Fastest Entry Point for Biochar Industry

When in the West, especially in Europe, biochar is seen primarily for climate mitigation, namely as carbon sequestration / carbon sink and compared with various similar efforts in carbon negative / negative emission technologies with compensation in the form of carbon credits or BCR (biochar carbon removal) credits, it is very different, especially in Asia and Africa. Biochar in both continents is mainly to increase soil fertility or repair damaged / degraded soils so that they can be more productive to produce agricultural food products. The different approaches are mainly motivated by the factors that influence it, namely especially in Europe when the problems of climate change, the environment, sustainability and global warming are more of their concern, then various efforts in line with that become important and relevant so that biochar is one of the solutions. While in Asia and Africa, the factor of meeting food needs is a more important concern.

Currently there are 6 NET (negative emission technologies) or carbon negative actions that can absorb CO2 from the atmosphere as in the diagram above. Basically, adequate scale or capacity is needed so that climate change mitigation efforts can run effectively and efficiently. The convenience, cost and additional benefits of the above technology applications will affect their implementation. Of the six NETs, ​​biochar has the fastest development, this is because biochar can meet the above factors. Scientific and public interest in Biochar began to grow in the early 2010s and has grown rapidly since then. The initial focus of biochar research was on terra preta (black earth) and soil improvement. And now it has expanded into various fields, including in the context of industry and construction.

The vast area of ​​degraded land reaching tens or even hundreds of millions of hectares in Indonesia can be improved by using biochar. Moreover, the potential for biomass waste that can be utilized is also very large, tens of millions of tons or even more and the need for food (even bioenergy) also continues to increase. Gradual and sustainable efforts to improve the land need to be started immediately. Soil improvement, as well as efforts to manage biomass waste, energy production and become a climate solution with NET are effective simultaneous efforts. This is the appeal of biochar so that it should be a leading program for various industries that are concerned with food and energy security, the environment, decarbonization, climate and sustainability. This is also so that forest clearing for food estates can be avoided if biochar is chosen as a solution. 

The question is how can this biochar immediately become a solution and be implemented massively? Increasing awareness of the benefits of biochar is the entry point. Furthermore, soil improvement as a real action is followed by carbon credit or can be done simultaneously to become the fastest entry point for the biochar industry in Indonesia. This is in addition to carbon credits with biochar or biochar carbon removal (BCR) credits that have been applied globally, carbon credits are also one of the main drivers of the growth of the biochar industry globally. Even globally, BCR credits are ranked first or more than 90% in Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) recorded in cdr.fyi.

Urgency of Biochar Production Industrial Capacity

The provision or application of biochar to agricultural land follows the 4Rs rule, namely the right source (appropriate biochar raw material), right place (appropriate application area), right rate (appropriate dosage) and right timing (appropriate time). The physical and chemical properties of biochar differ depending on the raw material and production process. By following the 4R rules, biochar performance can be maximized. The effect of biochar on plants will be clearly visible (significant) when the 4R rules are met. With a dose / rate reaching 20 tons / ha (depending on the influencing condition factors), the need for biochar is also large. This is why biochar products are rarely sold online, namely because of the large volume.

Unlike soil amendments such as compost, the effects of biochar can be felt for quite a long time or for several types of agricultural crops, namely not only in one planting season, but repeatedly. This also makes the provision or application of biochar not as frequent as compost. And in the end, of course, the economic aspect is a determining parameter whether biochar makes agricultural businesses more profitable or not. The price of biochar on the market is an important concern for users or farmers.

The lack of biochar production in Indonesia is currently a barrier to biochar application in large agricultural lands, even when farmers' awareness of biochar is also increasing. This is the driving force for the importance of adequate biochar production, especially industrial capacity. Only with adequate biochar production can biochar application in agricultural lands or degraded lands be carried out optimally. The urgency of industrial capacity biochar production is even greater, especially when the biochar production also gets carbon credit, of course this will be even more interesting.

Biochar and Food & Energy Security

As the population increases, so does the need for food and energy. This is why food and energy production must also be increased. Increasing food production is closely related to the quality and quantity of land. However, although the quantity of land is very large, its quality tends to decline so that plant productivity automatically also decreases. The decline in land quality or land damage occurs on very large areas of land up to millions of hectares. With the area of ​​sub-optimal and degraded lands reaching hundreds of millions of hectares consisting of 122.1 million hectares of dry land; 8 million hectares of post-mining land; 24.3 million hectares of critical land; a total of around 154.4 million ha, it can be said that the potential loss of food products also reaches millions of tons. Meanwhile, damaged land will be further damaged if no repair efforts are made. Efforts to upgrade or improve the quality of this land should be an important priority in efforts to achieve food and energy security.

