Taiwan, Asia's New Wood Pellet Market

After Japan and Korea have been the main markets for wood pellets in Asia for years, Taiwan is predicted to emerge as a new destination for the wood pellet market in Asia. This is because Taiwan's energy policy targets 20% renewable energy use by 2025. Namely by focusing on the energy transition from coal and other fossil fuels to renewable energy sources including biomass, solar and wind to increase renewable energy from 10% to 20% by 2025. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act requires annual carbon emissions to be reduced by 20% by 2030 and 50% by 2050, below 2005 levels or a reduction of 53 million tons of CO2 equivalent by 2030 and 133 million tons by 2050. This is also part of Taiwan's nuclear-free vision and supports the national goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Renewable energy development is the most important implementation to achieve this goal and wood pellets are a top priority. Taiwan will import wood pellets in large quantities to achieve its new green energy production targets.

The need for wood pellets in Taiwan reaches millions of tons or more detailed estimates are 1.7 million tons per year specifically for Taiwan Power Company, which will be implemented immediately when the policy is implemented. And there are also a number of independent power plants (IPP) that use coal boilers to generate electricity, especially the plastic industry, petroleum refineries and papermaking. Currently, renewable energy accounts for less than 10% of the total energy output in Taiwan. Meanwhile, the government aims to have 778 megawatts (MW) of biomass-based power plants by 2025, allowing production of 4.1 billion kWh.

The world's major wood pellets producing countries are looking to Taiwan, such as the United States, Vietnam and Canada. Vietnam has even become the second largest wood pellet producer in the world, overtaking Canada. And nationally, Vietnam's wood product exports are more than 70% for furniture and interior applications, 7% for wood-based panels, 17% wood chips and 5% for wood pellets. And to produce these products, Vietnam also imports large amounts of wood from more than 114 countries and 700 species / subspecies, amounting to $ 3.1 billion in the form of logs, sawnwood and plywood and imports almost 2 million cubic meters of tropical hardwood.

Basically, the major wood pellet producing countries are competing to convince Taiwan as a user or buyer of wood pellets about the supply capability, including quantity and quality, logistics reliability and sustainability of its supply. Although the Japanese and Korean markets continue to grow, penetration into a new market will add an opportunity to these producers. Even in Japan, many new power plants are being built so that the need for wood pellets is also increasing. In addition, the increase in the cofiring ratio in power plants in Japan will also increase the demand for wood pellets.

And globally according to Hawkin Wright, wood pellet sales are the highest among other biomass fuels, which is more than 27 million tons/year in 2025. While FutureMetric that the market for wood pellets for industry (industrial pellet fuel) can reach 55 million tons in 2030. Thus the need for wood pellets will continue to increase with an average of more than 5.5 million tons per year so that the production of wood pellets. Indonesia still has great potential to become a world wood pellet producer because of the potential raw materials that can be sought, both from wood and forestry industry waste and from energy plantations. With a location that is not too far from Taiwan (compared to wood pellet producing countries such as the United States and Canada) so that logistics or transportation costs are cheaper, the opportunity to compete is also quite large. In addition, PKS (palm kernel shell) are also an alternative biomass fuel besides wood pellets and as a producer of palm oil / CPO or the owner of the largest palm oil plantation in the world, Indonesia is number one for that. 

Post-Mining Reclamation with Energy Plantation Revegetation for Wood Pellet Production

Revegetation is one option for post-mining reclamation. The choice of revegetation options also has certain considerations apart from environmental, social and of course economic or business aspects. The vision for the future in the form of sustainability is an important factor for post-mining reclamation, especially the revegetation.

Revegetation with palm oil plantations is one of the most popular revegetation options. This is because palm oil product (CPO) and their derivatives sell well in the market. However, the land requirements and operational costs for palm oil plantations themselves are not easy and cheap. The choice of revegetation with other plants should also be considered.

Creating an energy plantation from short rotation crops (short rotation coppices) can be considered. This is because land and operational requirements are much easier and cheaper. Even in the long term the use of the land will also improve the quality of the land. Products from energy plantations will also become a world trend and the current global climate solution, namely wood pellets. Meanwhile, by-products in the form of animal feed (feed pellets or hay) and honey from beekeeping are no less interesting by-products.

