Wood Pellet Production, Solution to Urban Wood Biomass Waste Problems

Sorting is 50% of the solution to the problem of urban waste. The best sorting is at the location where the waste is generated, such as in households in housing or residential areas. With sorting, further waste processing will be much easier. The better the sorting is done, the easier the waste processing can be done. The reluctance of the community to sort waste makes the waste problem more complicated, prone to social conflict and protracted. Although difficult and complicated, cultivating waste sorting must continue to be done because if not handled it will become a serious environmental problem. The paradigm of waste processing also continues to change according to conditions, namely related to environmental impacts, availability of landfills, types and volumes of waste, as below.

If urban waste or MSW (municipal solid waste) can be sorted and processed properly, the environment will be clean and healthy. For example, such sorting is leaf waste made into compost, organic waste from the kitchen and leftover food for maggot feed or farming, wood waste in the form of twigs, pieces of wood and so on for wood pellet production, and plastic waste to be pyrolyzed into fuel or naphtha. And to be processed adequately, the volume of waste must also be sufficient and continuous. This is because the procurement of units for waste processing is also quite expensive. Waste processing should also be decentralized, so that it does not pile up in one place. The production capacity of the village or sub-district scale seems quite good and suitable for the manufacture of such waste processing units.

Among the urban waste is wood waste in the form of twigs, pieces of wood and so on that can be used for the production of wood pellets or wood pellets. The wood waste can come from pruning and felling trees, wood processing industry waste or wood that clogs waters such as rivers. The use of wood pellets or wood pellets can be for household cooking or SME industries. The use of wood pellets in addition to being a fuel or renewable energy that is environmentally friendly, easy to store and use and a solution to overcome biomass waste and reduce LPG imports which are worth around IDR 63.5 trillion each year.

Along with the innovation that continues to be done, wood pellet cooking stoves are becoming easier to use, efficient, clean and safe. For local governments, the production of wood pellets from wood waste also provides many benefits, namely as a solution to handling the waste, creating jobs and socializing the use of environmentally friendly renewable energy for the community. If this is successfully done, in the future the utilization of wood waste can continue to be developed.