Water Hyacinth Pyrolysis For Electricity And Charcoal Production

 

Map of distribution of global water hyacinth infestation

Water hyacinth has become a global concern as the most disturbing and invasive aquatic weed. The impact of water hyacinth losses covers the environment, economy and even social conditions experienced by many countries as a result of the water hyacinth attack. Economically, the losses due to water hyacinth are also very large, reaching hundreds to thousands of millions of dollars. Pyrolysis of water hyacinth for electricity and charcoal production is one solution to overcome the water hyacinth attack. In this way, it is hoped that the growth of water hyacinth can be controlled and reduce the environmental impact significantly. This is because the speed of attack from the fast growth of water hyacinth can be balanced with the speed of the biomass requirement for the pyrolysis process that produces electricity and charcoal.

The electricity generated in addition to operate or running the pyrolysis unit can also be used for various needs of the surrounding community. Meanwhile, the charcoal produced can be used for energy and agricultural applications, or in general the motivation for charcoal (biochar) production is as shown in the scheme below. And to facilitate handling both storage, transportation and use, the charcoal can be compressed / densified into pellets or briquettes. The need for energy or fuel for the surrounding community for cooking and so on, can use the charcoal that has been compressed into the pellets or briquette. If the community previously used firewood obtained from the forest illegally, then the charcoal pellet or briquette is also a solution to the problem of forest destruction.

 

The use of water hyacinth as a bioenergy is the best option and is most recommended by prominent experts and researchers around the world. Pyrolysis is one way or method of bioenergy production. It is true that water hyacinth also provides environmental benefits, namely phytoremediation, but with uncontrolled development, the aspects of the losses incurred are far greater than the benefits obtained. This requires good management so as to produce optimal benefits. In a number of cases even the water hyacinth creates silting which causes the volume and discharge of water, even though the water is used for hydroelectric power plants. This causes the hydropower plant to have less water supply and disrupt its operation. So that the use of water hyacinth for electricity production with pyrolysis will again increase the supply of electricity produced and at the same time overcome the volume and discharge of water for the hydropower plant. Basically, maintaining a balance between the environment and economic aspects must be made in such a way as to become a sustainable activity so that it is in line with the bioeconomic era. Bioeconomics is defined as knowledge-based production and using biological resources or living things to produce products, processes and services in the economic sector within the framework of a sustainable economic system.

Business Model Utilization of Palm Oil Empty Fruit Bunches to Maximize the Profit of the Palm Oil Industry

Palm oil empty fruit bunches  (EFB) are still a problem for the palm oil mills in general. The scenario of utilizing palm oil EFB as the goal should be able to cope well with the environment and provide economic benefits. Overcoming environmental problems is clearly a top priority and must be met, but the best use of EFB scenarios should also benefit the environment, both short term and even long term. Likewise for economic benefits, economic benefits should also be obtained in line with these environmental benefits, not counterproductive. That is the best scenario for the use of palm oil EFB, which is currently still a problem.

Palm oil plantations are the production base for palm oil mills, both CPO mills and PKO mills. Without the palm fruit produced from the palm oil plantation, the palm oil mill will not be able to produce. Operation of palm oil plantations is indeed not an easy and expensive thing. This is mainly a factor of the large usage fertilizer demand, so as to reach around 60% for the operation of the palm oil plantations themselves or with an area of ​​20,000 hectares of palm oil plantations, the cost needs reach more than 70 billion rupiahs ( (around US$ 4,766,667), for more details, please read here. The factor to reduce the cost of fertilizer and maintain the productivity of palm oil fruits or fresh fruit bunches and even increase them is the main target for the utilization or processing of palm oil  EFB. If the cost of palm oil plantation operations can be reduced, the greater the benefits. Biochar is a palm oil EFB processing product that can be used to reduce fertilizer requirements in the palm oil plantation. Biochar production using pyrolysis as shown below.

