Maximizing the Rate of CO2 Absorption from the Atmosphere Based on Biomass

Maximizing the rate of CO2 absorption from the atmosphere is very important considering the rate of addition of CO2 concentration to the atmosphere is not comparable to the rate of CO2 absorption. This is what makes the CO2 concentration continue to increase. To balance this speed, a strategy is needed to increase the rate of CO2 absorption. The use of biomass will be very effective and provide multiple benefits for human life. 

CO2 from the atmosphere needs to be captured through biomass production through the process of photosynthesis in plants. Fast-growing species of plants that have high photosynthesis rates are needed for this. Furthermore, biomass, especially wood from fast-growing species of plants, is used as raw material for biochar. Furthermore, biochar is used to improve soil fertility (soil amendment) in various types of agricultural and forestry plants.

Biochar production with slow pyrolysis will also produce excess heat, syngas and biooil that can be used as energy sources. The benefits of biochar production will be obtained from the sale of biochar, the sale of carbon credits and the use of slow pyrolysis by-products. With conditions like this, efforts to increase the speed of CO2 absorption from the atmosphere should be increased. How fast and how much CO2 volume can be absorbed will depend on the type of fast growing species used, the area of ​​planting and the capacity of biochar production.

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.

Charcoal Production for Activated Carbon Raw Material

Charcoal characteristics are influenced by the raw materials used and the conditions of the production process. The use of charcoal for certain applications or industries also requires certain specifications or characteristics. For example, charcoal used for fuel can have different specification requirements from charcoal specifications for agriculture (biochar), or charcoal used as raw material for activated carbon. A number of parameters that are acceptable in certain applications may not be acceptable in other applications.

Charcoal products used as raw materials for activated carbon production are also the same. Parameters in the form of high fixed carbon (~80%), high hardness, low ash content (~3%) and low volatile matter (<10%) are prerequisites for the specifications or quality of charcoal as a raw material for activated carbon. As a comparison, charcoal for agriculture (soil amendment) or commonly called biochar has a wide range of quality or specifications, namely lower fixed carbon (FC), higher ash content and higher volatile matter, especially in agro type biochar according to WBC (World Biochar Certificate), while premium type biochar according to WBC has a higher or highest quality and can be used for various purposes. While the material type biochar according to WBC has the lowest quality with use mainly in certain industries such as cement, asphalt, plastic, electronics, and composite materials or cannot be used for agriculture, soil applications and consumer products.

Raw materials for charcoal production for activated carbon production because it requires stricter parameters, especially high fixed carbon, low ash content and high hardness so that raw materials suitable for this purpose are more limited or not all biomass can be used for charcoal production for activated carbon raw materials. This is what makes coconut shells the best and most popular raw material for charcoal production as activated carbon raw materials today. And palm kernel shell raw materials (especially from dura variety) are expected to be the next candidate. The availability of abundant palm kernel shells (PKS) is a special attraction. But indeed with this palm kernel shell (PKS) charcoal raw material, there is still the smell of palm oil, so it is a challenge for activated carbon producers.

Biochar For Patchouli Plantation

Indonesia is famous for producing various essential oils, including patchouli oil, clove leaf oil and so on. The main use of essential oils is mainly for food, pharmaceuticals, fragrances (perfumes). The potential of this country to develop essential oils is very large due to climate factors, land area and soil fertility. World export-import statistics data show that consumption of essential oils and their derivatives has increased by around 10% from year to year. Of the 70 types of essential oils traded on the international market, citronella oil, patchouli, vetiver, ylang-ylang, cloves, pepper, and jasmine oils are supplied from Indonesia. Indonesia is the largest country in Southeast Asia producing essential oils and is among the top 10 in the world.

