Debarking from Energy Plantation Wood, Is It Necessary?

Debarking machine

Wood pellet target market is an important thing that needs attention. If the power plant is the main market for wood pellets, the quality standard of wood pellet products follows the technology used by the power plant. Meanwhile, if wood pellets for households who want premium quality, wood pellets that are produced also follow these quality standards. The wood pellet market for electricity generation needs large, different from the wood pellet market for households that are sold in small packages or the retail market. Electricity generation technology also needs to be monitored so that all wood pellets produced can be absorbed. Pulverized and fluidized bed combustion technology is the technology most widely used for electricity generation. In pulverized combustion technology generally wood pellets cannot be used 100% (except with a number of modifications), while fluidized bed technology can use wood pellets or biomass pellets from various raw materials.

What is debarking? Why do need debarking? Debarking is the separation of bark from log, with the aim of reducing ash content. That means that if the ash content of the log with the bark can be accepted by the user, of course debarking is not necessary. For power plants usually can accept wood pellets up to 2% ash content for standard pellets and 6% for utility pellets. Meanwhile, if the user wants a wood pellet product with very low ash content, premium pellet (less than 1%), then debarking must be done. The wood species used also affects the ash content. Almost all energy plantations use fast rotation plants and coppice such as gliricidia with ash content of more than 1% so that it is more suitable for electricity generation and do not need debarking.

CFB Powerplant in Japan

Another thing to note is ash chemistry. The potassium and chlorine content in the ash is a critical point that needs attention. Fast rotation plants in general have a high potassium content than wood biomass in general. This makes the use of power plants in particular pulverized combustion increasingly limited to cofiring applications. Whereas in fluidized bed combustion because the operating temperature is lower then it can be tolerated and is considered not to cause problems. This means that wood pellets from energy plantation wood are compatible with biomass power plants with fluidized bed technology and can be used for cofiring with a certain percentage of pulverized combustion.

Energy Plantation: Planting Calliandra and Gliricidia?

Each plant has an optimum location for its growth. Although it can grow if it is not at its optimum location, the results are not as good as the optimum location. Plants that are planted in their optimal locations will have great expectations for achieving optimal results, both wood, fruit, flowers and so on. When planting tea, apples, or edelweiss in the lowlands or even on the sea coast it is almost impossible to get the optimum results, maybe even wither and die. The selection of the best location that matches the characteristics of the plant is important to get optimum results from the cultivation.

Gliricidae on the seashore of Depok, Bantul, Yogyakarta

Red caliandra on the slope of Mount Merapi, Magelang, Central Java

Likewise, the energy plantation. In addition to the selection of plant species to be planted, the location of the plantation should also be considered in relation to the types of plants to be planted. Energy plantation generally use fast growing species and short rotation coppice (SRC) plants of leguminoceae because they have many advantages, among others, fast harvest age (on average only 2 years), maintenance is very easy, does not need replanting up to a dozen years, the roots can absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere so that it fertilizes the soil, its roots are also strong so that it can withstand erosion, plants are also very efficient in the use of water so that it can be planted in even barren areas, the leaves are for high nutritious animal feed, and the flowers are for honey beekeeping. In short to optimize the use of the land, the energy plantation is integrated with the livestock business.

Gliricidae & calliandra are 2 species commonly used as energy plantation plants. Gliricidae is more suitable for the lowlands to the coast, while calliandra for the highlands. The practice of calliandra planting is also widely practiced in high areas, whereas gliricidae in the lowlands. Temperature, humidity, soil fertility, rainfall also influence to produce optimal energy plantation products. Sri Lanka is an example of a country that has a lot of gliricidae, especially as a crop between coconut trees. Indonesia as a coconut island seduction country should also be able to do the same thing. Under these conditions, wood pellet production can also be done as well as reviving the integrated coconut industry (more details can be read here, here and here) and livestock, for the best land optimization.

Bioeconomy is defined as knowledge-based production and uses biological resources or living things to produce products, processes, and services in the economic sector within the framework of a sustainable economic system. With the pattern above, energy plantation can be created in many central locations coconuts in Indonesia such as Riau, Jambi, Bengkulu, Gorontalo and South Sumatra to optimize the potential of the bioeconomy. In addition, millions of hectares of idle, marginal, barren land and critical land can be revived and saved to bring profit. Even hardwood trees in HTI (industrial timber plantations) which take a long time and also sometimes require high social costs for maintenance can also be converted to fast-growing species and SRC plants with energy plantations. Untreated land will be increasingly damaged such as erosion, landslides to desertification so that the mission of saving the environment has also automatically become part of the energy plantation activities above.