 

In the process of pyrolysis, besides producing the main product in the form of biochar, then biooil and syngas are also produced. The biooil and syngas are then used as fuel generator to produce electricity. In palm oil mills or CPO mills, fiber waste is also commonly found. The fiber waste is often just piled up and never utilized so it tends to pollute the environment. Though these fibers can be made pellets for export and become fuel for power plants. In addition, currently millions of hectares of old palm oil plantations in Indonesia need to be immediately replanting. Millions of tons of old oil palm trunks are also potential for pellet production. If old oil palm trunks are only left in the plantation so they rot and decay, then it will become lava media and subsequently become a beetle which actually disrupts productive palm oil plantations as well as other plantations, for more details read here. The production of pellets from fiber or palm trunks requires electricity and this can be supplied from the pyrolysis of palm oil EFB like the scheme above. Although palm oil mills also produce electricity, but generally only for the purpose of CPO production, so it is not enough for the production of fiber pellets and oil palm trunk pellets (OPT pellets).

Dessicated Coconut Factory and Continuous Pyrolysis

There are about 20 dessicated coconut factories operating in Indonesia or estimated to be more than 100 units worldwide. With an average capacity of 2 tons / hour, this dessicated coconut factory requires approximately 16,200 coconuts every hour. The byproducts produced are coconut shell and coconut water. Coconut shells produced are around 6 tons / hour and coconut water 4.2 tons / hour. The dessicated coconut plant needs electricity and heat to sterilize the coconut meat and drying the dessicated coconut. Energy in the form of electricity and heat can be met from the utilization of the coconut shell.

There are several technologies for utilizing these coconut shells so that products in the form of electricity and heat are obtained. The popular technology today is with a steam turbine boiler, with this technology the coconut shell is burned in a furnace and heats water in the boiler so that it produces steam to drive the turbine and then generate electricity through a generator. This technology is the same as in palm oil mills. In palm oil mill the fiber and part of the palm kernel shell (PKS) is used as fuel to produce electricity and steam is also used to sterilize fresh fruit bunches (FFB) before being processed into oil.

Another better technology is continuous pyrolysis. This in addition to producing electricity and heat also produces charcoal product. Coconut shell charcoal is high-quality charcoal and is much needed by a number of industries such as the briquette charcoal industry and activated carbon. In the pyrolysis technology the coconut shell is not burned directly, but is heated in a vacuum condition (absence of oxygen). Pyrolysis products such as syngas and biooil are used for electricity production and can also be heat, heat energy is also produced from the pyrolysis process itself which is exothermic, while charcoal is the main product of the pyrolysis process.

Reviving the Integrated Coconut Industry Part 8: Coconut Milk, VCO, Dessicated Coconut, Coconut Water, Nata de Coco, Shell Charcoal and Activated Carbon

Basically the campaign to save the coconut plantation (tree of life) is to revive the integrated coconut industry. Damaged and not maintained of coconut plantations due to lack of funding to maintain and develop it in a sustainable manner.

Bioeconomy is defined as knowledge-based production and uses biological resources or living things to produce products, processes, and services in the economic sector within the framework of a sustainable economic system.

Instant coconut milk or packaged coconut milk is almost unthinkable, especially by mothers in Indonesia a few decades ago. Likewise, bottled coconut water, almost all Indonesians were also unthinkable at that time. That is mainly because coconut is very easy to get in almost all corners of the country. But this condition changed when Asian cuisine began to worldwide so that many Western people like it. Coconut milk as one of the main elements of the dish has become a necessity that must be provided. Urban communities with dense population and have a high level of activity, need something practical and instant that makes instant coconut milk products easily accepted. It is also the same as instant food seasoning products that are in demand in urban areas.

Coconut milk and bottled coconut water industry is a type of large industry so it requires a supply of raw materials in large quantities and continuously. To get these conditions in general can only be in coconut plantations which are not infrequently still very remote location. At that location, electricity and a number of supporting infrastructure were not yet available, so the integrated coconut industry could not yet be operated. Electricity is one of the basic needs for industrial operations, so it needs to be made before running the integrated coconut industry such as industries with the main products are coconut milk and bottled coconut water. The production of electricity for this purpose can be done in at least two ways: first, with a steam boiler, as is usually done in a palm oil mill. Coconut coir which has the lowest economic value is used for fuel.

