BIOMASS SYSTEM & RESOURCES

Wood Pellet Plant

Whole Line Wood Pellet Mill Plant

As promised , today I will be writing about Densification of Wood Biomass to make Wood Pellet .

Wood Pellet can be made of wood sawdust , wood shavings , timber offcut and woodchip .

The purpose of Densification are as follows :-

1 ) common size - enabling automation ( automatic feeding and burning just like diesel/gas burner with high efficiency )

2 ) high calorific value - optimum combustion efficiency ( 90% efficiency is possible )

3 ) high density - lower transportation and storage cost

To achieve the above purpose , Feed Mill Machines have been turn to make wood pellet with some modification as wood have higher density and more difficult to be pelletised compared to animal feed .

Unless you are setting up large size Pellet Mill Plant of 20 TPH , small machineries from China would be more suitable due to their much more lower cost .

From our studies of wood pellet processing , optimum size of operation should be of 2 TPH to 5 TPH due to the availability of raw material , operation cost , profit margin and marketing .

Let's take a closer look at a 2 TPH Whole Line Wood Pellet Plant .

It will include sectional processing as follows :

1 ) Material Processing - Hammermill , Screener - RM75,000

2 ) Drying - Drum Dryer - RM180,000

3 ) Pelleting & Conditioning - Pellet Mill , Conditioner / Cooler - RM160,000

4 ) Packing - Storage Bin , Packing Machine , Weighting Scale - RM30,000

All the Segment above can be connected with belt conveyors , screw conveyors or bucket elavator to make it fully automated with only 5 workers during operation . Additional cost for this could be around RM150,000 .

Electrical , Local Fabrication , Installation Cost , Training will cost another RM120,000 .

Provision for 6 months Spare Parts and Miscellanous will cost RM50,000 .

The above is indicative cost of setting up a Whole Line Wood Pellet Plant based on 2 TPH production .

You could refer to the side bar and the bottom for some pictures of the above machineries .

Call us if you need further consultation .

Pellet Mill

Pellet Mill are the " HEART " for Wood Pellet Production , Very Important . All other equipment are Ancillaries .

Pellet Mill Equipment from China are still at a very infant stage as compared to American or European Pellet Mill , but pricing wise , it is only 1 / 5 the price .

Unless you are going for very high output and have the investment capacity to invest for very long term , China Machines are of better choice .

And even so , you have so many Suppliers , Hundreds maybe , some are Merc , some Toyotas and some Protons , you could guess what I mean , pricing starts from USD20,000 to USD50,000 / unit for a Pellet Mill and Whole Line Plant can range from USD200,000 to USD650,000 for a 2 TPH Line . We have scour many part of China for the right machines .

The lower range will get you to do more maintenance and lower production and the higher range might not be feasible for Malaysia Environment . So , choose wisely .
Due to it's infancy , choosing the right Pellet Mill are important as it have the following problems that need to be address :

1 ) Die Chamber too Hot thus Die will break under stress ( Die cost RM6,000 / unit )

2 ) 24 hours operation not possible

3 ) Standard Die size of 420mm Diameter ( the normal Model SZLH420 MZLH420 ) definitely cannot produce more than 2 TPH per machine , if all conditions are right maybe you would get 1.5 TPH , this is where the learning curve start , how soon can you achieve optimum production , simple calculation , shortage of 0.5 TPH X 2 machine X 16 hour / day X 26 day / month X 3 months X RM100 / ton = RM124,800 in Sales Value , so imagine the savings if it is longer than 3 months . ( Some Manufacturer are claiming above 2 TPH , even 3 TPH )
The Pellet Mill we chose have somehow resolve partially some of the above problems with the right combination of ancillaries equipment . In our opinion it is of reasonable pricing and technically capable to handle over 2 TPH wood pellet production with minimum staffing .
You are invited to visit us once production starts .
The problem above may need another 5 years to solved as the supplier of this machines learn from mistakes and improved on it .
Our target is to invest in reasonably priced machine , high efficiency and low maintenance , so that we can recoup our investment in shortest time possible and have a decent profit to show .

WOOD PELLET

WOOD PELLET

This is a new industry in Malaysia with only a few small plant of 1 ton per hour ( TPH ) production .

We are putting up a 2 TPH Whole Line Wood Pellet Mill Plant operational in April 2011 .

Write us if you need Wood Pellet or want to set up a Wood Pellet Plant .

The chart shows normal Biomass Calorific Value with various Moisture Content .

These means the higher the Moisture Content ( water in the Biomass ) the lower the Calorific Value of the biomass because when you burn biomass you will need to heat the biomass to above 250 ºC . before you reach this temperature , during combustion water need to evaporate at 100 ºC , the more water you have in the biomass the more energy you need to spent to evaporate the water thus the lower Calorific Value if the MC of the biomass is high .

It means , you are buying WATER not ENERGY !!!