Patchouli production centers in Indonesia are in Bengkulu, West Sumatra, and Nangro Aceh Darussalam. The quality of Indonesian patchouli oil is known to be the best and controls 80-90% of the world's market share or the largest supplier of patchouli oil in the world. This patchouli oil comes from the distillation of dried leaves to extract the oil which is widely used in various industrial activities. Patchouli oil is used as a fixative or binder for other fragrance ingredients in perfume and cosmetic compositions. The area of patchouli planting reaches 21,716 ha spread across 11 provinces in Indonesia, and in 2008 about 2,500 tons of patchouli oil were produced.

Patchouli plants commonly cultivated in Indonesia are Aceh patchouli because the oil content is > 2% and the oil quality is patchouli alcohol (PA) > 30% higher than Java patchouli which has an oil content of <2%. Furthermore, with Aceh patchouli, there are three varieties of patchouli plants found in Aceh, namely Tapaktuan patchouli, Lhokseumawe patchouli, Sidikalang patchouli. The PA levels of the three varieties vary, namely: Tapaktuan (28.69-35.90%), Lhokseumawe (29.11-34.46%), and Sidikalang (30.21-35.20%).

Patchouli Oil Production in Sentra Province 2015-2020**)

One of the factors that support plant growth and optimal production is the availability of sufficient nutrients in the soil. The level of nutrient availability for patchouli plants must be optimal to obtain high growth and oil content. Patchouli is known to be very greedy for nutrients, especially nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Patchouli plants are among those that require quite a lot of nutrients, so that production continues to run optimally, fertilizer application is carried out very seriously. This is so that the level of soil fertility must be maintained optimally if we expect optimal patchouli agricultural production. Therefore, in the shifting patchouli cultivation system, there will be a very rapid decrease in land fertility which will damage the land.

Patchouli can be cultivated on dry land, thus the development of patchouli plants is very relevant to the potential of dry land which is quite extensive in Indonesia compared to rice fields. In fact, dry land is the most widely distributed sub-optimal land, which is around 122.1 million ha consisting of 108.8 million ha of acidic dry land and 13.3 million ha of dry climate dry land. The development of patchouli plants has a dual purpose, in addition to increasing farmers' income, it also increases the productivity of dry land which is widely spread in Indonesia.

To improve land quality, namely by applying biochar. The application of biochar to agricultural land functions as a soil amendment that can improve the chemical properties of the soil (pH, cation exchange capacity, total N, and available P), the physical properties of the soil (bulk density, porosity and the ability of the soil to hold water). Improvement in the quality of the chemical and physical properties of the soil has an impact on the availability of nutrients and water through the ability of biochar to retain nutrients and water. Ultimately, the addition of biochar has implications for increasing the productivity of patchouli plants. In the future, it is hoped that with the application of biochar, more suboptimal and degraded lands which can be restored and plants productivity increased.

Optimizing the use of dry land for food crop cultivation needs to begin with land rehabilitation efforts so that plants can produce optimally. Soil amendments that are cheap, readily available and can last a long time in the soil are expected to be able to trigger the rate of increase in dry land productivity. The potential for agricultural waste to be converted into soil amendments (biochar) in Indonesia is quite large. Biochar applications have been proven to improve the quality of physical and chemical properties of the soil, as well as increase water availability. Crop productivity also increases in line with the recovery of land quality.

Biochar can also be added during composting so that more nitrogen (N) content can be absorbed in the biochar. The higher the nitrogen (N), the better the compost quality will be. Total N is one of the macro elements needed by plants in large quantities, accounting for 1.5% of the dry weight of the plant. Nitrogen is useful in the formation of protein, a component of plant chlorophyll, and if morphologically N plays a role in the formation of leaves and stems of plants or the vegetative formation of plants. Phosphorus is an absolute nutrient needed by plants after nitrogen. Symptoms of phosphorus (P) nutrient deficiency are seen as the color of the plant becomes dark green or purplish green which is then followed by older leaves turning purplish. The addition of biochar and compost, in addition to increasing the productivity of patchouli leaves, can even increase the yield of patchouli oil from an average of 2% to 4% and the patchouli alcohol content of patchouli oil from an average of 32% to 40%.