The second way, namely by continuous pyrolysis. Coconut shell can be used as raw material for the pyrolysis. With pyrolysis technology, it would be more profitable because besides electricity generated, heat and charcoal shells are also produced. Electricity and heat can be used for the operation of the coconut processing industry, while shell charcoal can be directly sold or further processed into briquettes or activated carbon. When the need for electricity is large, power plants can use both, namely coconut coir steam boilers and pyrolysis with raw materials for coconut shells. If you want to produce more charcoal, coconut coir can also be used for continuous pyrolysis fuel. The quality of coconut coir is lower than that of coconut shell. This is so that coconut coir charcoal can be used as agricultural charcoal (agri-char / biochar) so that it will increase the productivity of coconut plantations, while coconut shell charcoal for the purposes mentioned above.

Apart from being processed into packaged coconut milk, fruit meat can also be processed into VCO (Virgin Coconut Oil) or dessicated cooconut. VCO production can be done on a medium scale, but currently for the export market or foreign buyers in general require organic certificates. That is also the reason why the production of small-scale VCO for the export market is difficult. Basically, coconuts can be made for a variety of products, according to market needs. Almost all coconut processing industries require electricity and heat for the production process (specifically for the VCO industry, only electricity). The integrated coconut industry approach makes the coconut processing industry more efficient. The combination of the coconut processing industry adjusts to market needs. The dim market for copra & coconut oil, it turns out that little by little is substituted by increasing markets for dessicated coconut, VCO, coconut milk, nata de coco, bottled coconut water and even coconut sugar. Is it possible that the coconut will come back victorious? There are indications there indeed. Wallahu'alam 

Reviving the Integrated Coconut Industry Part 6: Integration of Dessicated Coconut Production, Packaged Coconut Water, and Shell Charcoal

Basically the campaign to save the coconut plantation (tree of life) is to revive the integrated coconut industry. Damaged and not maintained of coconut plantations due to lack of funding to maintain and develop it in a sustainable manner.

Bioeconomy is defined as knowledge-based production and uses biological resources or living things to produce products, processes, and services in the economic sector within the framework of a sustainable economic system.

Dessicated coconut is not very popular in Indonesia. This product is used in the food industry for a mixture of cakes and chocolate so that it gives the flavor of coconut and much later became a favorite food in Europe. This product was originally discovered in Sri Lanka from Henry Vavasseur's drying experiment of grated coconut in 1888. There are 3 countries that are currently producing dessicated coconut, namely the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The need for this dessicated coconut product also continues to increase, namely recorded export of dessicated coconut in 1990 amounting to 151 thousand tons and in 2008 it increased to 248 thousand tons. In Indonesia alone, it is estimated that there are around 20 dessicated coconut (DC) factories.

DC is produced by drying grated coconut until the water content reaches a maximum of 3%. A dryer commonly used for DC production is a fluidized bed dryer. This dryer has advantages including high sensitivity for its operations, so it is commonly used for food and pharmaceutical products. Rotary dryer is a type of dryer that is also popular in the industry, especially in biomass processing such as wood pellets and briquettes, for more details, please read here. Rotary dryer types are more suitable for materials that are not too sensitive to heat, are not easily broken when dropped and heavier materials. That is why rotary dryers are more suitable for materials such as minerals, fertilizers and so on. Rotary dryer can be said to be heavy duty processing load and requires a wider space, while fluidized bed dryer for lighter-duty materials and requires less space.

For drying the grated coconut, heat energy is needed and for the operation of the plant's equipment such as shredding, conveyors, etc. electricity is needed. Both of these energies can be fulfilled by using a continuous pyrolysis unit. Coconut shell is used as a raw material for continuous pyrolysis, so that the output is in the form of charcoal, syngas and biooil. The charcoal can be sold for immediate use, made briquettes or activated carbon. For electricity production, syngas is used for fuel the gas engine (internal combustion engines) which convert heat energy into mechanical energy then into electrical energy. And biooil can be a source of heat both for boiling or sterilizing coconut meat as well as for a heat source for drying grated coconut with the heating media not in direct contact (indirect heating) with the grated coconut.

With the above pattern, the integrated coconut industry is energy independent or does not require energy supply from outside. This condition is very attractive especially for operations in remote locations. This energy independent industry practice is common in the palm oil industry. Palm oil mills usually burn shells and fiber for the production of electricity and steam. Why besides electricity, does the palm oil mill also produce steam? For more details, you can read here.

