Biochar for Energy Plantations

The low productivity of wood from energy plantations is one of the obstacles to the development of energy plantations. Although energy plantation plants such as calliandra can grow on marginal or critical lands, the quality of the soil affects the productivity of the wood produced. This makes it important to improve the quality of the soil of these energy plantations so that they can produce optimal plant productivity. Biochar can be an effective solution for this. Biomass waste that pollutes the environment can be used for biochar production or wood products from these energy plantations can be partly used for biochar production.

Biochar and energy plantations are two positive things for climate solutions. Energy plantations for the production of carbon neutral biomass fuels such as wood pellets, while biochar is to improve soil quality, save fertilizer use and so on and as carbon sequestration / carbon sinks that are carbon negative. The biochar solution for energy plantations will maximize CO2 reduction and sustainability efforts. The vastness of energy plantations is because they are pursuing the target of producing biomass fuel quantities which are comparable to land use and also comparable to the use of biochar. This is so that industrial-scale biochar production is needed to support this, read more details here. The more damaged the land or critical lands are, the greater the need for biochar. And the production of large-capacity biochar has the opportunity to get carbon credit or BCR (Biochar Carbon Removal) credit which can be a driving force for the growth of biochar industries. 

Critical and marginal lands should be prioritized as energy plantation lands. This will not only restore land quality but will also provide added value to land use and efforts to prevent disasters. Land legality is also an important concern. Land must be clear and clean, meaning free from disputes so that it does not cause problems in the future. Furthermore, industrial forest plantation land (HTI) which is indeed in accordance with its designation as a production forest can also be used for energy plantation land. How damaged or degraded the land is will determine how much biochar is used. Meanwhile, the creation of energy plantations from land conversion from protected forests / conservation forests to production forests should be prohibited, because instead of saving the environment, it will actually have a greater negative impact on the environment. So opening forest land (deforestation) for energy plantations is not recommended at all.

Cogeneration in Palm Oil Mills with Pyrolysis, Initial Steps in Biochar Production and Implementation

The analogy is like cofiring carried out in coal-fired power plants by mixing biomass fuels with a certain ratio as an effort to decarbonize the energy sector in power plants. While in palm oil mills, cogeneration with pyrolysis is an innovative initial step to enter the carbon negative era with the application of biochar, the main product of pyrolysis. And because all palm oil mills use biomass fuel for their mill operations, they are already based on carbon neutral fuel, unlike coal-fired power plants which are based on carbon positive fuels because they come from fossils.

Unlike cofiring which mixes coal and biomass fuels with a certain ratio and then burns them together in a furnace such as pulverized combustion, cogeneration is done by producing energy separately but the energy output is for the same use or especially the same boiler. This is done because the types of fuels may be different, such as solid fuels with liquid fuels or the technology for producing the energy is different. With this cogeneration, it means that not all energy is produced from one energy source or energy from cogeneration is a secondary energy source to meet total energy needs, and in the case of cogeneration in this palm oil mill, energy from combustion is still the primary energy.

Then why not just do full pyrolysis? It is easier, gradually for palm oil mills to adopt pyrolysis technology and its characteristics. Because (slow) pyrolysis aims to maximize solid / biochar, the by-products in the form of excess energy (syngas and biooil) as a source of boiler fuel, the calorific value is not as much as combustion which is indeed intended to maximize heat. Only about 1/3 of the excess energy contributes (cogeneration) as boiler fuel. In other words, if full pyrolysis is carried out directly, the amount of biomass as raw material for pyrolysis becomes 3 times greater or the pyrolysis unit becomes very large so that all palm oil mill biomass waste is used, and the mill cannot sell its palm kernel shells.

What are the benefits obtained by palm oil mills if they carry out cogeneration with pyrolysis for biochar production? Among the biochar products, it can save fertilizer use in oil palm plantations, overcome the problem of empty oil palm bunches (EFB) so that palm oil mills can achieve zero waste, palm kernel shells (PKS) that have been used for boiler fuel can be sold to increase income, the productivity of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) of palm oil increases, the application of biochar in palm oil plantations is also a climate solution (carbon sequestration / carbon sink) so that it can get carbon credit compensation and with good waste management, even zero waste and the application of biochar in palm oil plantations, palm oil companies will get a good image in terms of the environment and sustainability.  

