Three Motivations For Biomass Thermal Conversion

At least, three motivating factors on biomass thermal conversion, like is mentioned below :

A.    Renewability Benefit
Fossil fuel like coal, oil and gas are good and convenient source of energy, and they meet the energy demands of society very effectively. However, there is one major problem: Fossil fuel resources are finite and not renewable.Biomass on the other hand, grows and is renewable. A crop cut this year will grow again next year; a tree cut today may grow up within a decade. Unlike fossil fuel, then, biomass is not likely to be depleted with consumption. For this reason, its use, especially for energy production, is rising fast.

We may argue against cutting trees for energy because they serve as a CO2 sink. This is true, but a tree stops absorbing CO2 after it dies. On the other hand, if left alone in the forest it can release CO2 in a forest fire or release more harmful CH4 when it decomposes in water. The use of a tree as fuel after its life provides carbon-neutral energy as well as avoids greenhouse gas release from deadwood. The best option is new planting following cutting, as is done by some pulp industries. Fast-growing plants like switch grass and Miscanthus are being considered as fuel for new energy projects. These plants have very short growing periods that can be counted in months.

B.    Enviromental Benefit
With growing evidence of global warming, the need to reduce human-made greenhouse gas emissions is being recognized. Emission of other air pollutants, such as NO2, SO2, and Hg, is no longer acceptable, as it was in the  past. In elementary schools and in corporate boardrooms, the environment is a major issue, and it has been major driver for biomass thermal conversion such as pyrolysis for energy production. Biomass has a special appeal in this regard, as it makes no net contribution to carbondioxide emission to the atmosphere.

Regulations for making biomass economically viable are in the place in many countries. For example, if biomass replace fossil fuel in a plant, that plant earns credit for CO2 reduction equivalent to what the fossil fuel was emitting. This credits can be sold on the market for additional revenue in countries where such trades are in practice.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions
When burned, biomass release the CO2 it absorbed from the atmosphere in the recent past, not millions of years ago, as with fossil fuel. The net addition of CO2 to the atmosphere through biomass combustion is thus considered to be zero.

Sulfur Removal
Most virgin or fresh biomass contains little to no sulfur. Biomass-derived feedstock such as municipal solid waste (MSW) or sewage sludge does contain sulfur, which requires limestone for capture of it. Interestingly, such derived feedstock also contains small amounts of calcium, which intrinsically aids sulfur capture.

Nitrogen Removal
A combustion system firing fossil fuel can oxidize the nitrogen in fuel and in air into NO, the acid rain precursor, or into N2O, a greenhouse gas. Both are difficult to remove. In a pyrolysis system, nitrogen appears as either N2 or NH3, which is removed relatively easily in the syngas-cleaning stage.
Nitrous oxide emission results from the oxidation of fuel nitrogen alone. Measurement in a biomass combustion system showed a very low level of N2O emission (Van Loo and Koppejan, 2008, p.295)

Dust and Other Hazardous Gases
 Highly toxic pollutants like dioxin and furan, which can be released in a combustion system, are not likely to form in an oxygen-absenced pyrolyzer. Particulate in the syngas is also reduced significantly by multiple gas clean up systems.

C.    Sociopolitical Benefit

The sociopolitical benefits of biomass are substantial. For one, biomass is locally grown resource. For one, biomass is a locally grown resource. For a biomass-based power plant to be economically viable, the biomass needs to come from within a certain distance from it.  This means that every biomass plant can prompt the development of associated industries for biomass growing, collecting, and transporting.
Some believe that a biomass fuel plant could create up to 20 times more employment than that created by a coal-or oil-based plant (Van Loo and Koppejan, 2008, p.1).  The biomass industry thus has a positive impact on the local economy.

Another very important aspect of biomass-based energy, fuel, or chemicals is that they reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels. The volatile global political landscape has shown that supply and price can change dramatically within a short time, with a sharp rise in the price of feedstock. Locally grown biomass is relatively free from such uncertainties.