At present a number of palm oil mills have even used efficient boilers so that it is sufficient with fiber only and the shell can be sold or exported abroad. Though there is a better or more efficient way to produce electricity and steam, which is also by continuous pyrolysis, for more details read here. The shell, which is a biomass fuel, has properties almost similar to wood pellets at a cheaper price and is still abundantly available. Japan and Korea are the two countries in Asia that are most striking in the use of biomass energy related to climate change mitigation and global warming.

Coconut shell charcoal is a sought-after product, so the price is also increasing every year in accordance with market laws, namely supply-demand. The production of coconut shell charcoal will provide an attractive additional income compared to just being burned to ash and making a zero waste integrated coconut industry.

The DC industry is usually large enough in scale or production capacity to produce quite a lot of coconut water. Coconut water can be processed into bottled coconut water, which also requires electricity and heat in the production process. Electricity and heat production can use coconut fiber as fuel. Burning coconut fiber to heat the boiler and produce electricity, similar to the palm oil mill. Steam is produced to heat or sterilize the coconut water. The demand for bottled coconut water increased rapidly, from 484 thousand liters in 2009 to 71.7 million liters in 2015, or 141 times. 

The Big Vision of the Palm Oil Mill: Not Only Generating Electricity with Steam Turbine Generators but also Biochar and Bio-Oil

At the palm oil mill, electricity is generated from a steam turbine generator so a water treatment unit is needed to provide boiler feed water and a boiler unit to produce steam. The specifications of the steam produced are superheated steam with a pressure of 30 bar or equivalent to a temperature of 240 C. The steam then powers the turbine and drives the generator to produce electricity. Steam that comes out of the turbine with a decrease in temperature and pressure is not thrown away, but is used for steamming fresh fruit bunches (TBS) in the sterilizer unit. That is the reason why electricity production in palm oil mills uses steam turbine generators, even though actually producing electricity does not have to use the steam turbine. There are a number of technologies that can be used for electricity production.

The boiler fuel for steam production also does not use fossil fuels but uses palm oil mill waste itself (mesocarp) fiber and palm kernel shell (palm kernel shell). This is what makes palm oil mills very environmentally friendly in terms of their use of energy sources because they use biomass fuels, namely solid waste in the form of (mesocarp) fiber and palm kernel shells. Judging from the environmental aspects of the use of biomass fuel is carbon neutral, so it does not add CO2 in the atmosphere. Environmental issues are very prevalent today due to a number of environmental damage, to the peak of climate change and global warming. This encourages various industrial activities to increasingly pay attention to these environmental aspects.

When a palm oil mill uses its biomass waste as fuel to produce electricity and steam for the operation of the plant and it produces waste or residue in the form of ash, that is something that is common to almost all palm oil mills today. But when the palm oil company has a bigger vision, what is produced besides electricity and steam is biochar, not ash. Why Biochar? Although the management of the palm oil company that separates the plantation and mill divisions is common, the implementation of biochar is also expected to make a better reciprocal relationship. At present the palm oil fruits or fresh fruit bunches are supplied to the mill for oil extraction, so when biochar is produced by the mill the biochar will be supplied nto the  plantation to increase the productivity of the palm oil fruits. When a palm oil company will optimize its CPO products it also means maximizing the productivity of its palm oil  fruit. Palm  oil fruits productivity can be maximized if the cultivation aspects are also maximum. Biochar can be used to maximize fertilization and even reduce the use of fertilizers in oil palm plantations which amount to tens of billions of rupiah, for more details, please read here.

Are there palm oil mills that dare to take up the challenge? God knows Nature. But oil palm companies that have a big vision and understand the importance of increasing the productivity of oil palm fruit in line with environmental aspects, should be challenged with this. Oil palm companies that have big visions will also see this as an effective (pro-planet) environmental solution. This is because besides having a positive effect on the productivity of oil palm, also with environmental aspects. The application of biochar is carbon negative, so that CO2 in the atmosphere will be absorbed into the pores of the biochar, thereby reducing greenhouse gases in the form of CO2 in the atmosphere. When tens to hundreds or even thousands of tons of biochar are applied to oil palm plantations, so much CO2 in the atmosphere is absorbed into the soil. Biochar can also survive tens or even hundreds of years so that the carbon content in the soil increases or is not damaged along with the productivity of the palm oil plantation.