Urgency of Biochar Production Industrial Capacity

The provision or application of biochar to agricultural land follows the 4Rs rule, namely the right source (appropriate biochar raw material), right place (appropriate application area), right rate (appropriate dosage) and right timing (appropriate time). The physical and chemical properties of biochar differ depending on the raw material and production process. By following the 4R rules, biochar performance can be maximized. The effect of biochar on plants will be clearly visible (significant) when the 4R rules are met. With a dose / rate reaching 20 tons / ha (depending on the influencing condition factors), the need for biochar is also large. This is why biochar products are rarely sold online, namely because of the large volume.

Unlike soil amendments such as compost, the effects of biochar can be felt for quite a long time or for several types of agricultural crops, namely not only in one planting season, but repeatedly. This also makes the provision or application of biochar not as frequent as compost. And in the end, of course, the economic aspect is a determining parameter whether biochar makes agricultural businesses more profitable or not. The price of biochar on the market is an important concern for users or farmers.

The lack of biochar production in Indonesia is currently a barrier to biochar application in large agricultural lands, even when farmers' awareness of biochar is also increasing. This is the driving force for the importance of adequate biochar production, especially industrial capacity. Only with adequate biochar production can biochar application in agricultural lands or degraded lands be carried out optimally. The urgency of industrial capacity biochar production is even greater, especially when the biochar production also gets carbon credit, of course this will be even more interesting. 

Biochar and Food & Energy Security

As the population increases, so does the need for food and energy. This is why food and energy production must also be increased. Increasing food production is closely related to the quality and quantity of land. However, although the quantity of land is very large, its quality tends to decline so that plant productivity automatically also decreases. The decline in land quality or land damage occurs on very large areas of land up to millions of hectares. With the area of ​​sub-optimal and degraded lands reaching hundreds of millions of hectares consisting of 122.1 million hectares of dry land; 8 million hectares of post-mining land; 24.3 million hectares of critical land; a total of around 154.4 million ha, it can be said that the potential loss of food products also reaches millions of tons. Meanwhile, damaged land will be further damaged if no repair efforts are made. Efforts to upgrade or improve the quality of this land should be an important priority in efforts to achieve food and energy security.

Biochar application is a solution for improving these lands. Raw materials for biochar production are also very abundant, including dry palm oil EFB of around 30 million tons/year, bagasse of 2 million tons/year, corn cobs of 5 million tons/year, cassava stalks of 3 million tons/year, waste wood of 50 million tons/year, rice husks of 15 million tons/year, cocoa shells and so on. With the application of biochar, agricultural productivity can increase by an average of 20% or even up to 100%. If applied on a macro or national scale, say with a 20% increase in production, for example, rice production will increase to 36 million tons/year from the previous 30 million tons/year, corn will increase to 18 million tons/year from the previous 15 million tons/year, crude palm oil or CPO to 60 million tons/year from the previous 50 million tons/year. This will save land use so that the opening of forest land for food crops and (bio)energy such as food estates may not be necessary or at least slow it down. But why until now has biochar not received attention and been used as a solution?

In addition, biochar production with pyrolysis will also produce a number of by-products that can be used for energy applications or others, as in the diagram above. Many agro-industries require drying in their production processes, so this is an additional advantage of using pyrolysis technology for biochar production. While from the environmental aspect, biochar is also a carbon sequestration so that it is a climate solution and can get carbon credit. Likewise in waste management, because the raw material for biochar is biomass waste from agriculture, plantations and forestry, even from organic waste, the pyrolysis and biochar business is also a solution to this problem.   

