rainfall, thedistribution center of non-food biodiesel energy plant in China was the Southern region. Morethan83.9%energy plants distributed there. The difference of oil content, fatty acidcomposition and cetane number among different climatic zone was not significant, but thedifference of iodine value was more significant, the highest iodine value one was PlateauAlpine Climate Zone’s.(3) A total of234groups,193species,63families were selected out as potentialnon-food energy plants. Including some high oil content families Rosaceae, Lauraceae,Leguminosae, Magnoliaceae, Theaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Rutaceae, Sapindaceae, and the genus Euonymus, and some high oil content species Euscaphis japonica, Juglans cathayensis,Vitex negundo, Trichosanthes rosthornii, Salvia umbratica, Wikstroemia hainanensis,Picrasma quassioides, Melia azedarace. Excepting Jatropha curcas, Camellia oleifera,Xanthoceras sorbifolia, Pistacia chinensis, the other189species haven’t been developed andutilized.(4) Nanling national nature reserve was an area with a great variety of non-food biodieselenergy plants, this research investigated the energy plant resources there in detail. Resultsshowed that a total of471species, belonging to190genera,77families distributed in thisreserve. Dominant families were Lauraceae, Celastraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Rutaceae,Magnoliaceae, Theaceae and Rosaceae. They were mainly distributed in evergreenbroad-leaved forest zone at altitude less than1400m. The distribution elements of the energyplants in this reserve were complex, diverse and widely related to many parts of the world.The plants were predominated by tropical and subtropical elements and also strongly affectedby temperate elements.