Biochar or Biocoal Production?

Biochar and biocoal production are basically one breath. Biochar production with full pyrolysis while biocoal with half/mild pyrolysis (torrefaction). The purpose of torrefaction/mild pyrolysis is to increase its energy content and make it hydrophobic so it is called biocoal. While the purpose of full pyrolysis is to produce stable biocarbon material so that it does not decompose in the soil for hundreds or even thousands of years and improve soil fertility so as to increase plant productivity (agriculture and forestry). 

Current biochar applications are mainly for agriculture and biochar production will produce excess heat, syngas and biooil as energy sources. While biocoal only focuses on energy. The benefits of biochar production are obtained from the sale of biochar, the sale of carbon credits and the utilization of by-products (full) pyrolysis. While the benefits of biocoal are only from the sale of biocoal itself.

The selection or development of a business will be related to business readiness (market, technology, investment, etc.) and other benefits, namely benefits in the social and environmental sectors.

The Role of Biochar In Era of Precision Farming and IoT in Palm Oil Plantations

Palm oil is not native to Indonesia but it is from West Africa and originally brought by Dutch colonialists. Initially only 4 palm oil seedlings were planted in the Bogor Botanical Garden but now they have been planted into plantations with an area of ​​nearly 9 million hectares, while Malaysia 5 million hectares. Currently Indonesia is the world's largest producer of palm oil, beating Malaysia with CPO production of more than 23 million tonnes / year with the number of oil palm mills reaching more than 600. Right now approximately 1,100 palm mills in Southeast Asia, and majority in Indonesia and Malaysia. Palm oil and its derivative products have become the largest foreign exchange earners of the plantation sector for Indonesia. The palm oil and its derivative products are divided into several groups namely CPO (crude plam oil), refined products of CPO, palm kernel oil (PKO), refined products of PKO, biodiesel and oleo-chemical. Naturally, palm oil business is a concern for many parties because of its role in the economic sector, which includes agriculture, industry and trade. The optimization of palm oil business continues to be done continuously for the sustainibility.

Palm Oil Monument in Bogor Botanical Garden, West Java, Indonesia

Optimalization in the agricultural sector, now it is time for  Indonesia for doing intensification so that palm oil productivity can be improved. When efficiency is increased, productivity will increase as well as the profits of the palm oil business. Precision farming and internet use (IoT = Internet of Things) are timed for use in the palm plantations. With precision farming and IoT, the need or dose of palm oil fertilizers or nutrients will be adjusted as needed, and real time soil fertility conditions and various agricultural variables can also be viewed and monitored carefully with apps or websites. The advantages and disadvantages of fertilizers or nutrients of both macro elements such as NPK and micro elements such as Fe, Mn, B, Mo, Cl, Cu, Zn in certain zones of oil palm plantations can be immediately detected, as well as various disturbances in oil palm plantations such as drought, wild pigs, pests and so on. The sensors installed in the palm oil plantation will then work with telemetry so all the data can be displayed on the screen to be analyzed and searched for the solution.

Isn't the palm oil area tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands hectares area? How to monitor and process the data? The more sensors installed in the palm oil plantations , the conditions will be more accurate reported. If we visit a modern chemical plant with sophisticated control room, see dashboard in cockpit plane or car dashboard and so then operational condition can be monitored easily. The more sophisticated the vehicle or factory then the look in the 'control room' is also more complete and sophisticated. So that's how to monitor the 'operating conditions' of the palm oil plantation with tens or even hundreds of thousands of hectares. Without knowing the condition of the plantation is like a driver driving in the 'dark', gasoline run out do not know, the engine overheating is also not known and so forth. Of course that is a high risk, many palm oil plantation failed or a lack of production due to various things 'dark' is. Thousands of data with many varieties of plantation condition then be collected and with big data can be mapped and analyzed for mapping also for the solution.

