Rural Residential District Heating in North China

Abstract: Jilin Province in northern China supports the development of thermal gasification applications using agricultural residue as raw material. A demonstration project was launched in spring 2000 to establish a gasification plant in a rural village in eastern Jilin. The ambition is to refine biomass into three new energy carriers: gas, electricity and heat (hot water). The concept is called trigeneration.This report is the result of a preliminary investigation of rural residential district heating as a strategy for utilising trigenerated heat. Three issues are addressed: (i) estimating demand and usage of heat in rural Jilin households as a basis for heat load predictions, (ii) technical dimensioning of a distribution grid for district heating, and (iii) economy.Two mathematical models are used to calculate the heat demand of a single household, assumed to be representative of the village of the demonstration project. The results are compared with each other, and with several other estimates of heat usage of households. Technical dimensioning of a distribution grid is performed on the basis of the modelled demand. A rudimentary economic assessment is made with cost estimates based on information from local and foreign sources.The study suggests that the heat demand of rural households in northern China may be higher than generally assumed according to conventional wisdom. Economic externalities as well as the social context have to be included in a presentation that seeks to motivate the establishment of rural residential district heating based on trigeneration in north China.