Optimizing Pyrolysis and Biochar in the Palm Oil Industry

Indonesia's CPO production currently reaches around 50 million tons per year with a land area of ​​around 17.3 million hectares. This means that the average CPO production per hectare is only 2.9 tons or per million hectares produces 2.9 million tons. If biochar is used and there is a 20% increase, it means there is an increase of 10 million tons of CPO per year and this is equivalent to saving around 3.5 million hectares of land, or the use of biochar will slow down forest clearing (deforestation) for palm oil plantations.

The average speed of Indonesian palm oil plantation area is 6.5% per year or equivalent to about 1 million hectares per year for the last 5 years, while the increase in palm oil fruit production or FFB (fresh fruit bunches) is only 11% on average. Even the largest expansion of palm oil land occurred in 2017, which increased by 2.8 million hectares. By opening 1 million hectares of forest, national CPO production only increased by 11%, while without the need to open forests, namely with the application of biochar, there could be a 20% increase in productivity. And the 20% increase in FFB yield (fresh fruit bunches) using biochar is a low estimate.

With the number of palm oil mills in Indonesia reaching more than 1000 units and tens of millions of tons of biomass waste, especially empty palm fruit bunches (EFB), the volume of biochar production produced is certainly very large. In addition, pyrolysis technology can replace combustion technology which is generally used in palm oil mills to produce steam for electricity production and sterilization of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) in CPO production. With pyrolysis raw materials using palm oil tankos and being able to replace palm kernel shells, 100% of palm kernel shells (PKS) can be sold or exported. The sale of palm kernel shells or PKS (palm kernel shells) will certainly provide additional attractive benefits for the palm oil company. Palm kernel shells or PKS are the main competitors of wood pellets in the global biomass market.

In addition, the use of biochar also saves fertilizer use and the highest operational cost on oil palm plantations is fertilizer so this is very relevant. Tens of billions of costs spent on fertilizer can be reduced by using biochar, especially since the biochar comes from its own waste so that it will automatically become a solution for biomass waste management. Including biopesticides and liquid organic fertilizers can also be produced from the pyrolysis process. Carbon credit is the next business potential. This is because the application of biochar to the soil for agriculture or plantations is an effort for carbon sequestration / carbon sink.

The benefits that can be obtained from this biochar carbon credit are also large, even globally biochar carbon credit ranks first or more than 90% in Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) recorded in cdr.fyi. However, there are indeed many large biochar producers who do not sell their carbon credits because of the methodological requirements of standard carbon companies such as Puro Earth and Verra, and these biochar producers are comfortable with their biochar sales business, especially since these producers have existed (established) since before carbon credits were available for biochar.    

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.   

Biochar as Deforestation Solution in Palm Oil Plantations and EUDR

The development of the palm oil industry and its plantations in Indonesia is very rapid, especially in the last 10 years and currently the area of ​​Indonesian palm oil plantations is estimated to reach 17 million hectares. As the largest vegetable oil producing plant in the world and the largest palm oil plantation area in the world, of course palm oil has a strategic value in the Indonesian economy. The average speed of Indonesian palm oil plantation area is 6.5% per year or equivalent to around 1 million hectares per year for the last 5 years, while the increase in palm oil fruit production or FFB (fresh fruit bunches) is only 11% on average.

Even the largest land expansion occurred in 2017, which increased by 2.8 million hectares. From 2015 to 2019, the total area of ​​palm oil plantations increased by 3.7 million hectares. The extensification or expansion of palm oil plantations has been widely "accused" and has become the focus of the world as a result of the conversion of forest land, resulting in a lot of deforestation to be converted into palm oil plantations.

Pressure from the European Union in particular, due to these conditions, has worsened the image of Indonesian palm oil, which in turn has affected the selling price of palm oil products, both CPO and its derivative products. Improving this image is also not easy. One effective effort is to stop the extensification efforts so that forest land remains forest land and does not turn into oil palm plantations. The European Union on Deforestation-free Regulation (EUDR), which will come into effect on December 30, 2024, as an effort to prevent deforestation, is also an important consideration. The regulation requires consumers and producers along the supply chain of certain commodities to conduct due diligence and risk assessments to ensure that their products do not contribute to deforestation. The EUDR also applies a tiered inspection and penalty system based on the level of risk perceived in the country of origin.

