Learning from the Success of Wood Pellet Industry in Asia (Vietnam) and Europe (Latvia)

The trend of using wood pellets globally has not been long, it only started around the early 2010s and a number of countries responded quickly so that their wood pellet industry grew rapidly as part of their economic engine in line with the global trend for decarbonization and green economy or bioeconomy. The readiness of a number of countries to respond to this opportunity is also not without reason but indeed their insight and knowledge have supported them to do so. Indonesia as a tropical country with vast land and abundant human resources should also be able to boost the opportunities of this wood pellet industry so that it becomes one of the world's main players.

Vietnam and Latvia are two countries in the world that are currently leading the wood pellet industry, there is even the largest wood pellet factory in the world there, for more details read here. Initially, both countries also started this industry from a small capacity. For Vietnam, Vietnam's wood pellet production began in 2012 with a very small capacity of around 175 tons/year and currently in 2021 or around 9 years later, production has reached around 4.5 million tons/year, placing Vietnam in second place as a world wood pellet producer, after the United States. The total production of 4.5 million tons/year is supplied from 74 wood pellet factories in Vietnam. In 2020, 3.2 million tons of wood pellets were exported to Japan and Korea for power plants with an export value of nearly USD 351 million. In addition to Korea and Japan, Vietnam's wood pellet production is also exported to Europe.

Initially, Vietnam's wood pellet production used waste from the furniture industry. Furniture waste in the form of sawdust from the industry was dry and its particle size was suitable for wood pellet production, so equipments such as hammer mills and dryers were not needed. Many Vietnamese wood pellet factories at that time did not have hammer mills or dryers. With raw materials ready to be pelletized, the cost of producing wood pellets was very cheap, plus the cost of labor was also cheap. However, as the demand for furniture industry waste for wood pellet production increased, the availability of these raw materials became increasingly scarce, so that new wood pellet factories could no longer use these wastes. Waste from other wood processing industries such as sawmills and veneer factories also became raw materials. Furthermore, with the increasing production of wood pellets, forest wood waste and other round wood became the next source of raw materials. This also increased production costs because tools such as hammer mills and dryers were needed so that the raw materials were ready to be pelletized.

Meanwhile, Latvia, as a small country in northern Europe, saw an opportunity to lead in this growing industry. With almost half of its territory covered by forest, Latvia had the natural resources to produce wood pellets. In the early 2000s, with government support for responsible forest management, sustainable wood production was introduced, including support for entrepreneurs who wanted to start producing wood pellets. It wasn’t long before the world caught on. Countries across Europe, including the UK, Denmark and Italy, began relying on Latvian wood pellets for their heating and power plants.

Despite being a small country, Latvia has become a major player in the wood pellet industry, competing with larger countries such as Germany and Sweden. Latvia is now one of the largest exporters of wood pellets in the world. Latvia's success story teaches us that even a small country with strong will, focus on quality, innovation and sustainability, natural resources can lead to global success. Latvia's success shows that when there is government support, technology investment and dedicated people, even a small country can lead in a competitive global market. And as the world increasingly looks for clean and sustainable energy solutions, the success of Latvia's wood pellet industry is an inspiring example of what can be achieved with vision, hard work and a commitment to sustainability.

Tropical countries like Indonesia are a "heaven" for biomass energy, this biomass energy is like a green battery that must be developed, for more details read here. When small countries like Vietnam and Latvia can boost their wood pellet industry, then Indonesia should not want to be left behind. When great potential is wasted, then besides being an ungrateful attitude that will have an impact on poverty and environmental damage, it is also stupidity. The large amount of land available, even millions of hectares becoming critical land and multi-benefit from energy plantations should motivate the wood pellet industry. When Vietnam and Latvia can do it, Indonesia should do the same.

Green Economy in the Cement Industry Part 6: Clinker Substitution in Cement Plants

Substituting clinker with additives or SCM (Supplementary Cementious Material) plays a major role in efforts to reduce CO2 emissions in cement plants. This clinker substitution is ranked second after carbon capture or CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) in efforts to reduce CO2 emissions or decarbonization in the cement industry. This is because the largest CO2 emissions in cement plants are not from combustion or related to fuel but in the calcination process. CCS technology is still expensive so its implementation still faces many obstacles, but clinker substitution is easier to do, so many cement plants are already doing it. 

In the cement industry, all fuel use and around 60% of electricity use is used for clinker production starting from grinding raw materials, fuel preparation and cement kilns. The higher the clinker to cement ratio, the higher the electricity and fuel used for each ton of cement produced. The clinker to cement ratio can be reduced if less clinker is used in cement production or more additional materials or SCM are added to the clinker. This also means that substituting clinker with SCM can significantly reduce energy use (electricity and fuel) for each ton of cement produced. 

