There's Always a Market For Every Type of Pellet Fuel

The marketing aspect has always been a scourge for potential producers. When production activities have been carried out including large costs have been incurred to purchase equipment or production machineries, land for factories, factory buildings and so forth, for example the production of large capacity wood pellets from energy plantations, but not yet mastered the market aspect, will then face the big problem. Assessing, analyzing and exploring aspects of the market with its characteristics prior to production activities is very important, especially for large capacity production that also requires such huge cost. This also applies to pellet fuel from biomass as a solid fuel that gets a lot of attention today and also started to be developed by many parties. And of course the fear of potential producers can be avoided if they have mastered the intricacies of the business that they will run it.

Biomass pellets or pellets fuel and more particularly in wood pellets can be made from a variety of biomass feedstocks, whether woody biomass, agricultural wastes or grasses. More specifically wood pellets are pellets that are made from woody biomass. While biomass pellet is pellet fuel made from all kinds of biomass including woods, agricultural wastes and grasses. Pellets fuel made from agricultural waste is called agro-waste pellets. The wood pellet group has characteristics of high calorific value and low ash content while agro-waste pellets have lower calorific value characteristics and higher ash content. Wood pellets can also be made from hardwoods and softwoods, each of which has little difference to its properties. So is the pellets fuel group from agricultural wastes whose raw materials can also be as diverse as rice husk, coffee husk, peanut shell, empty fruit bunches (EFB) and so on. The properties of pellet fuel from various agricultural wastes are also different although the difference is a little.

Ash content and ash chemistry are two important variables related to the use or utilization of the pellets fuel. In general, the higher the ash content, the smaller the calorific value of the pellets fuel. While the ash chemistry of various pellets fuel groups in general can also be distinguished as follows:

1. The content of silica ash (Si) and potassium / potassium (K) are low with high calcium (Ca), with high fusion temperature derived from almost all woody biomass group. And this is the best specification for combustion and gasification.

2. The content of silica ash (Si) and potassium / potassium (K) high with low calcium (Ca) comes from agriculture biomass waste group.

Furthermore, since the chemical elements of the biomass constituents in pellet fuel are numerous, they determine the specific properties of pellet fuel. For example: wood pellets of hardwoods such as meranti, merbau, ulin, halaban and so on differ a number of chemical constituents with wood pellets from softwoods such as sengon / albasia. Similarly, agro-waste pellets such as rice husk pellets (ricehusk pellets) with empty palm bunches pellets (EFB Pellet). Even both groups of hardwoods and softwoods, too, differences in the amount of ash chemical elements between different species of wood also occur and it affects the level of technology tolerance used. Scientifically ultimate analysis in the laboratory can be used to determine the content of ash and chemical elements in detail / detail. It is important to know for the specific use or use of pellet fuel.

Basically the utilization of the pellet is as fuel or energy source. Combustion technology, gasification and pyrolysis are thermal routes that can use pellets as fuel. The most widely used combustion technology, the later gasification and the last pyrolysis. Combustion technology with medium temperature to high temperature can be done. The industrial sector generally uses medium temperatures and power plants use high temperatures. Burning in the industrial sector using combustor, namely grate stoker (chain grate) and stoker (static grate). While the power plant using pulverized system, additional explanations can also be read here.

To be able to use the pellets fuel from various raw materials because no problem with a number of chemical in pellet ash is then gasification technology widely used. With its operational temperature gasification also relatively low (800 C) compared to pulverized on combustion, so a number of ash chemical elements also do not cause problems. The use of gasification technology has also begun much in power generation. Gasification technology by maximizing gas products has a higher efficiency level than combustion, but the price or investment for large capacity is expensive so that in large capacity power plants generally still use the above mentioned pulverized technology. With this gasification technology, not only wood pellet types can be used but agro-waste pellets can also be used as fuel.

What about pyrolysis? In contrast to combustion and gasification that produce ash as residue, whereas in pyrolysis is not produced ash because of low operating conditions compared to combustion and gasification namely 400-600 C and limited/absence of oxygen. Wood pellets or biomass pellets are rarely used for fuel or raw materials in pyrolysis. Pyrolysis that is widely used today is slow pyrolysis or carbonization for charcoal production, while fast pyrolysis for the production of liquid fuels (bio-oil) is also still rarely used. In charcoal production with (slow) pyrolysis or carbonization it usually uses wood or briquette (sawdust briquette / wood briquette) as its raw material to produce lump charcoal and sawdust charcoal briquette, to sharpen the information can be read here .

Torrefaction or mild pyrolysis can produce half carbonization product which can be compacted into torrified pellet fuel. The raw material of the torrefaction process is wood chip then after going through the torrefaction process  then crushing with hammer mill so that the size becomes powder which then compacted into torrified pellet fuel. With torrefaction process the energy content of biomass becomes higher by about 20% so that after compacted the energy content of torrified pellet fuel is also automatically higher than wood pellet. Torrefaction with the final product of torrified pellet fuel is predicted to be a trend of future biomass solid fuels. The wood pellet or biomass pellet factory can upgrade its product to torrefied pellet fuel by adding a torrefier or torrefaction device in its production. Not many modifications to the factory if it will add a torrifier or torrefaction equipment to become a final product torrified pellet fuel later. So here the use of torrefaction technology (mild-pyrolysis) for the production process of biomass fuel that is torrified fuel, while gasification and combustion technology is used to extract energy from biomass fuel in the form of pellet fuel into heat and electricity.