The extent of post-mining land, which reaches millions of hectares, is of course a very attractive potential for the development of these energy plantations. The need for bioenergy, especially wood pellets, is also getting bigger along with the global decarbonization program. Likewise the need for animal feed which is a link in the chain of human food needs, especially meat or protein. Efforts to increase land use value, prevent natural disasters, absorb employment and economic benefits are the thrust for revegetation reclamation with the energy plantations.

 

Wood Pellet Market Projection Until 2025 And Indonesia Opportunities

Making of market projection will be needed for all parties involved in the wood pellet business, especially the producers of wood pellets itself. Increasing or reducing production even stopping production could be done if the situation and conditions support it. A projection capable of presenting accurate data will facilitate the decision making. The level of accuracy of precise data and sharp analysis and presented in an informative and attractive make a projection so valuable and made a major reference for all parties involved in this business. Below we try to present the projection of wood pellet market until 2025 which is collected from various sources and personal experience. May be a useful projection for the reader.

Wood pellet market is generally grouped into two, namely industry and heating. The industrial sector is electricity generation, while the heating sector is heating and boiler. The quality of industrial wood pellets is lower than the premium wood pellet. The need for wood pellets for industries is usually very large even the delivery or transportation using bulk shipment while for heating needs smaller amount usually packed in jumbo bag and then arranged in containers. Another difference is that the wood pellets of the marketing industry are heavily influenced by the policy of the country concerned (policy driven) while the wood pellet for heating is strongly influenced by the price of other fuels, such as petroleum and gas. The above things underlying the characteristics of the wood pellet market.

The last few years the global wood pellet market (both industrial and heating sectors) does not seem to be exhilarating and there are even excesses in some places. Why does this happen? Firstly, because a number of policies for the use of wood pellets have not been effectively implemented because the power plants have not yet been completed or in the development stage, and some power plants are still in the co-firing test phase with wood pellets. Second, the price of cheap competitor fuel, especially petroleum which even reached its price of 30 dollars per barrel that is in early 2016. This condition even to shift the position of wood pellet as the cheapest fuel for the heating sector. When oil prices more than 63 dollars per barrel it is predicted the wood pellet market will improve. And thirdly, due to climate change, the winters in Europe are not in recent years warmer or less cold than before. Of course this condition also reduces the consumption of wood pellets. Logically when the above conditions can turn out otherwise the wood pellet market will improve.

Different regions and countries have their own market characteristics. Europeans generally use wood pellets for both industry and heating, and in particular Italy uses wood pellets mostly forheating. The wood pellet stove there can even be operated with applications on smartphones or gadgets. While the market in Asia the use of wood pellets a lot for heating especially for boilers, drying and cooking but very rarely for the use of space heaters. In the future, the use of wood pellets in Asia will be dominated for the industrial sector, ie power plants when power plants in Japan and Korea and even China use wood pellets for fuel. As for the American market, especially the United States and Canada the use of wood pellets mostly for the industrial sector even in the next few years there is a tendency to be improved. What about the conditions in Australia and Africa? So far there has been no clear policy related to biomass fuel especially wood pellet in both continents. Its use is limited to heating and the portion is still small and smaller for the industrial sector at power plants.

The year 2020 is an important year for the wood pellet market because that year most of the power plants built are already in operation including a number of policies can be effective as they are supported by these generating facilities. The year 2020 also means when massive wood pellets start, because the need for wood pellets has increased significantly. FutureMetrics estimates for wood pellet demand in 2025 will be 30 million tons, while RISI writes its 50 million ton estimated by 2024 and Viridis Energy says the value of this business will reach 9 billion US dollarsby 2020. Futuremetrics in more detail also provides market analysis in Canada and Japan. Several other indications add to the accuracy of the analysis that Korea invested $ 11.6 billion in 2016 for alternative energy and according to the Korea Forest Biomass Association it will increase its import wood pellet from 1.5 million tons in 2015 to 8.5 million tons in 2022. To be able to capture these opportunities certainly need preparation from this moment, especially for the producers of wood pellets.