Biochar application is a solution for improving these lands. Raw materials for biochar production are also very abundant, including dry palm oil EFB of around 30 million tons/year, bagasse of 2 million tons/year, corn cobs of 5 million tons/year, cassava stalks of 3 million tons/year, waste wood of 50 million tons/year, rice husks of 15 million tons/year, cocoa shells and so on. With the application of biochar, agricultural productivity can increase by an average of 20% or even up to 100%. If applied on a macro or national scale, say with a 20% increase in production, for example, rice production will increase to 36 million tons/year from the previous 30 million tons/year, corn will increase to 18 million tons/year from the previous 15 million tons/year, crude palm oil or CPO to 60 million tons/year from the previous 50 million tons/year. This will save land use so that the opening of forest land for food crops and (bio)energy such as food estates may not be necessary or at least slow it down. But why until now has biochar not received attention and been used as a solution?

In addition, biochar production with pyrolysis will also produce a number of by-products that can be used for energy applications or others, as in the diagram above. Many agro-industries require drying in their production processes, so this is an additional advantage of using pyrolysis technology for biochar production. While from the environmental aspect, biochar is also a carbon sequestration so that it is a climate solution and can get carbon credit. Likewise in waste management, because the raw material for biochar is biomass waste from agriculture, plantations and forestry, even from organic waste, the pyrolysis and biochar business is also a solution to this problem.

Bioeconomy in a Tropical Country “Biomass Heaven”

Indonesia is believed to be a tropical country of biomass heaven so this needs to be translated into a more concrete form so that it can be understood, executed so that it is proven and the potential can be utilized optimally. There is so much potential that should be used to support the welfare of its people. The simple diagram below illustrates so many things that can be done in a tropical country "biomass heaven".

The availability of raw materials is a vital and absolute factor so that various biomass processing can be carried out and sustainable. On the other hand, there is a lot of land potentials that can be utilized for this purpose, the amount of which reaches tens of millions of hectares, namely critical land / marginal land, dry land and post-mining land (coal mines, tin mines, nickel mines, copper mines, gold mines and so on). In more detail, it is estimated that for critical / marginal land it reaches 24.3 million hectares (Times Indonesia, 2017) while dry land reaches 122.1 million ha consisting of dry acid land covering 108.8 million ha and dry climate dry land covering 13.3 million ha and post-mining damaged land reaching 8 million hectares. Energy plantations or biomass plantations need to be created in these land areas and can even be used for various food crops. Even now there are plant species that can only be economically viable on these lands.

Both energy and biomass plantations can be planted with various plants that support sustainable bioeconomy in line with decarbonization, including calliandra, gliricidia, bamboo, calophyllum inophyllum, coconut and even oil palm, including food crops such as rice, corn and soybeans. The selection of plant species will be adjusted to the product to be made, land conditions, and technological and business readiness.

Meanwhile, biomass waste that is currently produced annually, especially from the agricultural and forestry sectors, which also amounts to millions of tons, can be optimized so that in addition to reducing or avoiding environmental pollution, it will also provide added economic value, environmental and social benefits. The utilization of biomass, both from agricultural and forestry waste or from energy plantations and biomass plantations, will be a sustainable bioeconomy activity and in line with the global decarbonization trend that is in line with climate solutions.
 

Large Capacity and Sustainable Wood Pellet Production in Java Island

Biomass for energy production can be cultivated on critical land, or so-called 'unproductive' land. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry estimates that critical land in Indonesia in 2016 was 24.3 million hectares (Times Indonesia, 2017). This is a very large area, and overall Indonesia's territory is large enough to provide biomass for renewable energy production.  

Globally, the need for wood pellets is predicted to continue to increase. This is because in the current power generation industry, more than a third of global electricity production still uses coal. This portion must drop to 4% by 2030 and 0% by 2040 if the world wants to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and prevent the severe impact of the climate crisis. The world has 6 years from now to reduce the use of coal in power plants to less than 4% by 2030, this is also what makes a number of coal companies develop renewable energy, especially wood pellets from energy plantations.

However, in Java Island, the availability of land for energy crop development is limited because it conflicts with the need for agricultural land. The greatest opportunity for energy plantation forest development is on land owned by Perhutani which is categorized as 'unproductive land'. In some cases, through social considerations, land can be directed to programs that are in line with the objectives of social forestry in accordance with the Decree of the Minister of Environment and Forestry number P.39 / 2017 and P.38 / 2016. However, as an effort to develop the business, Perhutani can utilize its land to specifically produce biomass for energy.

In accordance with Perhutani's long-term plan, and in line with the company's business development plan, Perhutani has allocated a forest area of ​​116,372 ha or around 4.7% of Perhutani's total area in Java (2,445,000 ha) as a potential area for biomass plant development spread across 13 KPH (Forest Management Units) in Central Java, East Java, West Java and Banten provinces.

Throughout the Perhutani area, there are potential areas that have unproductive forest stands (open land or reduce forest potential, or tend to be unproductive in the long term) covering an area of ​​308,000 hectares, spread across 57 KPHs. This area is divided into 15% in Central Java, 34% in East Java and, 51% in West Java and Banten. Based on the unproductive area, approximately in 27 KPHs it is calculated to be around 229,286 ha or 74% of the total potential area for Biomass Energy Plantations.