Biochar from Wood Waste and Forestry Waste

The era of decarbonization and bioeconomy continues and continues to grow over time. While some people focus on the carbon neutral sector such as the production of biomass fuels such as wood pellets, wood briquettes or wood chips, people who focus on negative carbon seem to be fewer, including the use of CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) and biochar production. Compared to CCS, biochar production with pyrolysis is easier and cheaper so it is projected to become a future trend. Logically, the negative carbon scenario is actually much better because in addition to reducing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, while the neutral carbon scenario only does not increase CO2 emissions in the atmosphere, but does not reduce or absorb CO2 in the atmosphere. CO2 sequestration or biochar carbon removal (BCR) is currently also the most industrially relevant carbon removal technology. BCR is a key solution for real climate change mitigation today and its development is very rapid. BCR also has a vital role in the carbon removal technology portfolio. 

 

Woody biomass, especially from wood industrial waste and forestry waste, is a potential raw material for biochar production, even this type of wood biomass is the best raw material because it can produce high quality biochar, namely fixed carbon of more than 80%. The potential for wood biomass raw materials in Indonesia is very large, estimated at 29 million m3/year from forest harvesting waste, and 2 million m3/year from wood processing industry waste including 0.78 million m3 in the form of sawdust (the yield of the sawmill industry ranges from 50-60% and as much as 15-20% consists of sawdust). And that does not include if there is a biomass plantation or energy plantation dedicated to biochar production.

With the condition of agricultural land, plantations and forestry which are experiencing a lot of degradation, the need for biochar is also very large. Among the factors causing the decline in land fertility is the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for decades continuously and tends to be excessive. This causes a decline in soil quality which has an impact on crop production because it makes the land more acidic and hard which is estimated to reach millions of hectares. In addition, the price of chemical fertilizers is increasingly expensive and difficult to obtain, which results in low agricultural production, so the government is forced to import several agricultural commodities to meet the needs of the community. This actually does not need to happen considering the potential land in Indonesia is very large, it only needs to improve the condition of the land so that it can be optimal again. Making damaged land fertile is not difficult, it only takes perseverance to repair and care for the land so that it continues to be fertile.

Meanwhile, dry land consists of ultisol soil of 47.5 million ha and oxisol of 18 million ha. Indonesia has a coastline of 106,000 km with a potential land area of ​​1,060,000 ha, generally including marginal land. Millions of hectares of marginal land are spread across several islands, have good prospects for agricultural development but are currently not well managed. The land has a low fertility rate, so technological innovation is needed to improve and increase its productivity. Not to mention post-mining land which is almost all very damaged and also covers millions of hectares. And biochar is the right solution that can restore the condition of the land to be fertile again. 

Slow pyrolysis is the best technology for biochar production. But the technology used must be efficient and emissions meet the threshold standards of the country concerned. In addition, excess heat and/or liquid products and gas products from pyrolysis should also be utilized. With the criteria for pyrolysis technology as above, in addition to the quality and quantity of products, namely biochar, can be maximized, the production process also does not cause new problems in the form of environmental pollution. This is very much in line with biochar business activities so that it becomes a solution to the problem of industrial biomass waste from wood and forestry waste as well as a solution to climate problems. Even the utilization of by-products (excess heat and/or liquid products and gas products from pyrolysis) can also encourage the emergence of other environmentally friendly and renewable products.

In economic terms, the outline can be as follows, namely with an investment of 10 million US dollars, approximately 200,000 tons of biochar with more than 400,000 carbon credits will be produced over a period of 10 years. Or if with an investment of 100 million US dollars, almost 2 million tons of biochar and more than 4 million carbon credits will be produced over a period of 10 years. And for example, with a selling price of biochar of 100 dollars per ton and also a carbon credit of 100 dollars per unit (per ton of CO2), then within 10 years the investment has increased 6 times or it only takes about 1.7 years for the initial investment to return (payback period). Of course, when the price of biochar is higher and / or its carbon credits, of course the return on capital will be faster. And that does not include the utilization of liquid and gas products from pyrolysis and excess heat which also have economic potential that is no less interesting. The trend of the future business era will not only focus on financial profit but also provide solutions to environmental problems and climate problems, and of course solutions to social problems by creating jobs.    