Where and who is the largest wood pellet user today? Britain is currently the largest wood pellet user with three power plants, Lynemouth, MGT and Drax. The policies of each country are more unique and specific to the conditions of the country , although it usually refers to more macro policies, such as occurs in EU countries. In European bioeconomy policy they have a target for 21% of electricity and 20% of heating comes from renewable energy, then each country has its own policy that refers to the collective agreement. The Netherlands with its co-firing program will also increase the demand for wood pellets, although it remains unclear, but if it does this will increase demand for wood pellets by 3.5 million tonnes / year. Likewise co-firing at Langerlo in Belgium will also increase the demand for wood pellets as well. Japan and South Korea that declared the decrease of CO2 emission have regulation related to usage of biomass fuel especially wood pellet.

European pellets production in 2015 is 14.1 million tons, while consumption reaches 20.3 million tons meaning less 6.2 million tons. Use for the heating sector reached 10.3 million tonnes, or 51% of total consumption or beat the use of pellets for industries such as power plants such as Drax. If every home in Europe consumes 2.5 tons of pellets per year, then there are about 4 million consumers. While the six largest pellet producers in Europe namely, Germany (2 million tons), Sweden (1.7 million tons), Latvia (1.6 million tons), Estonia (1.3 million tons), Austria (1 million tons) and France (1 million tons). And for more details the major pellet consumer countries for the European heating sector are Italy (3.1 million tons), Germany (2.3 million tons), Denmark (1.8 million tons), Sweden (1.6 million tons ), France (1 million tons), and Austria (0.9 million tons). Heating stove (pellet stove) also beat the boiler. Italy with 95% pellet consumption for stove, and boiler only 5%, while Germany 60% wood pellet with stove and boiler reach 40%.

China has so far been unclear about its biomass fuel-related policies, both the production potential and the use of wood pellets. But the data that the forest area in China is so limited that it will be difficult to produce wood pellets in large quantities, but agricultural waste is very abundant. This pellet from agricultural waste has limitations on its quality, ie high chlorine which is corrosive to the metal pipe boiler and silica is abrasive. The agro-waste pellet or pellet fuel from these agricultural wastes becomes unusable in the pulverized system, since it is mainly a chlorine problem, or if it can be used the portion is so small that the problems can be minimized. Another problem with low melting ash temperature will cause slag or clinker which may damage the combustion equipment at the plant. So that agro-waste pellets can be used on non-pulverized systems such as combustion with moving grate (chain grate) and gasification. Although there is always amarket for every pellet fuel, but because the majority of existing power plants use pulverized systems so it is necessary to replace the system to use agro-waste pellets and this is of course not easy, fast and cheap. It also makes the target of reducing CO2 (Carbon Reduction) is also difficult to meet. Another thing that can be done is to use wood pellets and it means that import is very much needed. High silica content in agricultural waste becomes a problem especially during production or shoveling and its use. Examples of high agricultural waste silica content is rice husk. Still according to FutureMetrics calculations if the portion of co-firing wood pellet is only 5% only and that too is done only by 16% of coal power plant in China, hence it can cause wood pellet demand almost 40 million ton / year.

 

Indonesia's potential is good enough to become one of the world's major player of wood pellets. With a tropical climate, high rainfall, fertile soil, geographical location is quite close to Japan, South Korea and China and the area of ​​good plantation industry (HTI) which covers about 80 million hectares, polyculture with oil palm plantations, marginal that can be used for energy plantations. Why use energy plantations to supply woody raw materials for wood pellet production? This is because with the energy plantation the supply of raw materials for wood pellets can be large and stable for a long period of time, more detail for energy plantation can be read here. Indonesia is also known as the largest producer of CPO or crude palm oil with production of 23 million tons / year, but with monoculture in large plantations the plantation will be susceptible to disease and its production is not optimal, for that polyculture with energy plantation is the best solution for more detail can be read here. Forests of industrial crops that also millions of hectares can also be optimized with energy plantations, for more detail can be read here. Meanwhile, to design wood pellet production from energy plantation can be read here.