Soil fertility is vital to the farm / plantation business more specifically in palm oil plantations, so the effort to continue to maintain soil fertility should receive great attention. Of course there are many ways to continue to keep the soil fertility, including fertilization, the use of charcoal (biochar) and sheep grazing. Charcoal (biochar) is proven to increase soil fertility by keeping soil moisture, a microbial soil, retaining leaching, increasing soil pH, adding soil organic carbon and improving soil structure. Even with regard to climate change and the environment, the soil (biochar) that is introduced to the soil also absorbs carbon from CO2 from the atmosphere (carbon sequestration). Biochar can also survive hundreds or even thousands of years in the soil so that the benefits are very long.

There are several scenarios to produce biochar on palm oil business. Solid waste from palm oil mills such as empty bunches (EFB), fiber and shell can be used for the production of biochar. Simple to most advanced technologies can be utilized for the production of the biochar. On a large scale or industrial biochar production using continuous pyrolysis (carbonization) technology such as JFBC. The continuous pyrolysis or carbonization may be part of the palm oil mill or CPO production as can be read here or stand alone eg using only EFB as the raw material of the pyrolysis. The high cost of fertilization or efforts to maintain soil fertility so that biochar applications have a high level of urgency as described here.

Other efforts to maintain the soil fertility of palm oil plantations with sheep grazing. Why sheep grazing can fertilize the land of palm oil plantations? Yes, because when sheep are grazed among palm oil plantations also dump the dirt in the place, so the grass between the palm oil plantation should is not eradicated but maintained for the farm business. The sheep dung become fertilizer that fertilizes the soil. Why for sheep grazing? Why not grazing cattle or buffalo? This is because sheep farms produce more meat than cows or buffalo. The lamb/sheep is the best meat and is the world healthiest food, which is grass-fed sheep or shepherded on the grass. Grass-fed sheep will produce Omega-6 to Omega 3 ratio (O6 / O3 ratio) ranging from 1 or balanced. The Omega-6 ratio to Omega 3 states that the quality of food is in terms of health, with a range of 1 at its best or a balanced condition whereas if the O6 / O3 ratio is greater then the lower the quality of the food. Meanwhile, if big livestock such as sheep are fed grains such as soybean-based O6 / O3 ratio will be big ie 13 or more. High O6 / O3 ratio will spur the onset of heart disease, cancer and other cardiovascular diseases.The second driving force is the low consumption of meat for Indonesian which according to FAO is only 12.9 kg / year / capita or below the world average reaching 41.9kg / year / capita. The population of Indonesia with the consumption of sheep meat is very minimal or only 1/20 than the population of Australia and New Zealand but it turns the ratio of heart attacks and strokes is much higher or about 3 times the population of Australia and New Zealand. This proves that there is no relation to the consumption of sheep meat with heart disease or stroke - which is the animal of choice in the Qur'an and the shepherding of these Prophets! Sheep needs for export market especially Middle East and Saudi Arabia especially during haj season is also very high, around 8 million/year. Sheep dung will also be distributed more evenly in the palm oil plantation. Sheep breeding in the palm oil plantation will also increase profits for the palm oil plantation business itself. Even because of the vastness of palm oil plantations reaching 9 million hectares, the potential benefits are also tremendous.

As a Muslim, sheep animals also have significance. Why? In the Qur'an Surah Al An'am (6): 143-144 among eight animals in pairs (4 pairs) are two (one pair) sheep, a pair of goats, a pair of camels and a pair of cattle and sheep mentioned in the first order, of course this sheep has its own privileges, among others, sheep selected as the best animal qurban (QS Ash Shaaffaat (37): 107) and animals that are pastored by all prophets. By shepherding it among the palm oil trees, sheep farms are cheap because they feed on the grasses among the trees.

With the precision farming technology and IoT as tools applied to the palm oil plantations whose essence is to continuously monitor and maintain soil fertility and plantation maintenance by analyzing a number of variables related to the goal of optimizing palm oil production, the palm oil plantation will continues to be sustainable. Making all business activities of the palm is integrated and comprehensive with attention to environmental factors, good business management and take responsibility and with the utilization of latest technology in addition to a great opportunity to be a leader in this line of business is also the prosperity of the earth, such as the command of Allah SWT in the Qur ' An Surah Huud (11): 61.