In addition to the production of biochar with continuous pyrolysis also produced biooil which can also be used as fuel or processed into various other biomaterials. With characteristics close to crude oil, it also means that all materials that can be produced from crude oil can be produced with biooil. Another application of biooil is for blending with ship oil (marine fuel oil). Other liquid products in the form of biomass vinegar, its use is also very supportive in palm oil plantations, namely as bio-insecticides and bio-pesticides. Rats that attack many palm fruit can also be overcome with the vinegar biomass, for more details, please read here.

Syngas Cleaning And Operation Time For Private/Independent Power Providers (IPP)

The continuity and stability of the electricity supply to the buyer is the most important thing for the private power provider or the Independent Power Producer (IPP). Electrical buyers in general are government through PLN or industry. To be able to provide such a continuous and stable electricity supply, IPP strives in such a way in a variety of ways including its various process engineering and also the operational. Biomass is a renewable energy source for electricity production that has many advantages especially in Indonesia, for example when wind and water (hydro) power plants are severely affected by weather conditions, the biomass power plant is not affected. Even high rainfall and tropical climate will increase the production of biomass as a source of energy. Related to the use of gas from biomass there are two routes to produce gas that is biology route and thermochemical route. The biological route is by fermentation in the digester, while the thermal route with gasification and pyrolysis. The characteristics of the raw material will determine the choice of technology, whether by biological route or thermochemical. Liquid waste or high water content and easy rot, such as livestock manure and palm oil mill effluent (POME) will use biological route, whereas biomass which is not easy to decompose such as woody biomass thermochemical route becomes the choice.

Why need to extract gas from the biomass? This is in addition to improving efficiency, also facilitate the utilization. Even by extracting the gas will also produce a number of economic value-added byproducts, for example with pyrolysis technology in addition to generating electricity, by-products such as charcoal, biooil, and biomass vinegar (liquid smoke). The economic value of these byproducts are bigger than the electricity production. The gas composition of the various biomasses also varies, depending on the biomass and the technology used, for example in biogas of large methane gas composition (55-75%), gasification of methane gas composition 0.5-3% while in pyrolysis gas composition methane 4-11%. Gas engine is a equipment or device commonly used to convert the combustible gas into electricity. Gas turbine although efficiency is higher but rarely used because of operational and maintenance factors are more difficult. Steam turbine is also rarely used and commonly used in large capacity power plants (> 20 MW). While Stirling engine and ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) technology can also use gas from the biomass, but it is not specific because both Stirling engine and ORC only require heat for its operation and it does not have to be from gas. Practically both technologies above are using a lot of combustion to obtain the required heat.

Stirling Engine

ORC Technology

Gas Turbine

Gas Engine

The problem of purity or cleanliness of the gas that resulted in the operation of private power plants (IPP) received serious attention. The cleaner the gas and the stable the gas supply so the more stable the operation of the power plant and the opposite. The purchaser or user of electricity also requires the amount of electricity supply and tolerance to the breaking or shutting down of electricity at a certain time which must be fulfilled by the provider or private power producer. Various gas cleaning technologies have been used to obtain clean and stable gas supply to the converting equipments used. Gas cleaning technology in addition must be cheap and also easy to use so that electricity providers remain profitable. In general, the gas cleaning technology is to clean the gas from its impurities including also reduce or eliminate the gases that potentially disrupt the operation of such conversion equipments. For example CO2 and H2S gases in biogas process or tar in gasification and pyrolysis. 

Water scrubber (absorber) and stripper unit for biogas refinery

JF BioCarbon continuous pyrolysis technology is the best choice of electricity production from biomass with thermal route. This is in addition to generated electricity, also produced side products that are not less profitable, namely charcoal, biooil, and biomass vinegar. Then how about cleaning the gas so that the power supply electricity continuously? With a number of line cleaning units that work alternately, the continuity of the supply of clean gas can continue to run so also with the supply of electricity. A number of sensors are installed to ensure the cleanliness of the gas. Downtime or power outages will be reduced or even eliminated. Sufficient gas cleaning will ensure the continuous operation of the gas engine generator as a conversion unit from pyrolysis gas (chemical energy) to heat and mechanical energy (reciprocating engine in gas engine) and generate electricity. It is time for private power companies (IPP) to consider slowpyrolysis technology to continue as a wise and best choice for the production of electricity from biomass and a number of byproducts that are very profitable.