By examining in detail the characteristics of pellet fuel and its utilization technology, no pellet fuel is useless or no market. Energy demand also continues to increase as the population grows. The characteristics or specific properties of pellet fuel will also determine the price of the pellet. Wood pellets generally have higher prices than agro-waste pellets. In many ways wood pellets have many advantages over coal, especially in the industrial sector, of course also the problem of economy. It also encourages some industries to switch to using wood pellets. Performance or boiler performance in the industry can also compete with the use of wood pellets. For industries that want to test and want to switch using wood pellet for boiler can contact us at eko.sbs@gmail.com

Designing Large Capacity Wood Pellet Production From Energy Plantation

In anticipation of global wood pellet demand reaching 50 million tonnes / year 2024 with Korea and Japan reaching 20 million tonnes / year in 2020 or with a business value of  9 billion US dollars in 2020 and to become a major player in the business, so designing a large capacity and sustainable can only be done with energy plantations. The scheme below describes the stages in more detail and informative:

Container Still Become the Main Choice of Wood Pellet Export in Indonesia?

Buyers' satisfaction for getting goods on demand, undamaged and defective, is an important factor in the sustainability of a business so buyers continue to repurchase and repeat orders, by making or renewing existing contracts, even by increasing their purchasing capacity. This also applies to the wood pellets business. Attempts to get goods that order for the buyer one of them by keeping the goods along the journey from various damage is important one by choosing the packaging or the appropriate wood pellet delivery or the type of delivery. Almost all Indonesian wood pellet exports today use containers with wood pellets in jumbo bags and then arranged inside the container. Some use sack packs then place them in containers as well. There is also a way of bulk or not packed in jumbo bag or sack but still in containers. The use of containers is chosen because, firstly the export wood pellet volume is not large yet, second are not yet available adequate supporting facilities for large quantity wood pellets export with bulk shipment.

Wood pellets is a very sensitive product with water, so protection or keeping it out of water should be done to maintain the quality of the wood pellet. By placing the wood pellet in a container then protection from water such as rain water can be done, so it is still used as the main choice. Then how to export wood pellets in large quantity routinely done every month? Need extra effort at this time if want to use bulk shipment, especially for protection from water. Especially in the rainy season. Rainfall intensity in Indonesia is quite high compared to other countries in general, namely, an average of 2700 mm / year or three times higher than the world average of only 900 mm / year. Indonesia's rainfall is higher than India (1,080 mm), America (715 mm), China (645 mm), Brazil (1,750 mm), Argentina (591 mm) and even Thailand (1,625 mm). Only two of our neighbors are able to surpass the Indonesian rainfall of Malaysia (2,875 mm) and Papua New Guinea (3,140). While countries in the Middle East in general have only a small rainfall such as Jordan (111 mm), Qatar (74 mm), Saudi Arabia (59 mm) and Egypt who only get 51 mm rainfall per year. So if bulk shipment of wood pellets will be done then in the dry season will be easier because water protection is easier to do. In comparison we will see shipping of palm kernel shell (pks) which is also biomass fuel has been exported abroad especially with bulk shipment.

Palm kernel shells are not as sensitive as wood pellets or pellets fuel to water, so the handling is also not as difficult as wood pellets. There are three main things that become the main parameters of palm kernel shells that is water content, calorific value and impurity. Related to the moisture content because the palm kernel shells is not damaged by water but only keep it from getting too wet, while wood pellet which is an industrial product of woody biomass compaction (biomass densification) will be damaged and even destroyed by the presence of water in certain quantities. Mechanical interlocking that occurs during the compaction will decompose and loose due to the presence of a lot of water so the wood pellets destroyed. In shipment of palm kernel shells from stockpile locations to export ports, the use of trucks or barges is common and sometimes only sealed with less dense plastic. In wood pellet closure with plastic when heading to the carrier vessel can also be done but if not tight enough will be prone to water especially in the rainy season, plus if loading to the ship is done in the middle of the sea (transhipment) because the ship can not lean on the port like usually done in Kalimantan.

The difference in the tolerance level of water avaibility between the palm kernel shell and wood pellets, has implications for handling and even the equipment used. Weather factors (such as storms) and density loading traffic port add to the difficulty of loading wood pellets onto the vessel. This makes shipping large quantities of wood pellets with bulk shipment still difficult to be done, so shipping with containers are still the main choice in Indonesia. 

Wood pellet terminal in Canada

Wood pellet loading from silos into the ship

Cement terminal at seaport

Cement loading from silos into the ship

Another reference that we can refer to is the bulk cement shipments. Cement is a product that is also very sensitive to water, in the presence of water then the cement will clot so it becomes unusable, so protection against water is absolutely necessary. Cement distribution lines to their bulk shipment are all protected from the entry of water. In the highways we can easily find large trucks carrying bulk cement pass through, then in a number of ports are also built cement terminals in the form of silos or bin like high towers. When wood pellets production reach massive scale, the infrastructure or supporting equipment is also almost the same as cement and it is now also we can see in wood pellets producing countries like America and Canada. On the receiving port side or port of destination the shipment of adequate equipment is also required to handle the unloading of the wood pellets. For comparison, large quantities of feed pellets will also require almost the same equipment for bulk shipment. So whether the biomass fuel such as wood pellets become waterproof (hydrophobic) like coal? The answer can be with torrefaction technology so the product become torrefied wood pellet. Torrefaction will be discussed in more detail next writing. Insha Allah.