With the extensification of oil palm land of more than 1 million per hectare each year but the increase in oil palm fruit production is only 11%, it is certainly less attractive and must be avoided, especially with the world's spotlight on the increasingly rapid deforestation. This also increasingly indicates the low productivity of palm oil plantations. In fact, by improving soil quality, palm oil fruit productivity can be increased significantly and the opening of new land for the creation of palm oil plantations can be avoided. Biomass waste in palm oil plantations and in palm oil mills can be used for biochar production as a solution to this problem.

With the increase in productivity of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) with the use of biochar, new palm oil plantations do not need to be opened again. Assuming an average increase in productivity of 20%, CPO production will also increase by 20% or equivalent to 2 million tons. This increase will be equivalent to opening new land covering an area of ​​more than 2 million hectares. Of course, it is not a small area of ​​land. With a 20% increase in production, it is very likely that national needs for CPO in particular have been met and so too for the export market. Another advantage of using biochar is as a climate solution as carbon sequestration/carbon sink. So the two main problems in the palm oil industry in the form of increasing productivity and climate change resilience can be overcome at once with the application of biochar.

The Urgency of IOT and Biochar Applications in Palm Oil Plantations

The sustainability trend in palm oil plantations is increasingly important and urgent, which is of course part of the global solution to environmental and climate problems. The vastness of palm oil plantations and the large production of palm oil are in the spotlight in the industry. Waste management and environmental pollution are important concerns. The large volume of biomass waste has the potential to be a source of environmental pollution and so is the excessive use of chemical fertilizers in palm oil plantations which will also cause environmental pollution. Inappropriate land use, for example deforestation and land conversion, are also other concerns.

Two important issues in the palm oil industry are increasing FFB productivity (yield improvement) and climate change resilience. And thank God, both of these things can be handled at once, namely by applying biochar. Palm oil mill biomass waste (especially palm oil empty fruit bunch) will be converted into biochar and then applied to plantation soil (sustainable soil amendment) with fertilizer so that it becomes a slow release fertilizer that will increase NUE (nutrient use efficiency) and minimize environmental pollution. With the increase in NUE, there will be yield improvement or an increase in FFB productivity. And the application of biochar which will remain in the soil or not decompose for thousands of years will become carbon sequestration / carbon sink which is in line with climate change resilience. A precise solution with one action, of course this should be very interesting and awaited by these palm oil companies.

To ensure that the biochar can work properly, an instrument is needed to measure performance and monitor it. That is why IoT (Internet of things) in this sector is needed. How slow can it goes fertilizer nutrients can be measured and monitored accurately, quickly and precisely. In this way, palm oil productivity can also be predicted. The area of ​​land on palm oil plantations that reaches thousands or tens of thousands of hectares is also not an obstacle. The area of ​​palm oil plantations in Indonesia is currently estimated to reach 17 million hectares and in Malaysia it reaches 5 million hectares, of course these palm oil companies are also trying to achieve their best level of sustainability according to the demands of the times. This is so that the application of biochar on palm oil plantations will become a trend and even its operational standards. The entry point by ensuring biochar performance with IoT is an important consideration.

This biochar application also follows the 4Rs rule, namely the right source (appropriate biochar raw material), right place (appropriate application area), right rate (appropriate dosage) and right timing. The physical and chemical properties of biochar differ depending on the raw material and production process. By following the 4R rule, biochar performance can be maximized. On the other hand, modernization in the palm oil industry also continues to be improved. The public perception of work in oil palm plantations, abbreviated as 3D (dangerous, difficult, dirty), will be gradually changed with mechanization, automation and digitalization. The ratio of workers to plantation land currently around 1: 8 ha will be increased to more than double to 1: 17.5 ha with the above modernization so that workers' wages can also be increased. This modernization is expected to help overcome the two important issues above with the biochar application.