Increasing Food Agriculture Productivity: Biochar Application or Forest Clearing for Food Estate?

Indonesia currently ranks 69th out of 113 countries in 2022 in food security and this is lower than Malaysia and Vietnam with indicator points below the global average. This condition is concerning considering that Indonesia was once self-sufficient in food before and even the price of rice in Indonesia is the most expensive in ASEAN. Efforts to maintain food productivity are indeed a challenge, let alone increasing it. Along with increasing population growth, the need for food automatically increases. The condition of declining food production and productivity is related to a number of factors including land conversion to non-agricultural land, and soil / land damage. A number of regulations have been made to stem the rate of decline in food productivity due to these two things.

Regarding land damage, repair efforts need to be made so that agricultural productivity increases. It is estimated that the area of ​​land damage that occurs is very large with a high level of severity. This requires gradual and sustainable repair efforts with various strategies including improving farming patterns and even a number of incentives. Only with these efforts can the agricultural sector as a source of food be repaired or if not, the damage to agricultural land will get worse so that repair efforts will be more difficult.

Biochar application or forest clearing for food estate ?
Biochar application will be able to repair damaged lands. In addition to being a slow-release fertilizer agent so that fertilizer use becomes efficient and does not pollute the environment, increasing soil pH, increasing soil organic carbon and increasing agricultural productivity, biochar will also help overcome the management of agricultural waste that has so far polluted the environment. The increase in agricultural productivity from the use of biochar is on average around 20%. If Indonesia's current rice production is around 31 million tons per year, then the application of biochar will increase total rice production to 37.2 million tons (an increase of 6.2 million tons). With an average rice production per hectare of 6 tons, the increase of 6.2 million tons is equivalent to increasing the area of ​​agricultural land by 1.03 million hectares. Even damaged land from post-mining can be reclaimed and rehabilitated with the application of biochar, with the land area also reaching millions of hectares. This is certainly better than clearing new forest land for food estates because of its environmental impact. 

As the human population grows, the need for food and energy will continue to increase. Indonesia's population in 2045 is estimated to reach 319 million people and the world's population in 2050 is approaching 10 billion people. The need and urgency of biochar to improve soil quality is increasing. Tens of millions of hectares of all Indonesian acidic soils, which are classified as dry land acidic soils, need to be improved with biochar. This means that the business potential reaches billions of dollars or trillions of rupiah. Meanwhile, rice imports in 2024 are targeted to reach 3.6 million tons (as a buffer), a large amount. With an annual rice requirement of around 31 million tons, the contribution of imported rice reaches more than 10%.

Biochar in addition to repairing soil damage so that it increases its fertility which ultimately increases agricultural productivity is also part of the climate solution, namely by means of carbon sequestration. Biochar applied to the soil will last hundreds or even thousands years, and does not decompose. This is another advantageous factor for biochar producers, namely getting carbon credits. The quality of biochar will determine the acquisition or price of the carbon credit, so that the raw materials of biochar and its production process are affected. The price of carbon credits is increasing so that it is increasingly attractive and also the carbon credit market continues to grow.

Damage to land or agricultural land that occurs is mostly caused by excessive use of chemical fertilizers. If the use of chemical fertilizers can be reduced in dosage or with sufficient use, there will be improvements in land quality. Even if chemical fertilizers are gradually reduced in dosage and organic fertilizers / compost are increasingly added so that in the end chemical fertilizers are not used at all, soil fertility will be optimal as well as agricultural productivity.

The photo from here

Of course, this requires time and continuous effort. Livestock must also be encouraged so that compost / organic fertilizer can also be produced sufficiently from the processing of livestock manure. Integrated farming with livestock is the best solution for improving agricultural land with biochar, especially increasing the efficiency of fertilization. If the above can be implemented properly, then forest clearing for food estate land can also be slowed down / held back by considering all aspects comprehensively so that it is not a short-term solution that tends to be forced, and rushed because of the regime's image efforts even at a cost of hundreds of trillions.     

