Energy Plantation: Wood Pellet or Wood Charcoal Production?

Energy plantations are starting to develop and large-capacity wood pellet production is emerging in line with the development of these energy plantations. It could be that now is the right momentum as predicted several years ago by the author in the following article. It is also possible that the Covid-19 era which has lasted for about 3 years has slowed down this momentum. The vast area of ​​industrial plantation forests (HTI) in Indonesia allows for the creation of energy plantations for large-capacity wood pellet production along with additional products such as animal feed and food (honey). The production of wood pellets as biomass fuel or carbon neutral fuel is mainly made or produced in the context of the energy transition towards the net zero emission era.

Viewed from the business side, the production of wood pellets is demand driven because efforts to achieve the net zero emission target require industries, especially coal-fired power plants, to carry out gradual decarbonization through cofiring biomass fuel (wood pellets) with coal. The target, which is getting closer in time, with various efforts that require planned programs and large costs, does require serious and sustainable efforts. Not only in the power generation industry, especially coal-fired power plants, but also other industries such as the iron and steel industry. Coal-fired power plants contribute 40% of CO2 concentration globally, while the iron and steel industry contributes 9% globally.

In the current power generation industry, more than a third of global electricity production still uses coal. That portion must drop to 4% by 2030 and 0% by 2040 if the world is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and prevent the devastating impacts of the climate crisis. Developed countries should be able to reach zero coal faster because they have a stronger financial position than developing countries, most of which still rely on coal. The world has 6 years from now to reduce coal use in power generation to less than 4% by 2030, and a number of countries have taken rapid steps to eliminate coal use, which can be read here.

Meanwhile, in the decarbonization of the iron and steel industry, the fact is that currently it is still far from achieving this goal because the construction of blast furnaces - basic oxygen furnaces (BF -BOF) is still being carried out, which should be EAF (Electric Arc Furnace) or currently only around 30% globally the iron and steel industry uses this EAF. Even the International Energy Association (IEA) highlighted this critical issue to achieve the Paris Agreement's net-zero target by 2050. The CO2 intensity in this industry has only decreased slightly so that the use of renewable energy is becoming increasingly important and accelerated.

Currently, large energy plantations have begun to be created in the context of the energy transition. The main production of energy plantations is wood pellets which can be said to be carbon neutral fuel. Almost none of these energy plantations are designed for charcoal production, even though the need for charcoal is also projected to be very large. The difference is that wood pellets will be used in power plants while charcoal is for the iron and steel industry. The production process for wood pellets is biomass compaction / densification while charcoal is carbonized or pyrolysis. In the future, a number of these energy plantations could be designed for wood pellet production while other energy plantations are designed for wood charcoal production. Given that the agreed time target for net zero emissions is not long away, the creation and utilization of energy plantations for these things will automatically not be long away.

EFB Pellets with Low Potassium (K) and Chlorine (Cl) for Power Plants

Palm oil mills that have excess energy, especially electrical energy, will have more freedom to develop their business. The excess electrical energy could have come from the production of electricity from the use of biogas. Liquid waste (pome) from palm oil mills is the raw material for biogas production. A palm oil mill with a production capacity of 30 tons of FFB/hour will be able to generate 1 MW of electricity and so on. One of the products that can be processed from the utilization of palm oil solid waste as well as the development of this business by utilizing excess energy is EFB pellets production. With the high price of palm kernel shells or PKS and wood pellets, the driving force or need for EFB pellets is increasing. Global awareness regarding decarbonization or CO2 removal (CDR) or CO2 reduction is the main driving force.

Apart from that, the production of EFB pellets can also be carried out by a separate company by purchasing the raw materials for EFB from palm oil mills. With conditions in Indonesia where there are still very few palm oil mills that have biogas units so that they have electricity supply and can process EFB into EFB pellets, there is still a lot of EFB that has not been utilized and becomes waste that pollutes the environment. This makes EFB pellet producing companies not have to worry about the supply of EFB raw materials. In fact, because the amount or volume of EFB is very large, the EFB pellet plant will be overwhelmed by the abundance of this raw material.

However, due to the high content of EFB in potassium and chlorine (ash chemistry), the use of EFB pellets is limited or can only be used in certain types of power plants, especially stokers and fluidized beds. In fact, most power plants currently use pulverized combustion technology. This is so that the chemical content of ash in EFB must be made as friendly as possible to boilers, especially those with pulverized combustion technology. This can be done so that the chemical content of the ash in the form of potassium (K) and chlorine (Cl) is only less than 2000 ppm. Potassium (K) with a low melting point causes deposits or scale to form in the heat exchanger pipes in the boiler so that the efficiency of heat exchange decreases while chlorine (Cl) is corrosive which shortens the life of the equipment. The treatment was even successful in reducing K and Cl by up to 80% so that the problem of fouling thickness and corrosivity was also reduced by 80%. With the number of palm oil mills in Indonesia reaching around 1000 units, of course the amount of EFB that can be processed into EFB pellets is also very large.