In Japan, with approximately 290 biomass power plants, the transition to BECCS should be faster, but it's just a matter of policy and regulation. Installing CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) units at biomass power plants makes the plant's operation carbon-negative, or carbon dioxide removal (CDR) mode. The amount of carbon captured and stored, separating it from the atmosphere, can earn carbon credits that can be used for CCS operations at biomass power plants. Decarbonization to achieve the 2050 Net Zero Emissions (NZE) climate targets and the Paris Agreement are the driving force.
And because biomass power plants always require biomass fuel for their operations, this presents an opportunity for Indonesia to supply wood pellets and palm kernel shells (PKS). Power plants in Japan, most or the majority of biomass fuel comes from imports, such as the Kanda Biomass Power Plant (Kanda Biomass Energy) in Kanda City, northeast of Chiyoda, Tokyo. Kanda Biomass Energy uses three types of biomass: wood pellets (60 percent), palm kernel shells (PKS) (30 percent), and wood chips (10 percent). Wood pellets are imported from British Columbia, Canada and Vietnam, palm kernel shells (PKS) from Indonesia, and wood chips are imported locally from northern Kyushu. This facility consumes approximately 170,000 tons of wood pellets, then 120,000 tons of palm kernel shells (PKS), and 60,000 tons of wood chips per year.
Biomass power plants in Japan generally use fluidized bed combustion (FBC) technology in their boilers. The reasons for using this technology are higher fuel flexibility, high efficiency due to good mixing, relatively low combustion temperatures, which minimize the problem of ash deposits due to melting and the use of excess air. It also further increases efficiency and reduces flue gas production. FBC technology is suitable for large capacities above 20 MW. Over time, this technology has been divided into two types: bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) and circulating fluidized bed (CFB). Generally, the differences between the two are not significant, such as fuel size, unit construction, and air-fuel ratio. Palm kernel shells (PKS) are more suitable for CFB power plants because they are less than 4 cm in size. Power plants in Japan, in particular, that use PKS or palm kernel shells as fuel because they use CFB technology.
With relatively low operating temperatures of 650-900°C, ash problems can be minimized. Certain biomass fuels sometimes have high ash content and ash chemistry that can potentially damage the generating unit. Furthermore, fuel cleanliness is also very important, this is because technically certain impurities such as metals can block the air pores in the perforated plate of the FBC unit, even though air, especially oxygen, is absolutely necessary for the combustion process and also maintains the fluidized fuel bed condition. These fuel cleanliness requirements must be met by the supplier or seller of the biomass fuel. Therefore, the buyer requires the amount of impurities (impurities/contaminants) that can be accepted is very small, namely around less than 1%. PKS cleaning is done by sieving either manually or mechanically. For more details on biomass fuel cleanliness issues can be read here.
The demand for biomass fuel is predicted to continue to increase. And biomass power plants continue to expand, with an estimated 6 GW of additional power plants projected to be installed in Japan by 2030, with an installed capacity of 7.3 GW by 2024. In fact, 11 new power plants are scheduled to come online by 2025, increasing annual biomass fuel demand by approximately 1.1 million tons. If Indonesia could also supply wood pellets to Japan by maximizing forest residue, sawmill waste, or other wood processing industry waste, that would be extraordinary.
As an estimate of forest waste utilization, for example, a production forest with an area of 200,000 hectares (approximately 2,000 km2) and because it is located in a tropical area with an average woody biomass growth rate of 20 tons/hectare/year, then the forest will produce 4,000,000 tons/year of wood every year from new growth. An area of 200,000 hectares may seem very large, but with Indonesia having almost 70 million hectares of production forest, an area of 200,000 hectares is only 0.29%.
For example, we set the default setting for wood utilization from production forests: 35% for building materials, furniture, flooring, etc., 30% for paper, tissue, and packaging, with 5% of the harvested wood remaining in the forest. Furthermore, 15% of sawmill waste (sawdust, chips, etc.) is used for wood pellet production, and the remaining sawmill waste is sent to pulp and paper mills and engineered wood industries.
And it is estimated that 35.3% of the 3.8 million tons/year of wood waste annually goes to wood pellet factories (approximately 1.34 million tons annually). In some locations the actual percentage is much lower because paper mills and engineered wood industries use more raw materials with the same raw materials as wood pellet factories. Therefore, in general, wood pellet factories are not located in locations that already have demand or existing use for pulp and paper and engineered wood industries. With the high water content, drying is necessary for wood pellet production, so the estimated wood pellet production is 650,000 tons/year. With the size of a handymax vessel that can carry 25,000 tons/shipment, this means 26 shipments are needed to Japan each year, or with a panamax vessel that can carry 50,000 tons/shipment, this means 13 shipments to Japan each year.
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