China currently has the lowest clinker to cement ratio in the world, namely 0.58, while a number of areas in other countries have the highest ratio, up to 0.9. It can also be understood that China uses the highest portion of SCM compared to countries in the world. The most commonly used SCMs today are fly ash, ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) and ground limestone. Meanwhile, other SCMs such as pozzolan and calcined clay have the potential to be used in the future.

Fly ash comes from by-products or waste from coal-fired power plants. Decarbonization of coal power plants is also continuing to be carried out, namely by cofiring coal with biomass, but this is being done in stages so that fly ash production will still be large for a while. Fly ash from coal-fired power plant waste is very useful in cement production because it reduces the clinker to cement ratio, thereby reducing energy requirements for cement production or in other words reducing the carbon footprint of cement products. Meanwhile, GGBFS comes from iron and steel plant waste. Not all iron and steel plants produce GGBFS waste, this is because it depends on the type of furnace used. Only plants that use blast furnaces - basic oxygen furnaces (BF - BOF) can produce GGBFS, while those that use electric arc furnaces (EAF) cannot. Around 70% of iron and steel plants in the world currently use the BF – BOF process so as to produce quite a lot of GGBFS, even in China more than 90% use this BF – BOF process. Decarbonization in the iron and steel industry is marked by the switch from BF – BOF to EAF which results in the availability of GGBFS. However, the process is running slowly and gradually, so that for a while the amount of GGBFS will be available and can reduce the carbon footprint of cement production.

The use of fly ash in cement production is usually limited to 25-35% for technical performance reasons. Meanwhile, GGBFS can be used in larger portions than fly ash or other SCM. Even European standards allow the use of GGBFS up to 95% but in practice it is lower. Other SCMs commonly used are pozzolan and calcined clay. Pozzolan comes from mining, namely from deposits in nature. Pozzolan requires drying and grinding before being used in cement production. The electricity used for crushing (grinding) pozzolan is also almost the same as crushing clinker. Calcined clay can also be used as a substitute for clinker. The initial use of calcined clay with a higher portion causes a decrease in the compressive strength of the cement product produced. However, further developments using a combination or mixture of calcined clay with limestone powder have the potential to substitute up to 50% clinker without affecting the quality of the cement. Calcined clay is produced from the clay calcination process which requires energy, but the energy required is much less than the energy for clinker production. It is predicted that in 2050 by the IEA (International Energy Agency) / WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development) cement production with the above combination of materials will reach more than 25% worldwide.

It turns out that the use of SCM is not only a substitute for clinker in cement production but also in concrete production. The use of SCM in concrete production is also no less than a substitute for clinker, even in the United States SCM is mostly added during concrete production and not during cement production. A study in the United States estimated that only 5% of SCM was added to cement production and around 13% to concrete production. But basically the addition of SCM to both cement production and concrete production has reduced the carbon footprint or is in line with decarbonization. The problem is that the lack of education regarding the benefits of SCM, especially in concrete production, is a barrier to increasing the use of SCM. Other factors such as the availability of SCM, price and its relation to cement and building quality are also similar barriers. The creation of new standards and codes related to increasing the use of blended cement with SCM and concrete production needs to be developed to transform the current market.

Green Economy in the Cement Industry Part 5 : Increasing Production and Reducing Emissions

Increasing production capacity but simultaneously reducing CO2 emissions (carbon dioxide, the dominant greenhouse gas) sounds contradictory / paradoxical. It is indeed like that in passing. However, with a decarbonization or CO2 removal (CDR) program, efforts to reduce emissions can be done while increasing cement production. How big the target of reducing emissions and increasing cement production will depend on how much decarbonization efforts are made. The greater the reduction in emissions, the more expensive it will usually be. This is why efforts to reduce emissions while increasing production must also be carried out in stages with certain strategies.

Cement plant is an industry that contributes to an increase in CO2 of more than 6% globally. However, there is something unique about this cement industry, namely that most of the CO2 emissions produced do not come from fuel use, but from the calcination process. The percentage of CO2 produced from the calcination process reaches around 60%, while from fuel use it is only around 40%. The fossil fuels commonly used in cement industries are coal and petcoke, both of which are the two fossil fuels that pollute the air the most. In fact, in a number of areas cement plants are the largest coal users. Cement plants close to oil refineries will use more petcoke.

Decarbonization programs or efforts to reduce CO2 emissions that can be carried out in cement plants include increasing energy efficiency, using clinker substitute materials, using alternative/renewable energy, and using CCUS (Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage). With these characteristics, total decarbonization in the cement industry cannot be carried out by using only the best efficiency technology or by simply replacing the fuel. Meanwhile, the use of clinker substitutes and CCUS is very important among other technologies to achieve near-zero emissions in cement production.

