Overview of Marginal Lands in Henan Province, China and Evaluation of Development Potential of Biomass-To-Liquid Fuels

Developing marginal lands to plant energy crops and then develop biomass-to-liquid fuels is an effective way to ease the energy crisis, promote greenhouse gas emission reduction, and protect the natural ecological environment. Taking Henan Province, China as a research object, the research obtained spatial distributions and areas of marginal lands in the province by processing remote-sensing data for land use using software ArcGIS. Marginal lands in Henan Province were classified into the first-class, second-class, and third-class ones by selecting key natural conditions including the soil thickness, slope, soil texture (sand volume fraction), accumulated temperature above 10 °C, organic matter content, and total annual precipitation as indices. The research showed that the total area of marginal lands in the province is 1.68×104 km2, including 0.62×104 km2 of first-class marginal lands, 0.83×104 km2 of second-class marginal lands, and 0.23×104 km2 of third-class marginal lands. Taking production of bioethanol with sugar grass as an example, 8.92×107 t of sugar grass can be harvested on the marginal lands in Henan Province, which can be converted into 5.80×106 t of bioethanol, equivalent to 6.96×106 t of standard coal. The research can provide reference for realizing energy structure optimization and consolidating energy security in Henan Province.