EFB Charcoal Briquette for Substitution of Sawdust Charcoal Briquette

Continuity of raw material supply is the main thing for the sustainability of a production, as well as the sawdust charcoal briquette industry. The lack or even stop of supply the sawdust or wood waste as raw material for sawdust charcoal briquette makes production disrupted and even stops. And such conditions have now been experienced by some the sawdust charcoal briquette factories. In fact, from the market side the demand for sawdust charcoal briquette is very large, especially in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Continuous alternatives to raw materials and availability in large quantities are the choices. An empty fruit bunch (EFB) can be an option. Why? EFB is a solid waste of oil palm mills which are large in number and are generally not utilized. Palm oil mills with a capacity of 60 tons / hour FFB produce EFB waste of 13.2 tons / hour or 264 tons / day. And currently there are approximately 1,000 oil mills throughout Indonesia.

The next question is, can the quality of charcoal briquette made from EFB compete with sawdust or wood waste? Judging from its use for fuel or energy, the quality of EFB is lower than sawdust or woody waste belonging to woody biomass while EFB is a biomass of agricultural waste (agro waste). The measure of quality can be shown mainly from the calorific value and ash content. The calorific value of the EFB charcoal briquette is lower and the ash content is greater than the sawdust charcoal briquette. Based on these conditions, the price of sawdust charcoal briquette should be slightly lower than sawdust charcoal briquette. But in an effort to overcome the problem of waste and be able to increase income, the profits from the production of the EFB charcoal briquette should still be very attractive.

The implementation of EFB charcoal production can work with palm oil mills, namely as a provider of raw materials as well as electricity providers for their operations. A number of palm oil mills with excess biomass waste such as palm kernel shells and mesocarp fiber can be used for electricity production. If it is still lacking, waste in the plantation such as fronds and leaves can also be used to fuel the power plant. The location of many palm oil mills is in the remote areas and there is no other electricity source that is sufficient so that's make the palm oil mill automatic as a power plant also which is generally used internally but can also be upgraded for external use. As for management and business, it is possible to produce EFB charcoal briquette that are integrated palm oil mill or separatd and managed by ownself. Of course the choice is very dependent on the management pattern of the company, especially in its business development division.