Many articles have put Wood Pellet Calorific Value at 4,200 kCal/kg with bulk density of 600 kg/m3 thus making it more viable to be transported over long distance as compared to woodchip at 300 kg/m3 and sawdust at 200kg/m3 .

Furthermore Wood Pellet are dry at below 10% MC thus giving it a high ratio of enegy / volume .

From the table , Wood Pellet are reasonably priced in relation to it's energy value . The high cost per ton are due to processing cost needed for densification and drying .

As Wood Pellet are of constant size it usage can be easily automated just like gas or diesel burner . And the beauty is you can achieve over 90% combustion efficiency just like gas / diesel burner as compared to normal burning in furnace which efficiency are low at below 80% combustion efficiency . It is very technical !

In fact , most European Countries and now Korea , combustion now have shift to Wood Pellet from gas or diesel due to it's availability , environmental concern and government tax on fossil fuel .

Lately there is this hot topic of turning EFB to EFB Pellet . It would be great if it is suitable and there is market for it .

We are working on launching Wood Pellet Burner in a few months time together with our Wood Pellet .

STAY TUNED .

HURT no more for NOW !!!

It have been 3 months since the last posting and oil have peak at USD147 per barrel and now hovering around USD40 per barrel .
What happen to the prediction that it could fly to USD200 , who knows ?
Today I got to take out the main picture of " Yep's It's gonna hurt " for now until the time comes by again .
Many prediction have been made on oil with most of the consumption of world oil being as per chart below :

Part of the prediction in the chart is true but due to US recession occuring now demand for oil have drop thus bringing down the price of oil .

The low oil price is not good in a sense that companies will curtail the spending on R & D to find source of renewable energy therefore slowing down the efforts of reducing the effect of Global Warming .

I remember being to a few companies which are heavy user of diesel fuel for heating purposes and gather that when Nymex oil future were above USD100 per barrel all are gearing up to change to biomass due to its lower price and insignificant fluctuation in prices . I would guess as of now none is intending to do so as price of diesel have drop back to RM1.50 per liter for industrial usage .

When will this industrialist change their mind set as oil will not continue to be low and continous burning of fossil fuel is not helping the humane cause of reducing global warming .

In short , Malaysians are not only short sighted but reluctant to move out of their comfort zone as compared to Europeans which have been changing to wood pellet heating instead of gas for the last 10 years or so .

The encouraging change over to biomass heating in house hold in Europe are due to a few factor list as below :

1 ) high government tax on fossil fuel , noticeably Europe Gas Price is over double the Rest of The World, click Link : " Gas Prices Around The World " on the sidebar

2 ) availability of convenient automated heating stove and proper fuel in wood pellet

3 ) the caring way of Europeans which are moving to complying to KYOTO PROTOCOL even though price of wood pellet are just a fraction cheaper than Heating Fuel

None of the above factor exist in Malaysia ( or even outside Europe ) thus making it difficult to convince consumer to change over to biomass for heat and power .

Malaysia Government are at least now holding the price of Industrial Diesel at RM1.50 per liter to encourage industrialist to find ways to reduce fossil fuel consumption although Nymex oil at USD40 per barrel would translate to RM1.10 per liter . These is an encouraging effort by the Government which should be applauded .

The government should do more by using the tax collected on the diesel by giving grant to companies which change from fossil fuel to biomass . These is widely practice in Europe and even Japan to encourage usage of biomass .

Here is a link to Peak Oil cartoon .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jriYKmMN8_I

Don't worry it did not happen as yet .

CHEAP OIL

OIL price per barrel have fall to USD50 per barrel now which work out to around RM1.40 per liter for industrial diesel user . These is only a fraction of the peak price of around RM4.00 per liter in June 2008 .

Today we will talk about oil .

I append a few chart on oil .

Worldwide oil consumption have been stabilising at 80 million barrel per day for the last 5 years and yet there is no more significant new oil reserves found in the last 2 decades .

Although currently the price of oil have drop significantly due to recession in the USA , China and India are continuing with annual GDP growth of over 8% . Imagine this 2 country compounding growth of cars alone will consume all the supply available in a few years time .

In fact now , China monthly vehicles sales nearly top 1 million unit per month .

Therefore " PEAK OIL THEORY " are very real in time to come .

Energy & Peak Oil

ENERGY AND PEAK OIL

The last few decades of mankind progress depended on oil and gas .

Over 80 % of the world energy needs are generated from oil and gas which is categorised under fossil fuel which is non renewable . Fossil fuel which takes 150 million years to be generated will be consumed in our life time and future energy needs will come from renewable sources such as solar , wind , hydro and biomass .

Many journals on energy are convinced that current oil production at around 80 million barrels per day are peaking and the spike of oil to USD147 per barrel are due to simple mathematics where demand exceed supply . Although currently oil have turn bearish to USD80 per barrel it will peak again in the future as oil are a finite resources .