Likewise the unused fields, marginal land to critical land will also provide great benefits with the energy plantation. One more thing is the consumption of protein, especially meat for the people of Indonesia also still needs to be improved because it is below the average world consumption, which is 16 grams / day, while the world average of 31 grams / day. Big sheep farms can be made by feeding the leaves of energy-rich leguminoceae plantation crops, also low in tannins and grasses with grazing in the plantations. The leaves are rich in protein has a high conversion into lamb meat, which later on the meat is eated by humans. This protein is very important for the body because it works for the growth of cells and the sheep will also be our best treasure. Do not let Indonesia want to boost meat production with the farm, but on the one hand also boost imports of animal feed such as corn and soybeans due to less availability of domestic animal feed. In addition, sheep feed with grass and foliage will make the meat has a ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 close to 1, so it will be the world healthiest food. Unlike if the cattle are fed grains then the ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 large, can be more than 10 and this is also less good. 

Will Indonesia also be barrier-free to become one of the world's largest producers of wood pellets? The answer, of course not. Major countries such as Canadian wood pellet producers who are rich in woody biomass from forestry also do not remain silent and try to seize and lead the world wood pellet market. Even Canada has targeted Europe and Asia as its wood pellet market, namely wood pellet production from western Canada for Japanese and Korean markets and from the eastern part for the European market. Meanwhile, domestic policy also requires wood pellets because pan-Canadian climate deal is targeting coal-free power plants by 2030. Europe is still the most important market destination for export wood pellets from Canada, accounting for 80% of its export volume. And almost all is for the electricity industry sector, namely in England, Belgium and the Netherlands and only slightly for the heating sector in Italy. Seeing opportunities for the shortage of wood pellet supply in Europe, some European countries have also started emerging as wood pellet producers by 2016, such as Ukraine 360 ​​thousand tons (plus 1 million tons of pellet fuel made from agricultural waste such as straw from wheat, sunflower husk), Serbia (250 thousand tons), Croatia (232 thousand tons), and Slovenia (110 thousand tons). Estonia and Latvia, two small countries in Europe also began to become rivals for Canada. While other countries in Europe have also started to increase production. What is the current production of wood pellets in Indonesia? Wood pellet production in Indonesia is relatively small approximately 80,000 tons per year while Malaysia has more than 180 thousand tons per year and mostly for the Korean market which is more than 70% both from Indonesian and Malaysian producers. While the export to Japan is still very small. Finally there are some things to note for the producers: first, evidence of sustainability, the two qualities, the three strengths and financial reliability, and the fourth that is the competitive price.

In addition to Canada, the United States and Europe are the largest producers today, as well as users of wood pellets in large quantities. But there is a difference between the three, which Canada exports most of its wood pellets, many Americans use wood pellets domestically, while Europe still needs very much wood pellets from other countries. There are also a number of wood pellet producers in Asia, more specifically in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The land area in Indonesia and the various conditions that support it make the potential to become a leader for the production of wood pellets in Southeast Asia is very large. Another factor is the low target of the Indonesian government for biomass energy in the national energy mix which according to Indonesian PresidentialRegulation no 5 of 2006 only 5% and even then in 2025, so the majority of wood pellet production can be directed to big wood pellet market like Japan and South Korea. Meanwhile, if the heating market is more influenced by the price of energy or fuel of competitors, not because of policy or regulation, the price of competitor's fuel such as coal, petroleum, gas and even wood will determine the amount of wood pellet consumption in the country. Conditions in Indonesia basically also support for the wood pellet market for heating both for industry and household that use LPG (propane), because the price of wood pellet is much cheaper in terms of energy content. Unfortunately not many are working on this market, this is because there are several barrier factors that are limited supply of wood pellets and cook stoves are practical for the sector.

Conclusion: Indonesia has a great chance to become a major player of wood pellet both as producer and user as well. It is supported by a number of natural conditions, land area and geographic position. But since there is no clear policy for the use of fuel or wood pellet energy sources for power generation and national energy policy under Presidential Regulation no 5 of 2006 only targets 5% for biomass energy in renewable energy mix so that the role of wood pellet producers with the majority of their products for export market is more a priority. Energy plantations as a way to produce the raw material of wood pellet industry with large quantities, continuous and stable and the potential to produce food in the form of protein from sheep meat is the best choice. Improvement of generations to a glorious civilization to light the world, one of them with food in the form of meat that halalan thoyyiban, namely healthy, delicious and quality with sufficient nutritional content of the protein.Energy development with wood pellet production derived from wood in the trees in the energy plantations  are  also in line with the instructions of theQur'an.

