Process Modifications For New Products Innovation

 

The history of paper making goes back thousands of years. This is because humans have a need to communicate and record their thoughts or ideas, thus encouraging creating media for that purpose. Starting from very simple media such as stones, bones, plant leaves, animal skins, to sheets of paper as we encounter today. Even the word paper which in English comes from the word papyrus, which is a type of reed plant that grows on the banks of rivers. The ancestors of the Egyptians found paper-like material from these papyrus, even for about 4000 years Egypt monopolized the production of these papyrus. This is mainly because papyrus only thrives on the periphery of the Nile in Egypt. The raw materials, production techniques and quality of the paper produced are constantly changing according to technological advances and available raw materials. The discovery of the first paper recorded in China around 100 AD and then spread to the Arabian peninsula. Meanwhile Arab Muslims in the eighth century AD brought their paper and manufacturing techniques to the Mediterranean region and by the end of the eighth century the paper had been produced in Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid caliphate in central Iraq. This made the paper-making technique spread throughout his territory. It particularly spread to the Mediterranean region and replaced the papyrus and parchment (of sheepskin or goat's skin) that had dominated for millennia. Meanwhile, Christian Europe only began to learn to make paper in the twelfth century.

The unavailability of raw materials such as in China makes paper production in Arabia using used clothes that are not used, as well as the development of production techniques. Paper making at that time was very dependent on the supply of clean water. This is because only water was used to bleach the fibers before the discovery of chlorine in the eighteenth century, which was further sun dried to obtain white paper. This condition continued in mainland Europe so that production techniques and quality of paper improved. Even the invention of the printing press by Johann Gutenberg in 1436 made it easier to produce books faster and cheaper. This era also marked the acceleration of this new civilization because the culture of reading books had increased rapidly so that the need for paper also increased by itself. The use of chemicals for paper production began around 1800, namely wood that has been crushed and then "digested" with chemicals including the use of sulfates. Paper is able to give a boost from an oral culture to a written culture and the development of a number of notation systems such as language, mathematics, commercial transactions, architectural drafting, chemical formulas, which are the product of a number of inventions and the distribution of printed books. In short, the paper has marked the "new era of civilization" as we are experiencing today.

The production of pulp is basically releasing cellulose and hemicellulose fibers from lignin with certain chemicals. During the cellulose extraction process, the extractive material is also separated. The cellulose and hemicellulose fibers are also kept intact, thereby increasing the yield of the usable fibers. The fibers produced are naturally colored according to the type of raw material and must be bleached before they can be used for paper. In the bleaching process, efforts must be made in such a way so that the cellulose fibers are not damaged, including the use of selective chemicals for the bleaching agent. Cellulose is the main organic material in woody plants. When processed into paper, it can become a variety of paper products. After the cellulose fibers are separated or released from the binder, namely lignin, so that they become pulp, the pulp is then glued back to form paper with a certain adhesive. Softwood is the raw material that is mostly used for the production of this pulp because its cellulose fibers are longer (about 3–4 mm in length with a diameter of 25–30 micro). The low lignin content of hardwoods is used for the production of specialty paper where smoothness and softness are desired.

There are a number of processes and a variety of basic processes that can be used for the production of pulp from wood. The main processes used by the paper industry are kraft process (commonly known as sulfate process), thermochemical process, semi-chemical process and sulfite process. The kraft process is still the most popular and most widely used today or mainstream in the paper production process. The analogy, this is like the use of a limestone scrubber in the exhaust gas treatment of power plants, especially coal power plants, more details can be read here. The advantages of the kraft process compared to other processes are high cellulose yield and recovery liquor, so that the process becomes efficient or low production costs. The paper production process begins with the use of wood with a diameter of 8 cm up, then the wood is peeled off (debarking). The debarking process can be done mechanically or with high pressure water at 1400 psi perpendicular to the log.

Blu Karb Carbonisation

 Paper mills are always supported by extensive timber plantations as a source of raw materials, such as plantations or acacia forests. Timber less than 8 cm in diameter or in the range of 5-8 cm can be used for charcoal production. With proven carbonization technology and a semi-continuous process capacity of 3000 tons / year with charcoal quality exceeding European standards (fixed caron> 82%) can be achieved, for more details can be read here. Meanwhile, wood in the form of smaller branches can also be used for the production of briquettes or pellets. Briquettes are technically easier and cheaper to produce, read more details here. In this way, the wood wastes can be utilized optimally or even zero waste.

