With the increasingly prominent pressure of environmental pollution, the development and production of biomass energy has become an unstoppable global trend. Among them, fuel ethanol, due to its mature production process and wide range of applications, has become a hot spot for development in various countries. However, the current contradiction of food shortages is becoming increasingly prominent, and the development of fuel ethanol has caused controversy due to its competition with food crops for land. In this situation, utilizing marginal land resources to cultivate non-grain crops is an important way for fuel ethanol to obtain raw materials, and these marginal lands that can provide raw materials for fuel ethanol have also become "hot land" for development.

　　Marginal land refers to land that "has not yet been utilized, has poor natural conditions, but can produce a certain amount of biomass, has certain production potential and development value." This type of land is not suitable for cultivation as farmland for the time being, but it can grow or cultivate certain adaptable plants.

　　A relatively small amount of cultivated land is one of China's basic national conditions. Therefore, China's development of the bioethanol industry must follow the basic principle of "not competing for land, grain, oil, or sugar." At the same time, however, China has a large amount of marginal land such as mountains, beaches, and saline-alkali land, which can be used to cultivate energy crops such as sweet sorghum, cassava, and sweet potatoes. A study by the Biomass Engineering Center of China Agricultural University shows that China has enormous potential for utilizing marginal land resources to cultivate energy crops. In the long term, this land can support a total fuel ethanol production capacity of more than 74 million tons/year, approximately 1.4 times the current annual gasoline consumption in China; in the short to medium term, utilizing only concentrated contiguous marginal land resources can produce 21.7 million tons of fuel ethanol annually. If only 1/4 of this land is developed, more than 5 million tons of fuel ethanol can be produced annually, which can basically meet China's needs for E-10 gasoline (the mixing ratio of gasoline and ethanol is 9:1).

　　In addition, according to data released by the Ministry of Land and Resources and the State Forestry Administration, China has 82.54 million hectares of reserve land and 51.76 million hectares of existing energy forest land. Excluding approximately 22% of the reserve land with poor conditions, the area of marginal land available for cultivating energy crops is 116.08 million hectares. After comprehensive capacity assessment, the total annual production potential is 415 million tons of standard coal.

　　During interviews, it was learned that many provinces and cities are currently using marginal land where grain cultivation is difficult to cultivate energy crops, and project progress is smooth. For example, Hubei Province has a long history of sweet potato cultivation, and sweet potato cultivation has already reached a certain scale, and the project start-up approval is mature. Hebei has a considerable amount of marginal land resources suitable for developing and utilizing sweet potato and sweet sorghum cultivation, and mature project proposals have been submitted. Jiangsu also has certain conditions for developing non-grain fuel ethanol and has the foundation for developing the fuel ethanol industry. The provincial government's competent authorities have urged relevant cities and prefectures to accelerate the preliminary work of the project. Jiangxi has a lot of wasteland and barren slopes that can be developed and utilized, farmers have the habit of cultivating sweet potatoes, and trial planting of cassava has also achieved good results. It has the basic conditions for large-scale development of tuber crop planting bases, and the project application report is being compiled.

　　Henan Tianguan Group, one of the national fuel ethanol designated production enterprises, has also been searching for high-yield and high-efficiency crops suitable for itself in recent years. They have conducted field investigations in the counties and cities surrounding Nanyang and conducted extensive experimental planting of high-starch corn, sweet sorghum, and sweet potatoes. Based on the fact that Nanyang has more than 5 million mu of hilly and sloping land, which is convenient for sweet potato cultivation and does not affect the cultivation of other crops, they selected sweet potatoes as the main raw material crop and established a raw material production base. Today, Tianguan Group has planted more than 300,000 mu of sweet potatoes in the base, providing raw material reserves for the company's development of fuel ethanol and other new energy sources. Fengsheng Biochemical Company, Jilin Fuel Ethanol Company, and other companies are also looking for energy crop bases suitable for themselves.

　　Experts such as Yan Liangzheng from the Biomass Engineering Center of China Agricultural University believe that in the future, Xinjiang, Gansu, Shandong, Jiangxi, and Ningxia will have enormous potential for utilizing arable marginal land to produce non-grain crops. Taking Xinjiang as an example, a large number of Tamarix plants growing in the desert areas of Xinjiang are ideal energy plants. Xinjiang's desert land resources should be utilized to cultivate drought-resistant and alkali-resistant energy plants, combined with desert management, to develop large-scale energy plant planting bases and provide stable non-grain crops for China's large-scale development of biomass energy.