Nutrient Management for Palm Oil Plantation

Nutrient management is one of the major cost components for a palm oil plantation. This is due to the inherently poor fertility of most tropical soils and the intensive extractive nature of plantation agriculture. Biochar offers the possibility for a revolution in nutrient use efficiency in tropical agriculture along with many other proven soil and water holding benefits.

Why biochar?

Many advantages of biochar applications to improve the soil fertility. Biochar production process also uses a thermal process that faster and also more affordable in investment than the biological process, that's common called fermentation. Saving estimation of fertilizer use could save up to 50% with the use of biochar, that means increase the fertilization efficiency due to the application of biochar.

 

How to produce biochar?

 

To produce the best biochar in quality and quantity, the best technology is continous slow pyrolysis process. The biomass waste that is generated by palm oil mill every day is a potential raw material for the production of biochar. Syngas, biooil and heat are other products from continous slow pyrolysis technology for energy applications or other.

"Carbon Farming" for Palm Oil Plantation part VI: Think Sustainability, Think Biochar

When we think about the sustainability of palm oil, we would think about the sustainability of palm fruit production and that means thinking about the management of the plantation itself. And talk about the management of palm oil plantations mean can not be separated bymaintaining soil fertility. Efforts to maintain the fertility of the soil is an ongoing effort as the palm oil plantation business. Biochar is one of the excellent material in maintaining soil fertility.

Biochar from JF BioCarbon

Biomass wastes that are highly abundant in palm oil is a potential feedstock for biochar production while continous slow pyrolysis technology will continue also produced green energy for processing in the palm oil mill. A business that zero waste in its operations that sustain the production of palm trees. Thinking about the sustainability of palm oil plantations means thinking about biochar.

Biochar, Climate Change and Global Warming

This time is the topic of climate change and global warming back into the world spotlight. Frameworks Convention annual meeting of theUnited Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was opened last week took place in Doha, Qatar with 15000 people are expected to participate. The emphasis today is more necessary action as compared to the previous conference. In the 18th climate change conference (COP18) is getting a lot of evidence of natural disasters due to climate change are shown.

Mitigation of climate change and global warming would cost billions of dollars. The Climate Policy Initiative is make estimation need around  US $ 300 billion each year in 2020 and increased to US $ 500 billion by 2030. While the commitment of industrialized countries only allocate US$ 100 billion  annually in the UNFCCC's GreenClimate Fund.

Role of Biochar

Although it has not received great attention in efforts to mitigate climate change-related disasters and global warming, in fact biochar potential as a tool that a lot of benefits. When we look at the motives for biochar production would look like this chart:

In the first study on the impact of climate change in SouthEast Asia by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2009: based on high emissions scenario, average temperatures in four countries-Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam - is projected to rise 4.8 degrees Celsius in 2100 from 1990 levels, average global sea level rise is 70 cm long time, and Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam is projected to experience the drier climate in two or three decades. Southeast Asia seems more affected by climate change than the global average.

Indonesia and Malaysia as a tropical country with a very rich potential of waste biomass mainly from agro-industries such as oil industry, the potential for applying biochar appropriate motivation in the image above. MPOB (Malaysian Palm Oil Board) specifically researching biochar to plant oil palm. Implementing Continuous Slow Pyrolysis technology with waste biomass feedstock will produce environmentally friendly energy that are categorized as "Carbon Neutral" because the balance does not increase the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, while the application of biochar as a by-product on the farm in addition will increase the fertility of the soil is also able to absorb greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that are categorized as "Carbon Negative" because the balance will reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. So with the application of Continous Slow Pyrolysis and product of biochar will get the optimum comprehensive solution to the scheme shown above which was instrumental in reducing the effects of climate change and global warming.

 The use of technology "carbon capture and storage" usually by injecting CO2 emissions from fossil-fueled power plants (as a CO2 gas producer unit or the biggesr greenhouse gases  currently) into the earth very expensive investment, so the need for the use of environmentally friendly renewable energy-biomassbased with Slow Continuous Pyrolysis technology and application biochar as its product will receive great attention soon.