 

After debarking the large wood, the wood was then reduced in size into chips. The wood chips are then put into a digester (pressure vessel) with a capacity of 1500-3600 cubic feet and added recovered cooking liquor. After the digestion process in the digester (pressure vessel) is complete, the pressure is lowered to 80 PSI and the contents are poured into the tank. Furthermore, the pulp is filtered and further processed as in the diagram above so that it becomes the final product in the form of paper.

Then what if the kraft process is reversed? In the kraft process what occurs is the cellulose fibers are separated from the lignin and kept intact or cellulose becomes the main product. When the process is reversed it means that lignin is separated from cellulose and kept intact or lignin becomes the main product. This means that the lignin produced from the kraft process is different from the lignin from the reverse process in quality, likewise the cellulose produced from the kraft process will also have different qualities from the reverse process. Why is it necessary to reverse the kraft process? What is the goal and is it profitable? Of course the main reason is to create new, more profitable businesses. This product diversification is projected to have better market and economic opportunities in the future than paper products. The products produced from this process are cellulose sugar and lignin from these trees.

Cellulose sugar comes from non-food biomass (eg wood and agricultural wastes). Biomass mainly consists of cellulosic carbohydrate polymers, hemicellulose, and aromatic polymers (lignin). Hemicellulose is a polymer consisting mostly of the five-carbon sugar C 5 H 10 O 5 (xylose) and cellulose is a polymer of C 6 H 12 O 6 (glucose) six-carbon sugar. Cellulose is the most common organic compound on Earth. About 33% of all plant matter is cellulose (the cellulose content of cotton is 90% and that of wood is 40-50%). Cellulose cannot be digested by humans, it can only be digested by animals that have the enzyme cellulose. Cellulose fibers are considered the structural building blocks of plants and are tightly bound to lignin, but biomass can be deconstructed using acid hydrolysis, enzymatic hydrolysis, organosolv dissolution, autohydrolysis or supercritical hydrolysis. 

 

 

Enzymatic Hidrolysis Process

When the C5 and C6 sugars are produced using enzymatic hydrolysis, the enzymes must be able to chew the cellulose easily and convert them into C5 and C6 sugars and then separate these sugars from lignin. So that the output that comes out of the process unit has two main streams, namely sugar and lignin. The molecular structure of the lignin produced is also closer to that of the tree than the lignin produced from the kraft process. The resulting lignin can also be used in resin production, there is even a great potential for the use of lignin and sugar to create feed additives in livestock.

The production of cellulose sugar at low cost and large capacity has also been carried out by companies based in the United States, Rentmatix and this is probably the only commercial player that uses supercritical hydrolysis technology as a cellulose sugar production line, namely with a production of 100,000 tons / year. This sugar can be produced from a variety of raw materials and can be converted into various biochemical products, biofuels, and polymers either through biological or chemical process routes. One of the applications of cellulose sugar is a bioplastic raw material. Plastic itself is a polymer product. The high level of environmental pollution due to plastic from petrochemicals encourages the use of renewable materials. The company has even made a partnership with the paper industry in Europe for the production of this cellulose sugar. According to the company Rentmatix, 1 million tonnes of cellulose sugar is said to be sufficient to make biodiapers for 24 million babies over 3 years or fly 100 Boeing 747 planes for 8 consecutive days or make 120 billion compostable plastic cups or run 1 million cars 2000 miles on bioethanol or paint for 14 million new homes. Renewable chemicals can also be produced using cellulose sugar as raw material. Currently, there are also many factories that produce bioethanol for liquid fuel by this process route, namely the C5 and C6 sugars which are produced and then fermented to produce ethanol, so it is commonly called the biomass to ethanol process.

 

Cellulose sugar is used as a renewable resource for the biochemical and biofuel industries and can be used to produce intermediates through the fermentation process. The availability of industrial sugar from renewable sources, in sufficient quantities and at favorable costs, allows the product to be cost-competitive compared to products based on fossil fuels. A 2012 study by Nexant predicts that in the future, it will be possible and economically potential to produce all types of sugar-based chemical products from biomass due to developments in cellulose processing.

PKS For Coal Powerplant in Europe

Europe with its bio-economic program in the RED (Renewable Energy Directive) has targeted the use of renewable energy to reach a minimum of 20% by 2020 with biomass consumption reaching 70% of all renewable energy and by 2030 to be at least 27%. For biomass energy, Europe is also the largest producer of wood pellets, which is currently estimated at 13.5 million tons / year while its consumption is 18.8 million tons / year. The biggest wood pellet producing countries in Europe are Germany and Sweden. Even though the production of wood pellets of 13.5 million tons / year has not been able to meet the internal needs of the region, so it still needs supply from outside. America and Canada are the main suppliers of wood pellet needs for the country. Most of the use of wood pellets for electricity generation. In addition to wood pellets, PKS has also been imported from Indonesia. Along the size of the target to be achieved, the need for biomass fuel is predicted to increase.