There's Always a Market For Every Type of Pellet Fuel

The marketing aspect has always been a scourge for potential producers. When production activities have been carried out including large costs have been incurred to purchase equipment or production machineries, land for factories, factory buildings and so forth, for example the production of large capacity wood pellets from energy plantations, but not yet mastered the market aspect, will then face the big problem. Assessing, analyzing and exploring aspects of the market with its characteristics prior to production activities is very important, especially for large capacity production that also requires such huge cost. This also applies to pellet fuel from biomass as a solid fuel that gets a lot of attention today and also started to be developed by many parties. And of course the fear of potential producers can be avoided if they have mastered the intricacies of the business that they will run it.

Biomass pellets or pellets fuel and more particularly in wood pellets can be made from a variety of biomass feedstocks, whether woody biomass, agricultural wastes or grasses. More specifically wood pellets are pellets that are made from woody biomass. While biomass pellet is pellet fuel made from all kinds of biomass including woods, agricultural wastes and grasses. Pellets fuel made from agricultural waste is called agro-waste pellets. The wood pellet group has characteristics of high calorific value and low ash content while agro-waste pellets have lower calorific value characteristics and higher ash content. Wood pellets can also be made from hardwoods and softwoods, each of which has little difference to its properties. So is the pellets fuel group from agricultural wastes whose raw materials can also be as diverse as rice husk, coffee husk, peanut shell, empty fruit bunches (EFB) and so on. The properties of pellet fuel from various agricultural wastes are also different although the difference is a little.

Ash content and ash chemistry are two important variables related to the use or utilization of the pellets fuel. In general, the higher the ash content, the smaller the calorific value of the pellets fuel. While the ash chemistry of various pellets fuel groups in general can also be distinguished as follows:

1. The content of silica ash (Si) and potassium / potassium (K) are low with high calcium (Ca), with high fusion temperature derived from almost all woody biomass group. And this is the best specification for combustion and gasification.

2. The content of silica ash (Si) and potassium / potassium (K) high with low calcium (Ca) comes from agriculture biomass waste group.

Furthermore, since the chemical elements of the biomass constituents in pellet fuel are numerous, they determine the specific properties of pellet fuel. For example: wood pellets of hardwoods such as meranti, merbau, ulin, halaban and so on differ a number of chemical constituents with wood pellets from softwoods such as sengon / albasia. Similarly, agro-waste pellets such as rice husk pellets (ricehusk pellets) with empty palm bunches pellets (EFB Pellet). Even both groups of hardwoods and softwoods, too, differences in the amount of ash chemical elements between different species of wood also occur and it affects the level of technology tolerance used. Scientifically ultimate analysis in the laboratory can be used to determine the content of ash and chemical elements in detail / detail. It is important to know for the specific use or use of pellet fuel.

Basically the utilization of the pellet is as fuel or energy source. Combustion technology, gasification and pyrolysis are thermal routes that can use pellets as fuel. The most widely used combustion technology, the later gasification and the last pyrolysis. Combustion technology with medium temperature to high temperature can be done. The industrial sector generally uses medium temperatures and power plants use high temperatures. Burning in the industrial sector using combustor, namely grate stoker (chain grate) and stoker (static grate). While the power plant using pulverized system, additional explanations can also be read here.

To be able to use the pellets fuel from various raw materials because no problem with a number of chemical in pellet ash is then gasification technology widely used. With its operational temperature gasification also relatively low (800 C) compared to pulverized on combustion, so a number of ash chemical elements also do not cause problems. The use of gasification technology has also begun much in power generation. Gasification technology by maximizing gas products has a higher efficiency level than combustion, but the price or investment for large capacity is expensive so that in large capacity power plants generally still use the above mentioned pulverized technology. With this gasification technology, not only wood pellet types can be used but agro-waste pellets can also be used as fuel.