"Carbon Farming" For Palm Oil Plantation Part 5: Organic Palm Oil Plantations

Although currently not pictured on organic palm oil plantations. But organic palm oil plantation is possible in the coming era. Biochar application on palm oil plantation which is very effective for the home of microbes so as to enrich the soil. Microbes such as mooring N and so can be inoculated in the biochar application. While the nutritional requirements of bacteria in biochar will then be supplied from manure, so the integration of oil palm plantations and cattle ranches is imperative.

When this has been done then the contribution to saving the environment and food security is huge. Substantial revenue will come from the amount of carbon absorbed by the application of biochar through mechanisms such as CDM and organic palm oil products has its own market segment.

photo is taken from here

"Carbon Farming" for Palm Oil Plantation Part 4: Misperceptions Between Biochar and Ash

photo is taken from here

Because biochar application to palm oil plantations are new, many of those who do not know and tend to equalize between biochar and ash as fertilizer for palm oil plantations. Though both are clearly very different. Judging from the occurrence of the biochar and the ash is very different. Biochar produced from pyrolysis process while the ash generated from the direct combustion (incinerator) or gasification.

Judging from biochar also many different functions of the ashes just as low quality mineral fertilizers, because biochar could be a home of microbes that will increase the soil fertility. Here are some of the reasons for the agricultural use of biochar:

-Reducing requirements for other inputs, such as conventional fertilizer

-Absorption of carbon from the atmosphere to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere

-Increase yield by overcoming obstacles to growth (eg, poor soil structure, low pH, etc.)

-Improve the quality of plant growth by overcoming obstacles (eg, poor nutrient absorption resulting in low protein content)

-Remediation of contaminated soil

-Improve the physical or aesthetic properties of the soil or growing media (for example, make it dark, lowering the density of pores or give to the soil and so on)

Biochar production process with continuous slow pyrolysis technology is also very environmentally friendly because the emission gas well below the permitted threshold. While the direct burning incinerator technology has not allowed for reasons of emission gas and ash byproduct of low economic value.

"Carbon Farming" for Palm Oil Plantation Part 3: Economics of Technology Implementation

photo is taken from here

Basically, the conversion of biomass to the various technologies will face the final question about how much the economy in the form of investment and how much value added is generated. In many cases in Indonesia many biomass thermal conversion technology like gasification have not found economical and finally the equipment does not operate (idle) and as a result are generally the technology is not well developed. In the case of gasification which produce electricity, cost components that greatly affect their economic  is the price of raw materials, equipment investment and the selling price the electric. In fact most gasification in operation condition because the gasification groove is used for own use.

While many tools are being prepared for economical aspect of biomass thermal conversion technology, the continuous slow pyrolysis plant for own-use in palm oil mill will give a huge advantage for being able to meet the energy needs and improve the soil fertility of their plantation. For the implementation of continous slow pyrolysis technology, ultimately the question that arises again is its economic factor "how big an investment for equipment / unit / technology" and "how much value added generated". Check out our presentation to help you make a decision.

The Importance Of Standard Biochar

Biochar and charcoal are similar materials with different purposes. Charcoal, a fuel and metal reductant,is considered to be the oldest man-made material. The advantage of charcoal is that it burns with less smoke, which is advantageous when cooking indoors. In addition, charcoal burns hotter than wood, which allows it to be used for metal forming, such as in blacksmithing.

Adsorption is a pivotal property that distinguishes biochar from other carbon-rich natural products. Adsorption also distinguishes superior biochars from less effective “agricultural charcoals”. Since biochar is so new, there are no analytical methods developed specifically to measure adsorption in biochar, nor any experience base to relate adsorption to biochar impact when added to growing system. Thus,  urgently needed the standard biochars. Following paper will give analytical options for biochar adsorption and surface area, please go here.

Huge Demand of Torrified Biomass For Energy Application

Biomass ranks fourth as energy resource on global basis. Biomass is CO2 neutral and contains very little sulfur, hence it does not contribute greatly to acid-rain problems. Biomass have unique role on a renewable energy source.While the growing need for sustainable electric power can be met by other renewables, biomass is our only renewable source of carbon-based fuels and chemicals. Bioenergy is the word used for energy associated to biomass, and biofuel is the bioenergy carrier, transporting solar energy stored as chemical energy. Biofuels can be considered a renewable source of energy as long as they based on sustainable biomass production.