Although most power plants currently use pulverized coal boiler technology which reaches around 50% of the world's electricity generation, the use of grate combustor boiler technology and fluidized bed boilers is also increasing. Pulverized coal boiler is mainly used for very large capacity plants (> 100 MW), while for ordinary medium capacity uses fluidized bed technology (between 20-100 MW) and for smaller capacity with combustor grate (<20 MW). The advantage of boiler boiler combustion and fluidized bed technology is fuel flexibility including tolerance to particle size. Various agricultural waste, municipal waste, used tires and so on can be used as fuel. When the pulverized coal boiler requires a small particle size (1-2 cm) like sawdust so that it can be atomized on the pulverizer nozzle, the combustor grate and fluidized bed the particle size of gravel (max. 8 cm) can be accepted. Based on these conditions agricultural waste, namely PKS has a great opportunity as fuel for these boilers.

49 MW Biomass Powerplant with Fluidized Bed Technology
in Japan that use PKS as fuel, has been operating since 2015 

To be able to fuel the boiler combustor grate and fluidized bed boiler PKS can be used directly, without additional pretreatment. More specifically for fluidized bed boilers, circulating fluized beds (CFB) boilers are more suitable for PKS compared to boiler fluidized bed (BFB) boilers, for more details read here. Then is PKS not suitable for pulverized coal boiler? There are several things that need to be considered for the use of PKS in pulverized coal boilers. The first thing that can be done is to reduce PKS particle size to a maximum of 2 cm so that it can be atomized in a pulverized system. The second thing to note is the percentage of PKS in coal, or the term cofiring. Unlike a grate and a fluidized bed combustor that can be flexible with various types of fuel, pulverized almost all use coal only. Of course it can also be pulverized to be replaced with biomass, especially PKS, but there are specific things that distinguish biomass and coal fuels, namely ash content and ash chemistry. Both of these things greatly influence the combustion characteristics in the pulverized system.

Coal ash content is generally greater than biomass, besides that coal ash chemistry is very different from biomass ash chemistry. Biomass ash has lower an inorganic than coal, but the alkali content in biomass can change the properties of coal ash, especially aluminosilicate ash. Practically, if you want to change the pulverized system from coal to biomass, especially PKS, it is necessary to modify the power plant and this is also not cheap, but if you want without modification or just a small modification of the power plant is needed, namely the cofiring method. Biomass cofiring with coal in small portions for example 3-5% does not need to modify the pulverized power plant. For example, Shinci in Japan with a capacity of 2 x 1,000 MW of supercritical pulverized fuel with 3% cofiring requires 16,000 tons / year of biomass and no modification, likewise with Korea Shoutheast Power (KOSEP) 5,000 MW with 5% cofiring requiring 600,000 tons / year of biomass and also without modification. Why is the cofiring in the pulverized system discussed a lot? In addition to this type of generator, the most number with a very large electricity production capacity so as to be an effective means of reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere which also automatically reduces coal use, also the use of biomass in cofiring has an effect on plant operations and the price of electricity produced. The other main reason is because is the cheapest way to enter renewable sector especially for big coal powerplants.

Denmark 700 MW Studstrup power station conducts cofiring up to 20% with straw

Combustor grate technology, fluidized bed and pulverized are basically combustion technologies. Combustion technology is one of the 3 thermal biomass processes that are widely applied, with the other two are gasification and pyrolysis. Gasification as well as pyrolysis can also be used for electricity production, but its use is not as much as combustion technology and its electricity production capacity is generally also small. Almost the same as a combustor grate and fluidized bed, fuel for gasification and pyrolysis is also flexible, including coal and PKS. In gasification technology mainly to maximize gas products (syngas) while in pyrolysis to maximize its solid products. PKS can be pyrolyzed to produce charcoal while coal will produce coke if it is pyrolyzed. Charcoal from PKS can be used for fuel, briquette production and activated charcoal while coke for steel smelting. Syngas is a pyrolysis by-product that can be used for electricity production while in gasification, syngas is the main product that can also be used for electricity production.