Hundreds of thousands of sawdust are currently used for PLN's cofiring program in Java, disrupting the supply of raw materials for wood pellet factories. This is why the production of wood pellets from sawdust taken from the sawmill industry or wood industry waste in Java for large-capacity wood pellet production will be at great risk of disrupting the supply of raw materials. So that the wood pellet factory in Java can run well if the availability of raw materials can be maintained and this can only be realized in two ways, namely first using its own raw materials, this can be done by sawmills and wood processing industries that utilize their own waste for wood pellet production, and second with raw material sources from energy plantations. The area of ​​land that can be used for energy plantations as described above is very potential for a source of raw material supply for large-capacity wood pellet production on Java Island and the availability of supporting facilities on Java Island which are more complete and better is an additional driving force.

Energy Plantations Energy Sources for All Time

 "Allah who makes fire for you from green wood, then you kindle (fire) from it." (QS. Yaasin (36): 80)

The sun was created by Allah SWT as the main source of energy for humans and living things on earth. It takes about 8 minutes for sunlight to reach the earth and is converted by plants into a food source so that it can be consumed by animals and humans. Humans also get food from animal sources. The more sunlight, the more can be converted by plants through the process of photosynthesis. Without the sun, plants die, animals die, humans die so that there will be no life on earth. Fossil fuels are essentially a source of energy from plants and animals in the past. Mining and use of fossil fuels will release a number of greenhouse gases (GHG) which increase the earth's temperature which at a certain level is dangerous for the earth's population itself. Efforts to overcome this are by using non-fossil energy and renewable energy so as not to contribute to increasing the concentration of GHG in the atmosphere which increases the earth's temperature.

From plants or trees can be directly used as a source of energy or fuel, namely firewood. Derivatives or energy products from plants are also very diverse and can meet all human needs, both energy in the form of solid fuels, liquid fuels and gas fuels. The production of firewood, wood chips, wood briquettes, sawdust, torrified biomass to charcoal are a number of solid fuel products. While the production of biooil, bioethanol, biodiesel, renewable diesel / green diesel, and bioavtur / bio jet fuel are a number of liquid fuels. And biogas and bio-syngas are gas fuels that can be produced from the original material in the form of plants.

A number of conversion techniques based on physics, chemistry and biology are needed for the conversion. The use of appropriate plant species is also needed to facilitate the conversion, for example for the production of solid fuels, biomass sources such as wood are needed, while if the target is liquid fuel, then the type of oil-producing plants that need to be pursued. Conversion from solid fuels to liquid or gas fuels can also be done but in general the longer and more complicated the process, the more expensive the production costs will be. But still, energy plantations are the basis for all of that.

Popular and fairly easy biomass processing is to make wood chips with size reduction then wood pellets and wood briquettes through biomass densification. Furthermore, to convert sugary biomass into ethanol with fermentation and azeotropic distillation, convert lignin biomass (lignocellulosic biomass) into ethanol with enzymatic hydrolysis reactions followed by fermentation and azeotropic distillation. Converting woody biomass into fuel with a thermal process can be burned directly or if you want to make charcoal, concentrate the fixed carbon, namely by pyrolysis or carbonization, and if you want to maximize liquid products / bio-oil / pyro-oil, namely by fast pyrolysis and if you want to maximize gas products, namely by gasification. And so that the characteristics of the biomass are like hydrophobic coal, the torrefaction or mild-pyrolysis process can be carried out. Torrefaction and densification are usually carried out together to optimize the biomass fuel product.

With gas to liquid (GTL) namely the gasification process and followed by the Fisher - Tropsch process, bio-ethanol, biodiesel and bioavtur / bio jet fuel can be produced. While from groups of plants that produce oil such as palm oil, biodiesel can be made especially with the transesterification or estran (esterification plus transesterification) process. Even used oil or used cooking oil / used cooking oil and miko (minyak kotor) / dirty oil or PAO (palm acid oil) can also be used for biodiesel / green diesel or further processed into bio-jet fuel / bio-avtur with the HVO / HEFA - SPK (Hydro-processed Esters and Fatty Acids-Synthesized Paraffinic Kerosene) process.

So basically, biomass from trees can be processed into various forms of energy or fuel needed by humans. In addition to being used directly as a heat source, this energy can also be converted into mechanical energy or electrical energy, for example biofuel-fueled vehicles to biomass power plants. So the source of energy throughout the ages stored in plants is this biomass as stated by Allah SWT in the verse above and there is no doubt whatsoever about it. Indonesia as a tropical country is a "heaven" for the production of biomass because of the rays of sunlight throughout the year and adequate rainfall and extensive land. The storage of energy in plants from sunlight is also likened to a battery that can be used anytime and anywhere for more details read here.

Another important thing to note for the creation of energy plantations or biomass plantations is the status of the land used. The land must not be from deforestation or land conversion (land use change) that damages the environment. Industrial plantation forests (HTI) that are in accordance with their designation can be used as energy plantations. In addition, biomass for producing energy can also be cultivated on critical land, or referred to as 'unproductive' land. The Indonesia Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) estimates that critical land in Indonesia in 2016 was 24.3 million hectares (Times Indonesia, 2017). This is a very large area, and overall Indonesia's territory is large enough to provide biomass for renewable energy production.