New Uses of Charcoal Increasing in Japan

The consumption of carbon in Japan increased from 38,800 t (meric ton) in 1985 to 192,000 t in 1999. In 1999, 27% of the consumption, Or 50,835 t, was used for purposes other than fuel, as shown in Figure below. The highest proportion usage, i.e. 30.6%, was in the agricultural land, mainly as soil amendment. The second highest, i.e., 22.3%, was in the livestock industry, where charcoal powder was mixed with litter or animal feed for deodorization. Other uses were in the humidity control of houses, water purification other than by activated charcoal, as a reducing agent or a decolorant in industries, etc. Thus, the use of charcoal with various characteristics is currently diversified in Japan.

Marketing of the new uses of charcoal besides fuel in Japan in 1999. Source : association of the of the new uses of charcoal in Japan (2001)

 To meet the demand of course reliable pyrolysis system will be used for this. With plant capacity begin 60 ton/day up 200 ton/day INPUT and abundant biomass feedstock available especially in Indonesia and South East Asia region, we ready as your partner to make your dream come true.

Entering the Second Generation Biofuel With Pyrolysis

The first generation biofuels are characterized by the production of biodiesel and bioethanol from food feedstock will soon be abandoned, it is because of fears of biofuel feedstock competition with human food needs. Conditions that encourage the birth of a second generation biofuels using biomass (non-food) as a raw material. Pyrolysis is a technology to produce second generation biofuels. The potential of biomass is abundant in Indonesia and on the other side of the energy needs that can not be fulfilled so that the pyrolysis of this application will be very promising.

Industrial-scale pyrolysis technology that can produce biofuels to meet the energy needs of Indonesia's current needs. Our pyrolysis technology has specific advantages that can work on torrefaction mode (mild pyrolysis) with torrefied wood products / torrefied biomass and the pyrolysis mode (slow pyrolysis) with the primary product BioCarbon (charcoal). Both products, wood & BioCarbon torrefied has many uses as a superior fuel and it takes a variety of industries for various applications. In both these processes will also be produced biooil and syngas, which can also be used for fuel or raw material of various chemical industries. To get a more detailed overview of this technology following our presentation or here.

Biochar activity in Southeast Asia Promote The Growth Of Biochar Industry

A variety of literature, research, seminars, training and trials around the world have proved that the biochar or agrichar; charcoal produced from the pyrolysis process provides great benefits for soil fertility so that crop productivity will increase. Japan is one country that is known users biochar to agricultural land for decades. This makes some parts of Southeast Asia are also affected to use biochar to improve soil quality. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the Phillipines are a number of countries in Southeast Asia are trying to apply the biochar.

 

This activity provides an encouraging result because it gives a positive result and reduces pollution because it uses raw material of various types of waste biomass. The hope of this activity continues to increase the use of biochar on a larger scale and more sustainable. Indonesia and Malaysia as the largest CPO producers in the world would require an intensification in the agricultural field to improve soil quality in addition to the energy requirements for CPO and its derivative production processes so that is where the biochar industry using pyrolysis technology will be crucial. Industrial-scale continuous pyrolysis technology is easy to use would be needed for this.

Physical Aspect On Biomass Pyrolysis

From a thermal standpoint, we may divide the pyrolysis process into four stages. Although divided by temperature, the boundaries between them are not sharp; there is always some overlap :