As Europe is very much the center of the global wood fuel market in general and the wood pellet/briquette market in particular, it comes as no surprise that vast majority of big wood fuel producers  of many countries have European countries as their final destination. With the goal set by the European Union to achieve a 20% share of renewable energy in the energy mix and a 20% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 (DIRECTIVE 2009/28/EC, 2009) it is likely that the increase in EU demand for bioenergy will accelerate. However, it is also likely that a large share of future use of bioenergy in Europe will be from biomass of non-European origin as the resources are unlikely to be cost cost-competitive compared to biomass to biomass imported from other parts of the world.  

Trading wood fuel is always complex due to the biomass itself being both low in value per volume unit as well as difficult to store and transport as a result of it being a “living material” and hence susceptible to degradation from biological processes. Torrefaction is a technology to improve the quality of the biomass fuel and is followed by densification (pelleting / briquetting) will save transportation costs. Torrefaction has many advantages that overcome some problems in the wood fuel in general.

The quantities of biomass co-fired in large coal fired and other fossil fuel-fired power plant boiler have increased fairly dramatically over the past few years, particularly in Northern Europe but also elsewhere in the world. The level of co-firing activity worldwide, and the co-firing ratios at specific plants, are likely to increase further over the next few years.

Biomass materials have significant levels of inorganic matter as impurities, and many of the practical problems encountered with the combustion of biomass materials, or the co-combustion of biomass materials with coal and other fossil fuel, are associated with the nature and behaviour of the biomass ash and the other inorganic constituents. In practical terms, the ash-related problems in biomass combustors and boilers, and in plants co-firing biomass with more conventional fossil fuels, have commonly been associated with:

-The formation of fused or partly fused ash agglomerates and slag deposits at high temperature within furnaces;

-The formation of bonded ash deposits at lower gas temperatures on the heat exchange surfaces in the boiler convective sections and elsewhere;

-The accelerated metal wastage of boiler components due to gas-side corrosion and erosion;

-The formation and emmision of sub-micron aerosols and fumes; and

-The handling and utilization/disposal of ash residues from biomass combustion plants, and of the mixed ash residues from the co-firing of biomass in coal-fired boilers.

In very general terms, the nature of the problems and the impact on plant perfomance depend both on the characteristics of the biomass fuel, i.e. principally on the ash content and the ash chemistry, and on the design and operation of the combustion equipment and the boiler. Raw material have significant role of the densified (pellet/briquette) torrefied biomass quality. We will choose raw material with low ash content and a high ash melting temperature.

The peat and coal have the higher ash contents, but only a relatively small portion of the mineral material is in the water and acetate soluble fractions and is considered to contribute to the formation of the fine ash/aerosol material. In the case of the biomass materials, the total mineral contents are lower, but a much higher proportion of the mineral material is considered to contribute to the formation of the fine ash/aerosol fraction. The ash residue is normally weighed to provide an estimate of the ash content of the fuel, and then analysed for the ten major elements present in coal ashes, i.e. SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, CaO, MgO, TiO, Na2O, K2O3, P2O5 dan SO3.

Usually slagging takes place with biomass fuels containing more than 4% ash and non-slagging fuels with ash content less than 4%. The ash content of different types of biomass is an indicator of slagging behaviour of the biomass. Generally, the greater the ash content, the greater the slagging behaviour. But this does not mean that biomass with lower ash content will not show any slagging behaviour. The temperature of combustion temperature, the mineral compostion of ash and their percentage combined determine the slagging behaviour. If conditions are favorable, the the degree of slagging will be greater. Minerals like SiO2, Na2O and K2O3 are more trouble some.

The selection of raw materials is an important factor for the production of torrified biomass. High quality torrified biomass need to be produced to meet a variety of industrial and domestic needs. Chemical treatment of raw materials can be made ​​to increasing the quality of raw materials, but it will do if the quality of raw materials is not sufficient anymore. Finally a reliable technology for the production of  torrified biomass absolutely necessary to meet those needs.