Higher Power Plant Efficiency Demands Higher Fuel Quality

When we want to refuel our vehicle at a gas station, of course we choose what fuel is most suitable for our vehicle. Our vehicles will be able to run optimally when using the appropriate fuel. Over spec fuel quality or too low (under spec) will only provide less optimal performance. Technically, the vehicle has been designed with a certain pressure ratio on the combustion system, if the quality of the fuel is too high then low compression is difficult to burn perfectly, and vice versa. In the operation of vehicles, even fuel that burns prematurely or after time will produce a performance that is not optimal. High-quality fuels also have higher prices so that they are economically also not profitable, as are low quality fuels, although they are cheaper but performance is also below standard.

The analogy above is also more or less the same for electricity generation. The higher the level of efficiency the higher the quality of the fuel required because the operating conditions are also above the average, for example compression, temperature and so on. If the quality of gasoline is expressed by octane numbers, or on diesel oil the quality is stated by cetan numbers, then in solid fuels such as wood pellets the size of quality is expressed as a caloric value. Other elements that are also considered in fuel are elements that can damage the equipments or machines used. Especially for wood pellets, high potassium and chlorine content can have a bad effect on the power plant. Potassium will be a deposit / fouling on boiler pipes thereby reducing its efficiency, while corrosive chlorine will shorten the life of the power plant.

In 2030, Japan will implement the use of power plants with higher efficiency, which is a minimum of 41%, while most of the efficiency of coal power plants currently ranges from 30-35%. To achieve an efficiency level of more than 41% the technology used is ultra supercritical pulverized coal. Ultra supercritical pulverized coal technology is basically a further development of pulverized coal technology that is most widely used by coal power plants or more than 95% in the entire world today. The difference in ultra supercritical pulverized technology with pulverized is the use of higher pressure and temperature so that its efficiency is also higher. Modification of the power plant can also be done to increase the efficiency. The use of biomass fuels such as wood pellets can be done by cofiring or full firing (100% wood pellets). The characteristics of the fuel used will also affect the boiler technology used.

The ash of wood pellet required for industries such as electricity generation can be up to 6% according to the American pellet fuel institute (PFI). But chemical ash is an important consideration in the use of the power plant. South Korea for example currently requires a maximum chlorine level of 500 ppm (500 mg / kg) or Japan requires a maximum potassium level of 1000 ppm (1000 mg / kg). This makes the production of wood pellets follow these specifications if the specifications are not appropriate. A number of special pretreatments need to be done to achieve these specifications. The potential of wood pellets from energy plantations in Indonesia is very large, as are pellet fuels from agricultural or plantation waste such as palm oil empty fruit bunches which are estimated to reach approximately 38 million tons per year. But once again the specifications of the pellets (wood pellets or agro waste pellets) produced need to be adjusted to the needs of power plants in Japan or South Korea - two countries that are highly energy dependent - of course if the pellet producers are export oriented. What are the next pretreatment questions that need to be done on the production of the pellet? InsyaAllah, we discussed on another occasion.