-Drying (~100 oC). During the initial phase of biomass heating at low temperature, the free moisture and some loosely bound water is released. The free moisture evaporates, and the heat then conducted into the biomass interior.
-Initial Stage (100-300 oC). In this stage, exothermic dehydration of the biomass take place with the release of water and low-molecular-weight like CO and CO2.
-Intermediate Stage (>200 oC). This is primary pyrolysis, and it takes place in the temperature range of 200 to 600 oC. Most of the vapor or precursor to bio-oil is produced at this stage. Large molecules of biomass particles decompose into char (primary char),  condensable gases (vapors and precursors of the liquid yield), and noncondensable gases.
-Final Stage (~300-900 oC). The final stage of pyrolysis involves secondary cracking of volatiles into char and noncondensable gases. If they reside in the biomass long enough, relatively large-molecular-weight condensable gases crack, yielding additional char (called secondary char) and gases. This stage typically occurs above 300 oC (Reed, 2002, P.III-6). The condensable gases, if removed quickly from reaction site, condense outside in the downstream reactor as tar or bio-oil. It is apparent from figure below that a higher pyrolysis temperature favor production of hydrogen, which increase quickly above 600 oC. An additional contribution of shift reaction further increase the hydrogen yield above 900 oC, in which typically used in gasification process since biomass pyrolysis use in lower temperature than gasification (range 400-600 oC).

Shift Reaction

Releses of Gases During Pyrolysis of Wood

Temperature has a major influence on the product of pyrolysis. The carbondioxide yield is high at lower temperature and decrease at higher temperature. The release of hydrocarbon gases peaks at around 450 oC and then starts decreasing above 500 C, boosting the generation of hydrogen.

Hot char particles can catalyze the primary cracking of the vapor released within biomass particle and the secondary cracking occurring outside the particle but inside the reactor. To avoid cracking of condensable gases and thereby increase the liquid yield, rapid removal of the condensable vapor is very important. The shorter the residence time of the condensable gas in the reactor, the less the secondary cracking and hence the higher the liquid yield. There’s always see the market demand of biomass pyrolysis products to meet that need. To see how our continous pyrolysis plant can do this, please click here and to find what real application on biomass pyrolysis for South East region please read the all articles in this blog.

Effect of Heating Rate in Pyrolysis Process

The rate of heating of the biomass particle has an important influence on yield and composition of the product. Rapid heating to a moderate temperature (400-600 oC) yields higher volatiles and hence more liquid, while slower heating to that temperature produces more char. The operating parameters of a pyrolyzer are adjusted to meet the requirement of the final product of interest. Tentative design norms for heating in a pyrolyzer include the following :

-To maximize char production, use a slow heating rate (<0.01-2.0 oC/s), a low final temperature, and a long gas residence time.
-To maximize liquid yield, use a high heating rate, a moderate final temperature (450-600 oC), and a short gas resiedence time.
-To maximize gas production, use a slow heating rate, a high final temperature (700-900 oC), and a long gas residence time.

Production of charcoal through carbonization uses the first norm, more detail about our pyrolyzer please click here or if you want more considerations about charcoal production please click here.

Waste Heat Recovery From Pyrolysis Plant

Urgency of availability of cheap energy is the solution of energy problems today. Waste heat recovery is the best option for this.With a pyrolysis unit with waste as feedstock then produce heat  and fuel as among of the products, of course this is a powerful solution in the current era of energy crisis. Coupled with the application of effective waste heat recovery that makes almost all the energy produced can be utilized optimally. That way the integration of the pyrolysis unit will be needed by various industries, such as the scheme below.



The high volume of biomass wastes generated in various agro-industry and on the other hand the large energy requirements for processing these products, so it's time toconsider the application of pyrolysis, the reasons include:


a. energy efficiency
b. Reduce environmental problems caused by waste biomass and emissions
c. The added value generated
d. Sustainable business


Waste heat recovery is the second stage of process of energy efficiency after you apply the pyrolysis unit in your industry, so that almost all the energy produced can be used optimally as possible by reducing energy losses in the pyrolysis process. Application ofpyrolysis unit and the waste heat recovery in a specific industry will be carefully analyzed so that the application system according to the relevant industry. Studies conducted by the Eastern Asia University, Pathumthani, Thailand showed that the waste heat recoveryfrom the pyrolysis unit to contribute significantly to energy efficiency.