The best scenario for increasing production and reducing emissions can be done by using much higher energy efficiency improvements using commercially available technology, using more aggressive fuels to low carbon or even carbon neutral fuels, using higher rates of clinker substitute materials. and adopting a higher portion of commercially available CCUS technologies.

And it's worth noting that all suggested improvements in these best-case scenarios can be achieved by implementing technologies that are already commercially available and most of them should also be cost-effective. As for CCUS, while the technology is commercially available, implementation requires large investments that demand higher financial incentives or carbon prices. However, on the other hand, CCUS has the largest contribution to CO2 reduction, followed by the use of clinker substitutes and the switch to low-carbon or even carbon-neutral fuels. And the use of efficiency-enhancing technology has the smallest contribution to reducing CO2 emissions. This is mainly because process-related emissions from calcination account for around 60% of total CO2 emissions and are not related to energy use.

Greening the Desert with Bamboo

Beautifying the city or public facilities is increasingly prevalent today. In addition to adding beauty so that residents or the community increasingly like it, beautifying the city and public facilities is also designed to function to add freshness to the air and shade, namely by greening it with suitable plants. Cities or public facilities that are hot and arid because there are no leafy plants are certainly not attractive. Moreover, a city that will be built in a desert area, greening is absolutely necessary.

Bamboo is an adaptive plant that can even be planted in marginal lands including desert lands. And because of the need to beautify the city, ornamental bamboo species are more suitable. There are a number of ornamental bamboo species that can be an option. The beauty factor related to plant design and the city layout concept is a consideration for the selection of these ornamental bamboo species. And this bamboo planting can be done massively, especially for large desert areas so that it is green and beautiful. It is the kingdom of Saudi Arabia that will make a futuristic city in desert land costing around $ 500 billion even with the Saudi Green Initiave (SGI) program which intends to fight climate change targeting planting 10 billion trees throughout Saudi Arabia so that the use of bamboo can be an option interesting. Saudi Arabia is currently economically dependent on the oil and gas sector 56% with a vision of 2030 also reducing dependence on its oil and gas sector and pursuing the success of the UAE which is only 34%.

Compared to ASEAN countries, namely trade and investment cooperation with Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, the three countries in ASEAN surpass Indonesia and these Middle Eastern countries. The performance of Indonesia's investment and trade cooperation relations is indeed concerning compared to the three countries in ASEAN. Indonesia still fails to identify opportunities with a country that has the purchasing power and economic capability that has the highest income in the world. The oil and gas and non-oil and gas trade deficit between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia reached 60%. Supplying the need for bamboo seeds as well as creating plantations can be one of the efforts to reduce the trade deficit.

Meanwhile, if the goal is to green the desert or barren areas for the production of biomass as industrial raw material, then the choice of bamboo species is also different for the purpose of beauty of the city. Specific bamboo species can be selected for this purpose. The factors of altitude, the type of industry to be made are several things for selecting the type of bamboo to be planted or used for example for bioenergy or biomaterials. Wood-based industries in general can be replaced with bamboo.

Green Economy in the Cement Industry Part 3

Fly ash is a byproduct or waste of coal power plants. Like slag, fly ash is also an additive or supplement (SCM/supplementary cementious material) in cement production. The difference is that fly ash is very fine so it doesn't need to be refined anymore and can be mixed directly with clinker and gypsum. Every ton of fly ash used prevents about 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) from escaping into the atmosphere. This is in line with the green economy or decarbonization as a climate solution effort for the industry.

Unloading fly ash

As the same with slag, the chemical content of fly ash also influences the quality of the cement produced, for example certain regions or countries have requirements for grade 120 alumina in the slag. Cement with a certain quality can be designed with the use of these additives. In the current era, apart from technical factors such as mechanical strength or cement adhesion, microstructure, durability and so on, and economic factors, environmental friendly product factors are also a concern or have their own positive image. Circular economy in the form of utilizing waste from other industries to become raw materials for this industry, also occurs in the cement industry. And basically the cement industry besides being able to process waste is also a waste destroyer.

Green Economy in the Cement Industry Part 2

A number of cement plants can do production well by using only limestone and clay raw materials. This is because the material has fulfilled all the oxides needed in the manufacture of the clinker. The oxides needed are CaO (C), SiO2 (S), Al2O3 (A) and Fe2O3 (F). Limestone itself usually has a CaO (C) content of around 90% and 5% SiO2 (S). But the facts on the ground are that many cement  plants require additional materials to achieve the desired oxide composition or commonly called corrective materials. A number of these corrective materials are high grade limestone which has a CaO content of above 95% as C oxide correction, then silica sand for S oxide correction, then kaolin or bauxite for A oxide correction and iron ore or pyrite for F oxide correction.