What about pyrolysis? In contrast to combustion and gasification that produce ash as residue, whereas in pyrolysis is not produced ash because of low operating conditions compared to combustion and gasification namely 400-600 C and limited/absence of oxygen. Wood pellets or biomass pellets are rarely used for fuel or raw materials in pyrolysis. Pyrolysis that is widely used today is slow pyrolysis or carbonization for charcoal production, while fast pyrolysis for the production of liquid fuels (bio-oil) is also still rarely used. In charcoal production with (slow) pyrolysis or carbonization it usually uses wood or briquette (sawdust briquette / wood briquette) as its raw material to produce lump charcoal and sawdust charcoal briquette, to sharpen the information can be read here .

Torrefaction or mild pyrolysis can produce half carbonization product which can be compacted into torrified pellet fuel. The raw material of the torrefaction process is wood chip then after going through the torrefaction process  then crushing with hammer mill so that the size becomes powder which then compacted into torrified pellet fuel. With torrefaction process the energy content of biomass becomes higher by about 20% so that after compacted the energy content of torrified pellet fuel is also automatically higher than wood pellet. Torrefaction with the final product of torrified pellet fuel is predicted to be a trend of future biomass solid fuels. The wood pellet or biomass pellet factory can upgrade its product to torrefied pellet fuel by adding a torrefier or torrefaction device in its production. Not many modifications to the factory if it will add a torrifier or torrefaction equipment to become a final product torrified pellet fuel later. So here the use of torrefaction technology (mild-pyrolysis) for the production process of biomass fuel that is torrified fuel, while gasification and combustion technology is used to extract energy from biomass fuel in the form of pellet fuel into heat and electricity.

By examining in detail the characteristics of pellet fuel and its utilization technology, no pellet fuel is useless or no market. Energy demand also continues to increase as the population grows. The characteristics or specific properties of pellet fuel will also determine the price of the pellet. Wood pellets generally have higher prices than agro-waste pellets. In many ways wood pellets have many advantages over coal, especially in the industrial sector, of course also the problem of economy. It also encourages some industries to switch to using wood pellets. Performance or boiler performance in the industry can also compete with the use of wood pellets. For industries that want to test and want to switch using wood pellet for boiler can contact us at eko.sbs@gmail.com

Container Still Become the Main Choice of Wood Pellet Export in Indonesia?

Buyers' satisfaction for getting goods on demand, undamaged and defective, is an important factor in the sustainability of a business so buyers continue to repurchase and repeat orders, by making or renewing existing contracts, even by increasing their purchasing capacity. This also applies to the wood pellets business. Attempts to get goods that order for the buyer one of them by keeping the goods along the journey from various damage is important one by choosing the packaging or the appropriate wood pellet delivery or the type of delivery. Almost all Indonesian wood pellet exports today use containers with wood pellets in jumbo bags and then arranged inside the container. Some use sack packs then place them in containers as well. There is also a way of bulk or not packed in jumbo bag or sack but still in containers. The use of containers is chosen because, firstly the export wood pellet volume is not large yet, second are not yet available adequate supporting facilities for large quantity wood pellets export with bulk shipment.

Wood pellets is a very sensitive product with water, so protection or keeping it out of water should be done to maintain the quality of the wood pellet. By placing the wood pellet in a container then protection from water such as rain water can be done, so it is still used as the main choice. Then how to export wood pellets in large quantity routinely done every month? Need extra effort at this time if want to use bulk shipment, especially for protection from water. Especially in the rainy season. Rainfall intensity in Indonesia is quite high compared to other countries in general, namely, an average of 2700 mm / year or three times higher than the world average of only 900 mm / year. Indonesia's rainfall is higher than India (1,080 mm), America (715 mm), China (645 mm), Brazil (1,750 mm), Argentina (591 mm) and even Thailand (1,625 mm). Only two of our neighbors are able to surpass the Indonesian rainfall of Malaysia (2,875 mm) and Papua New Guinea (3,140). While countries in the Middle East in general have only a small rainfall such as Jordan (111 mm), Qatar (74 mm), Saudi Arabia (59 mm) and Egypt who only get 51 mm rainfall per year. So if bulk shipment of wood pellets will be done then in the dry season will be easier because water protection is easier to do. In comparison we will see shipping of palm kernel shell (pks) which is also biomass fuel has been exported abroad especially with bulk shipment.