Why use PKS for the powerplant fuel? This is because PKS has almost the same characteristics as wood pellets, many are available and are cheap. Indonesia and Malaysia are the two main producers of PKS. PKS is produced from palm oil processing and considered as waste. With an area of ​​Indonesian oil palm plantations reaching 12 million hectares in Indonesia and 5 million hectares in Malaysia, the number of PKS produced from both countries reached 15 million tons / year. The number of PKS in both countries exceeds the production of wood pellets from the United States and Canada, or the two largest producers of wood pellets today. And of course the United States and Canada cannot produce PKS, because they do not have oil palm plantations, but Indonesia and Malaysia can also produce wood pellets because they have large forests. The production of wood pellets in Indonesia and Malaysia is still small today, which is less than 1 million tons / year, but the production of PKS is quite large which can act as an initial driver of bioeconomy in the countries and supply the PKS biomass to Europe.

5 The Largest Wood Pellets Producers Today

References are needed to make something no less quality or even better, as well as for a wood pellet production facility. Indonesia with extensive land available,fertile and tropical climate needs to get complete and qualified reference especially on wood pellet production so that they can optimize its potency. Diversification of energy is also desperately needed by Indonesia so that it has strong resilience and energy sovereignty, especially with its current condition which has become a net importer of petroleum, even projected in the range of approximately 10 years future Indonesia's oil will be exhausted. The following description of the 5 largest wood pellet plant today can be used as a reference.

1.     Enviva

Enviva was established in 2004, currently Enviva operates 7 wood pellet plants with total production of more than 3 million tons / year. Some of its wood pellet production is exported to the UK and Europe. A number of ports are used For shipment or export of wood pellet, ie port of Chesapeake, Virginia; port of Wilmington, North Carolina, and ports from third party in Mobile, Alabama and Panama City, Florida. Enviva has recently announced for an off-take contract with Marubeni to supply 100,000 tons / year of wood pellets to new power plants starting in 2022 for 10 years.

Enviva's raw materials are mainly sourced from 1,183 industrial forests in 77 districts and in five southeastern states. Forests in the Southeast continue to grow and expand, with the total forest land in the Enviva area as a major supply increased by 320,842 hectares from 2011 to 2015, according to the US Forest Service. Inventory in the area has grown by 10 percent over the same time period and continues to increase as forests grow at a faster rate than they are harvested.

2.  Graanul Invest

Graanul Invest is the largest wood pellet producer in Europe and established since 2003. The production capacity of this producer is around 2.3 million ton / year by operating 11 wood pellet plants. In the early stages the company operates 2 wood pellet plants, one in Imavere, Estonia and one in Alytus, Luthuania. Subsequent developments with the acquisition of new plants and plant construction, to date operate 11 wood pellet plants. Port for export of Riga port in Latvia and port of Tallinn, Parnu and Kunda in Estonia.

3.     Drax Biomass

Drax in addition to being the largest wood pellets user today with more than 10 million tonnes / year, is also the largest producer of wood pellets in the world. Drax biomass as wood pellet producer started to operate since 2017 with total production about 1.5 million ton / year. Drax biomass has its headquarters in Atlanta and currently operates 3 wood pellet plants in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi. Their wood pellet products are used to supply power plants in UK with shipment through Baton Rouge Transit on the Mississippi River at the port of Greater Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

4.     Pinnacle

Pinnacle was established in 1989 and currently operates 6 wood pellet plants in British Columbia, Canada with raw materials mainly forest waste. Its production capacity is 1.4 million tons per year and its wood pellet products are exported to Europe, UK and Asia. Pinnacle wood pellet plants are on the main railway line, so transportation to the port is by train. The port used is the Westview terminal in Prince Rupert, which is the company's own port and Fibreco terminal in the port of Vancouver. To increase its production Pinnacle is currently building a wood pellet plants in Entwistle, Alberta and Smithers, British Columbia.

5.     An Viet Phat

An Viet Phat is a wood pellet manufacturer from Vietnam operating since 2014 with a current capacity of over 800,000 tons / year. An Viet Phat is also Asia's largest producer of wood pellets and the world's largest manufacturer of wood briquette. Market or export destination for wood pellet products ie Korea and Japan, with larger portion to Korea. Export is done from Ho Chi Minh port.

Russia as a big country but its wood pellet production is still below the top 5 producers. Russia's largest wood pellet manufacturer Vyborg has a capacity of 300.00 tons / year, ranking second in Arkaim on its west coast. Later in the country there are many small-capacity pellet producers in the northwest and especially to meet the heating market in Europe.

Most of the other areas are also not large for the production of wood pellets. Australia is currently only 2 wood pellet plants that export their products - Plantation Energy and Altus. Wood pellet production from Plantation Energy is around 250,000 tons / year while Altus is only 75,000 tons / year. Export target from Australian wood pellet especially Japan. The Middle East area is also the same as Africa is very few producers of wood pellets and from that little it's products are also only used in the country. Latin America is a small producer of wood pellets and one of the largest, Tanac in Brazil with a capacity of 400,000 tons / year. All wood pellet products from Tanac are exported to the Drax biomass power plant in the UK.

