Opportunity to Export Wood Pellet to Germany

At the end of 2022 or this year, all nuclear power plants in Germany will be discontinued, then in 2030 or at the latest in 2038 all coal fired power plants will also be discontinued. Germany in the context of decarbonization has planned to reduce fossil fuels, especially coal in its power plant. The percentage of nuclear power plants in Germany is 3.6% or about 8 GW and this requires immediate efforts to replace the electricity supply. Meanwhile, coal-fired power plants reach about 28% or more than 40 GW, and currently electricity production with coal is very expensive, due to the price of coal itself and carbon tax. Coal prices are around $150 but recently there has been a spike to $435 and a carbon tax of over $100 for every ton CO2 emitted. With these cost components, the price of electricity production for each MWh reaches around $220 (not including labor costs, maintenance, and so on), whereas if it is replaced with wood pellets the production price is only around $90 per MWh or approximately one third. Very cheap. Moreover, with the use of wood pellets, the sulfur scrubbing process (FGD = flue gas desulphurisation) can be reduced or even eliminated.

Biomass fuels such as wood pellets are carbon neutral so they do not increase the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, so that when using wood pellets for power generation and subsequent CO2 gas emissions, which are greenhouse gases, are captured and stored (CCS = Carbon Capture and Storage) so that they do not escape into the atmosphere, then this becomes carbon negative or reduces the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. The amount of CO2 gas that can be captured and soraged can also get carbon credit compensation, so that the coal power plants will get additional income. But without even having to use CCS, the use of wood pellets has reduced the cost of electricity production very significantly and is environmentally friendly. Meanwhile, if the power plant uses coal which is carbon positive and then CO2 emissions are captured and stored with CCS technology, this becomes carbon neutral. Of course, carbon negative efforts are better than carbon neutral.

On the other hand, Germany is famous for its technological products, especially industrial machines. A number of machine manufacturers for the production of wood pellets also come from Germany, such as Muench, Salmatec and Kahl. These machines are widely used for the production of wood pellets around the world and are reliable. It is possible that later the machines for the production of wood pellets will be imported from Germany and wood pellet products from Indonesia will be exported to Germany. This is in accordance with the potential advantages of each country. Indonesia with a land area of 1.91 million km2 with a lot of available land and being in the tropics has great potential as the world's main producer of wood pellets.

Currently about 55% of the fuel for power generation in Germany uses natural gas originating from Russia, and currently war is breaking out between Russia and Ukraine. The issue of Germany's alignment may affect the supply of natural gas from Russia to the country due to the war. Conversion from coal power plant to wood pellet power plant is not difficult and does not require a large investment, so this conversion is the most realistic solution. With the number of coal-fired power plants in Germany more than 100 units or about 1/3 of the electricity supply, so the need for wood pellets will also be very large if the power plants switch to wood pellets.

Activated Carbon For Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) Process

Exhaust gas emissions, especially from coal power plants, must be made environmentally friendly. About 60% of the world's electricity currently depends on coal, this is because coal power plants can provide electricity at low prices. The exhaust gases that pollute and endanger the environment need to be treated in such a way that they no longer endanger the environment. Coal is a fuel that contains a high enough sulfur content, namely 0.5% (5 kg / ton of coal) so that when it is burned, it will cause SO2 and SO3 gas emissions or the SOx gas group. If these gases are emitted in the atmosphere, they will cause acid rain. The acid rain will damage agricultural land, forests due to imperfect photosynthesis, the death of marine life and corrosion of metal objects such as vehicles, buildings and so on, even human health in the form of respiratory problems such as asthma, chronic bronchitis to permanent lung damage. 

For example, China says more than half of the country's cities experience acid rain and only a few have fresh air. One sixth of the major rivers are so polluted that their water is deemed unsuitable for agriculture. Pollution watchdogs say 16.4% of China's major rivers do not even meet agricultural irrigation standards. Water from big cities such as Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou is said to be highly polluted. Only the tourist island area of Hainan and parts of the northern coast are considered truly healthy. Only 3.6% of the 471 cities monitored received the top ranking in terms of air cleanliness.