So in general, currently the materials needed for the production of clinker are limestone, clay, silica sand and iron ore. In its development iron ore can be replaced with slag. The content of Fe2O3 (F) slag is lower than iron ore but the price is cheaper. The slag used mainly comes from the iron and steel industry, commonly known as GBFS or GGBFS. Slag is actually also an additive material that can be added with clinker and gypsum so that it becomes a product (slag) cement. In addition to other slag materials such as fly ash which are also commonly used as a additive, these two materials are commonly called cement supplement materials or SCM (supplementary cementious materials). Fly ash which is very fine does not need to be crushed anymore so it can be mixed directly with clinker and gypsum, while slag from iron or steel industry needs to be crushed again into GGBFS before being mixed with clinker and gypsum. For the need for these additives, in addition to physical aspects such as particle size, chemical aspects, namely slag chemistry and fly ash chemistry, are important parameters that need attention.

The use of SCM such as slag and fly ash above, will reduce the use, especially of fossil fuels. This is because SCM is added to clinker and gypsum so it does not require heat energy. Heat energy itself is needed in the manufacture of clinker, namely in the calciner and rotary kiln. For example, the manufacture of slag cement produces 38% less CO2 emissions than the process for the production of portland cement because less limestone is burned for the production of slag cement than is required for Portland cement. This heat energy currently still uses a lot of fossil fuels and is gradually starting to use renewable energy. Energy derived from biomass such as agricultural waste and animal manure is also starting to be used.

Green Economy in the Cement Industry

The trend of decarbonization, including the low carbon economy, has penetrated various sectors, including the cement industry. Cement is the most common human-made product in the world, consuming about 0.5 tons per person per year. The cement industry is also a significant contributor to greenhouse gases, reaching 21% (IPCC 2014), with these conditions making it one of the biggest contributors to climate change. And because the cement industry has a history as a major contributor to these greenhouse gas emissions, there are opportunities today to reduce emissions significantly through increasing efficiency and innovation in the industry.

Increasing energy efficiency in cement production will reduce the resulting carbon emissions. Even in the cement industry, the use of energy is also slowly starting to be used as renewable energy or alternative energy, including the use of RDF from municipal waste or household waste, which more or less reduces environmental pollution. While in the production aspect the use of additional materials originating from other industrial waste (circular economy) such as slag and fly ash or SCM (supplementary cementious materials) has also been widely used. The addition of these materials depends on the type of cement to be made and aims to reduce the use of clinker because clinker production requires high costs and produces CO2 gas as a result of calcination. For example, the manufacture of slag cement produces 38% less CO2 emissions than the process for the production of portland cement because less limestone is burned for the production of slag cement than is required for Portland cement. In addition, a number of countries also support the production and use of slag cement in order to support environmentally friendly products. The things above also indicate concern for the environment and sustainability is increasing.

In the cement industry, about 50% of emissions come from the calcination process itself, 40% from fuel for heating the kiln, and the remaining 10% from grinding and transport. Inside the calciner, a calcination process occurs, namely the decomposition of CaCO3 into CaO and CO2 and a little MgCO3 into MgO and CO2. Because the calcination reaction is endothermic, high heat is required, so it is equipped with a burner for burning coal utilizing tertiary air from the cooler and hot gas from the kiln. The release of CO2 due to the reaction in the calciner is a crucial environmental issue in the cement industry, the volume of CO2 gas from calcination is much greater than CO2 from burning fuel (coal) or 50% to 40%.

Various types of cement with different qualities often require specific SCM qualities as well. Under these conditions the review is not only general specifications but down to the chemistry of the material. For example slag from a steel plant or Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GBFS) with a certain chemical content or fly ash but with a low alkaline content or slag from a nickel smelter not suitable for certain types of cement and so on. To obtain specific SCM such as slag and fly ash is closely related to the particular source of slag and fly ash, although in some cases it is possible to add certain materials to obtain the desired chemical composition.

And in the cement industry, emissions are not easily reduced. Emissions from processes cannot be reduced by optimizing or using only renewable energy or alternative energy. In the cement industry, when following the scenarios developed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is clear that to reach the limit of 2 C or even 1.5 C, cabon capture and storage / carbon capture and utilization (CCS / CCU) is needed. However, more is needed if the industry is to meet the ambitious goals set by the Paris agreement. The cement industry is particularly challenged by this target because carbon is generated by the energy used in the process and the calcination process itself. Even if energy-based emissions could be eliminated by switching to carbon-neutral fuels, those calcination process emissions would still be present and would require a carbon capture unit (CCS/CCU).

Europe has become a research center for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and utilization (CCU). From a number of carbon capture technologies, amine-based absorption (organic compounds and functional groups whose contents consist of lone-paired nitrogen atoms) is the most advanced carbon capture technology and has been implemented on a commercial scale. Carbon capture technology seems to play an important role in fighting climate change, especially in the cement industry.