Based on the above references, Indonesian wood pellet producers should be able to compete with them. This is because the potential of raw materials is very large in Indonesia. The production of wood pellets from energy plantations and integrated with sheep or sheep and cattle farming and honey bee farms, will optimize the land and give maximum results as well. In addition, when viewed from the largest wood pellet plants in the world today also started its business relatively in the recently. Only Pinnacle started before 1990, while the average started over 2000, even Drax Biomass began operations in 2017 and An Viet Phat since 2014. The above facts are increasingly proving about the development of Al Qur'an-based energy and the hadith of the prophet also implies that the earth will return prosperously and green before the doomsday.

"There shall not be the Day of Resurrection, until the treasures have been piled up and overflowing, until a man goes everywhere carrying his treasures of zakat, but he has not found one who is willing to receive his zakat, and that the land of Arabs flourishes prosperous again with grasslands and rivers "(HR.Muslim).

Can Indonesia be a wood pellet giant? It can be. InshaAllah. 

Wood Pellet Production Is The Best Option For Indonesia

Knowing the historical background, the potential and characteristics of a nation will facilitate effective and efficient policy making for the nation. But if only imitate from other nations without considering historical background, its potential and its characteristic hence can be sure that policy will be taken also not effective and efficient. How often our nation imitate the economic progress of a nation, but do not pay attention to three important points above, so the result is also not optimal. Every country has its own character, so we can not follow the model of economic growth of other countries blindly. For example: we go along with the economic growth of industry and services, as developed countries do, while the agriculture and forestry sectors have become scramble of other countries. So are the mines and natural gas, while for petroleum we even a importing country.

The neighboring country, Singapore which is a small population and the land is small also, of course, an interesting economic source is the service sector. Similarly in developed countries, which in addition to having a lot of resources, once the needs of its population are met, then the source of growth must be pursued from other countries. So they use industrial and service sectors to pursue that growth. Then what about Indonesia?

Indonesia has a very large population, 260 million people with a vast and fertile land. Tropical climate and high rainfall 3 times the world average makes it very potential for biomass production, both for the food, energy or other sectors. If we examine and analyze how big the food and energy sector is for the 260 million people, we will know how big the economic value is. Then easily we can answer, why other countries busy scramble the agriculture and forestry sector in our country.

Please readers make their own calculations of how much food they need (carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals) as well as energy or fuel (for households, industries, vehicles and power plants). Of course the value will be very large, hundreds of billions of dollars even thousands of billions of dollars. Not to mention how much food and energy fulfillment from other countries (import), such as how much rice we import, soybean import, meat import, petroleum import, wheat import and so on. What if the imported goods are substituted by our own fulfillment and the long term can be self-sufficient or sovereign in the food and energy sectors. While tens or even hundreds of millions of hectares of land is available, then labor is also abundant.

Will we join forces to catch up on the sector of economic growth in the industrial and service sectors, while our food and energy production is dependent on other countries? Of course not as the answer. Will it easily eliminate that dependency? The answer is also not easy. First we have to change the paradigm, that we can self-sufficient food (which is certainly not just carbohydrates only) and energy. Secondly, we must revive the agricultural and forestry sectors, to meet the food and energy sectors.

In the energy sector, these lands can be used for energy plantations that later wood harvested for wood pellet production. In addition, the area of ​​the plantation can also be used for sheep grazing and leaves from the energy plantation is also a high nutritious feed for the sheep. Pastured sheep will spread the dung and urine as fertilizer for the energy plantation. With energy plantatins and sheep farming means in addition to being a solution to energy problems as well as solutions to food problems, especially protein. The lands that were initially barren became green again and provided economic and environmental benefits.

Back to the population of Indonesia as much as 260 million, of course the need for energy or fuel will also be very large as well. Formerly wood-fired stoves are widely used, currently only a small part of the countryside uses it because it has switched to using LPG fuel. Some time ago kerosene stove is also popularly used before LPG fuel. So technically basically is no problem using solid fuel, liquid fuel or gas fuel as long as the fuel is available, affordable prices and stoves are also available. When wood pellets are produced everywhere, the problem of fuel scarcity will be overcome. This is because the energy plantation and wood pellet production can be done anywhere, in contrast to natural gas whose source is only in certain places. Why not for wood pellet production? Extensive land, fertile, tropical climate, rainfall and abundant labor. Wood pellet production in addition to the region-based potential, can also be a model of new economic growth for the effective and efficient.