 

Efforts to minimize SOx gas emissions (including sulfur dioxide (SO2), sulfur monoxide (SO), and sulfur trioxide (SO3)) are carried out by treating flue gas desulphurisation or the term FGD (Flue Gas Desulphurisation). As of June 1973, there were 42 FGD units operating, 36 in Japan and 6 in the United States, with capacities ranging from 5 MW to 250 MW. Between 1999 and 2000, FGD units were in use in 27 countries, and there were 678 FGD units operating at a total power generation capacity of about 229 gigawatts. About 45% of the FGD capacity is in the US, 24% in Germany, 11% in Japan, and 20% in various other countries. Approximately 79% of the units, representing about 199 gigawatts of capacity, use wet limestone. About 18% (or 25 gigawatts) use spray-dry scrubbers or sorbent injection systems. The use of these FGDs has now been introduced to various places that use fossil fuels such as coal incinerators and waste incinerators.

Basically there are several types of FGD techniques but in general they can be divided into 2, namely the wet method, for example by absorption of wet lime or sea water solutions, dry methods such as activated carbon and semi-dry methods. The wet method is the method most widely used. The "gypsum lime method", which is one of the wet methods, has become a mainstream in the world as a large capacity exhaust gas treatment process especially for thermal power plants. The considerations for selecting the FGD technique include scale, cost, types of by-products, and their application. The lime-gypsum method complicates the gypsum recovery process and the wastewater treatment process, so it is not suitable for application in small boilers. Therefore, in small-scale plants, the "magnesium hydroxide method" which uses magnesium hydroxide, which is a cheap alkaline in addition to lime, is often used. The soda method was a wet method commonly used in pulp mills and small-scale equipment in the second half of the 1960s, but because caustic soda as an absorber is expensive and operating costs are high, a method using magnesium hydroxide, which is a cheaper absorber, has been adopted. 

In the 1960s, Japan developed a lot of dry FGD techniques and since the 1980s wet FGD techniques have been widely used until now. Currently, Japan has all installed the FGD equipment, but it is certain that the need in China and Southeast Asia will increase in the future. Therefore, in recent years, most FGD equipment manufacturers have realized the technological developments being applied to overseas markets, and the development of simple desulphurisation devices suitable for developing countries that are easy to operate and low cost is underway. There is also a by-product from the FGD which has economic value, namely the gypsum FGD. In Indonesia, there is only one coal power plant that uses FGD with wet limestone and produces a gypsum FGD, namely at PLTU Tanjung Jati, Jepara, Central Java. Meanwhile, other coal power plants still use wet technique with sea water absorbtion.

The desulphurisation method with activated carbon is also simultaneous with denitration and functions to remove other components such as removing dioxins and removing heavy metal elements. The activated carbon adsorption method consists of an adsorption tower, a desorption tower, and an activated carbon circulation transfer device. When other components such as NOx are also adsorbed, a module consisting of a number of activated carbon cells forms an adsorption tower, and each component in the exhaust gas is removed as it passes through each module.

Activated carbon which has adsorbed SOx, etc. In the adsorption tower it is sent to the desorption tower, heated to 350 ° C or higher, and regenerated. The regenerated activated carbon is cooled to 150 ° C or lower in the cooling section, then the dust is removed by filtration and reused in the adsorption tower. Instead, the concentrated SO2 gas obtained is washed and purified, then oxidized or reduced, and finally recovered as sulfuric acid, elemental sulfur, or the like.

 Activated carbon has a large surface area because of the many pores on its surface. These pores are intentionally made to increase the efficiency of adsorption. The more pores are formed, the wider the activated carbon surface area. Based on the size of the pores, they are divided into macropore, mesopore and micropore. Activated carbon from coconut shells has many micropores, while activated carbon from wood is dominated by mesopore and macropore (micropore only has a small portion) because the wood structure is also more open. For activated carbon from coal, the distribution of micropore, mesopore and macropore is almost evenly distributed. Based on the above characteristics, coconut shell activated carbon is widely used to absorb small molecules from gas and liquid. Activated carbon from coconut shells and palm kernel shells (PKS) is thought to be the most suitable for the FGD (flue gas desulphurisation) process.