EUDR and Is It Time for the Palm Oil Industry to Consider Biochar ?

Malaysian smallholders cultivate around 27% of the total oil palm plantations or equivalent to 1.54 million hectares, while in Indonesia it reaches 41% or equivalent to 6.72 million hectares. Malaysia chose to increase the yield or productivity of FFB as an effort to increase CPO production, namely by being fostered by large companies with a target increase of 600,000 tons/year without increasing the land area. For Malaysia, opening new plantations is something that is very difficult, even impossible, especially with the implementation of the EUDR on December 30, 2024. Consolidation between palm oil farmers is expected to increase efficiency so that it ultimately increases yield and income. The area of ​​Malaysian palm oil plantations is around 5.7 million hectares or around 1/3 of the area of ​​Indonesian palm oil plantations (currently reaching around 17 million hectares). This is also the main reason why Malaysia chose to intensify its palm oil plantations while Indonesia tends to expand palm oil land, even though both countries face two main issues, namely increasing production and climate resilience.

Biochar application is a solution to overcome the two important issues above. Related to the increasing pressure of environmental issues, climate and sustainability, even renewable energy, it seems that biochar will receive more attention. There are many aspects of land and the environment that can be improved with biochar application which ultimately is a solution to the two main issues. For small plantations, biochar application can be easier to do, but for large plantations managed by various palm oil companies, biochar application requires more complex considerations, especially because of the risk factor of the vast area of ​​palm oil plantations, but this biochar option is still attractive. The use of IoT (Internet of Things) can be used to monitor biochar performance on the land, for more details, read here.

The operational efforts of the palm oil industry to be more environmentally friendly and efficient are a driving force and a challenge in themselves. With the large profits from the palm oil industry business, of course the palm oil industry will not simply ignore demands related to the environment and sustainability, especially the EUDR. Palm oil producers, especially Indonesia and Malaysia, are faced with a standard guideline that applies to countries producing 'edible oil', namely that palm oil to be exported must come from land that has been reforested before 2020. Otherwise, the producing country will be considered a country that does not pay attention to the issue of deforestation and hinders the export of palm oil abroad. Various lobbying and negotiation efforts by Indonesia and Malaysia as the two largest palm oil producing countries in the world to the European Union to be more relaxed in implementing the EUDR include great suspicion as to why rapeseed oil is not treated the same as palm oil. The production of rapeseed oil as a raw material for biofuel in Europe is protected and ignores its environmental impact.

Indonesia as a coconut island seduction country has an experience of coconut oil commodities in the past that can also be a reference for this. The era of the glory of copra or coconut oil was around the transitional decade of the 19th century to the 20th century or more precisely between the 1870s and 1950s and its peak in the 1920s. Why are copra and coconut oil in particular currently slumping and losing out to other vegetable oils? The long history of trade competition is the answer. Several parties, especially the American Soybean Association (ASA) accused coconut oil of being an evil oil containing cholesterol and saturated fat that clogs coronary arteries. The accusation was never proven true, in fact it was proven otherwise, but it became one of the main causes of the destruction of the global copra and coconut trade. The tropical oil campaign and war took about 30 years or in the 1950s to the late 1980s in the United States and so finally the Indonesian coconut industry slumped.

Climate factors in the form of efforts to reject deforestation with its EUDR and economic factors in the form of palm oil production will be a fierce feud but sooner or later it will definitely reach a meeting point that can be accepted by both parties because they need each other. Diverting CPO products to markets that do not require environmental requirements such as the EUDR also seems to be untimely. Furthermore, in the form of addressing two important issues in the palm oil industry, namely increasing production and climate resilience and in line with the EUDR, biochar is the right solution. The question is, will this biochar be an important consideration and even find its momentum to be applied in oil palm plantations, especially for Indonesia and Malaysia? And the implementation of the EUDR as its driving force. Let’s see.