Palm kernel shells are not as sensitive as wood pellets or pellets fuel to water, so the handling is also not as difficult as wood pellets. There are three main things that become the main parameters of palm kernel shells that is water content, calorific value and impurity. Related to the moisture content because the palm kernel shells is not damaged by water but only keep it from getting too wet, while wood pellet which is an industrial product of woody biomass compaction (biomass densification) will be damaged and even destroyed by the presence of water in certain quantities. Mechanical interlocking that occurs during the compaction will decompose and loose due to the presence of a lot of water so the wood pellets destroyed. In shipment of palm kernel shells from stockpile locations to export ports, the use of trucks or barges is common and sometimes only sealed with less dense plastic. In wood pellet closure with plastic when heading to the carrier vessel can also be done but if not tight enough will be prone to water especially in the rainy season, plus if loading to the ship is done in the middle of the sea (transhipment) because the ship can not lean on the port like usually done in Kalimantan.

The difference in the tolerance level of water avaibility between the palm kernel shell and wood pellets, has implications for handling and even the equipment used. Weather factors (such as storms) and density loading traffic port add to the difficulty of loading wood pellets onto the vessel. This makes shipping large quantities of wood pellets with bulk shipment still difficult to be done, so shipping with containers are still the main choice in Indonesia. 

Wood pellet terminal in Canada

Wood pellet loading from silos into the ship

Cement terminal at seaport

Cement loading from silos into the ship

Another reference that we can refer to is the bulk cement shipments. Cement is a product that is also very sensitive to water, in the presence of water then the cement will clot so it becomes unusable, so protection against water is absolutely necessary. Cement distribution lines to their bulk shipment are all protected from the entry of water. In the highways we can easily find large trucks carrying bulk cement pass through, then in a number of ports are also built cement terminals in the form of silos or bin like high towers. When wood pellets production reach massive scale, the infrastructure or supporting equipment is also almost the same as cement and it is now also we can see in wood pellets producing countries like America and Canada. On the receiving port side or port of destination the shipment of adequate equipment is also required to handle the unloading of the wood pellets. For comparison, large quantities of feed pellets will also require almost the same equipment for bulk shipment. So whether the biomass fuel such as wood pellets become waterproof (hydrophobic) like coal? The answer can be with torrefaction technology so the product become torrefied wood pellet. Torrefaction will be discussed in more detail next writing. Insha Allah.

Global Market Competition of Wood Pellet

Massive wood pellet demand mainly from South Korea as the primary market has encouraged the growth of wood pellets wood pellet industry in Southeast Asia. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are the countries that responded positively to the demand of wood pellets from the South Korea. The growth of industrial wood pellets in each country is different speed depending on the readiness of the industry, the availability of raw materials and ease various other business support facilities. Although Indonesia is slow to respond to the demand of wood pellets, but in fact Indonesia has a tremendous opportunity to lead this industry due to the potential availability of abundant raw materials from waste-wood waste and cultivated by making a energy plantation.

The extraordinary potential in Indonesia is ogled by Korea to increase the volume of exports of wood pellet to Korea, which means that the growth of industrial wood pellets should be accelerated. The greater the demand and lack of supply pushed the price of wood pellets is expensive, so the more the industry grows to gain momentum at this time, when the demand is very large, while its minimal supply. Timber industry wastes which initially becomes a problem when it began to be seen as a potential raw material for industrial raw material in wood pellets.

Wood pellet market will be even better if the global awareness of the use of renewable energy, particularly biomass is getting better and sustainably cultivated globally or countries compete to lower the temperature of the earth. For the wood pellet market in Asia, besides Korea now Japan also have started to squirm. Availability of woody biomass for the production of wood pellets and when raw materials cultivated through energy plantation take a longer time, has made the pellets from biomass such as pellets from palm empty fruit bunches (EFB Pellet) have also been received, the insistence current needs. If awareness of the environment and climate change has been conceived and implemented in the environmental regulations or the global energy industry or business trends in particular wood pellets and biomass to energy in general will grow and survive long enough.