A lot of hype on peak oil subject when oil shoot over USD100 and many documentaries have been made on the matter . Some even predicted it will go to USD500 per barrel !!! . It might , in the future go to this price especially when China and India have GDP growth of over 8% per annum .

High oil prices will encourage government and business sector to find ways to reduce fossil fuel consumption and spend on R & D to find alternatives . The growth of oil consumption to these level are due to low oil prices during the 1970s to 1990s where it hover below USD50 per barrel . Thus the low oil price have cause other problem such as excessive carbon dioxide emission which bring to global warming .

Earlier last month the north pole are accessible by ship for the first time due to melting ice .

High oil prices in Europe ( due to taxes by govenrment ) have created more advance technology and more changes to usage of renewable energy . Currently a high percentage of winter heating in Europe home is by biomass such as wood pellet or wood chip . A power plant in Holland even import Palm Kernel Shell from Malaysia for the combustion in their power generation plant .

In Malaysia where there is abundance of biomass but due to lack of Research and Development, biomass is only being used by certain industries which have biomass at their door step . Most other industries are using diesel or gas for their thermal needs as it is more convenient to do so .

There will come a time when oil peak again , many industries which are caught napping will file for bankcruptcies especially if their portion of energy usage are high .

And if you or your company are a high user of fossil fuel please try to change to renewable energy as global warming are real and it will affect us and our children in the future .

The famous quote :

We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children

Malaysia Biomass & Calorific Value

Choose Biomass that is low in $ / kCal instead of $ / kg .

Malaysia Biomass

Malaysia Biomass . Biomass Calorific Value are very important in the selection of fuel for combustion and gasification . This is due to Energy content per kg of biomass . You can have very cheap biomass such as EFB but due to it's Moisture Content of 65% and so Calorific Value will be low at 1,400 kCal / kg . Moreover during combustion , silica ash will scale the tube causing reduction in efficiency of boiler and fly ash is a concern with Environment Authority .

Typically there are plenty of biomass materials in Malaysia which are able to be used to replace fossil fuel . Malaysia Biomass material available are as follows :

Material Calorific Value Moisture Content
1 ) Woodchip 3,500 Kcal / kg 25 %
2 ) Sawdust 3,500 Kcal / kg 25 %
3 ) Empty Fruit Bunch 1,400 Kcal / kg 65 %
4 ) Rice Husk 3,000 Kcal / kg 10 %

The above Malaysia Biomass is among the lowest in $ / kCal ( high in energy density per RM ) and available in abundance in Malaysia .

I did not include wood pellet as it is to my knowledge still not available in Malaysia ( I would like to know who have it ? ) . This biomass will be in the future replace wood chip due to very standardise size and quality of heat output .

The above mentioned biomass are which I will elaborate more due to current available technology for full combustion which will emit no smoke . These is done by converting the said biomass to syngas .

The problem for these change over to biomass thermal application is the lack of suitable biomass material , inconsistent quality supply of biomass , system for combustion , high delivery cost , long perceived thinking that biomass emits heavy smoke , storage problem for user and etc .

For the record , the favourite , Diesel ( Calorific Value - 8,770 Kcal / liter ) was the thermal fuel in Malaysia which is widely available and cheap for the last decades . As it is now a heavy burden to many industries , it is time to change to biomass not only that it is green , it will also enable industries to save on high fuel cost .

Here I will go into details for Wood Chip as the preferred biomass due to reason i will mention below .

Wood Chip

is a product derived from sawmill waste . Quite recently in the last 1 year or so , plenty of wood chip production come on stream due to demand from MDF and Particle Board Manufacturer . But now due to it's limited supply , price have moved up and stablilised at around RM150 / ton to RM200 / ton depending on delivery cost . I am suggesting this biomass material ( Wood Chip Only ) to be used as fuel for gasifier due to

a ) year round availablity

b ) easy delivery

c ) lower cost of transportation

d ) ease of handling

e ) lesser contamination at user factory

and etc .

At the price given it will work out to RM0.061 per mmCalorie ( RM15.47 / mmBTU ) compared to diesel when price is RM3.20 / liter at RM0.354 per mmCalorie ( RM89.18 / mmBTU ) . From this comparison you can see that wood chip is only 17 % of diesel .

WOW , did anyone realise this ???

Yes , I did claim that there is 70 % savings only for change over to gasifier , this is due to some loss of heat during gasification process , in some unefficient gasifier you might get even lower savings in the range of 50 % to 60 % only .

The reason I did not elaborate on EFB ( Empty Fruit Bunch ) eventhough it is cheap is because it need to be further process and the calorific value is very low . Another reason is that my proposed gasifier system might not be able to take these fuel or I would rather say efficiency will be very low . There is Ah Niau and Ah Kau that would say , what savings of 70% , mine can do at least 90 % savings with EFB as it is cheap , HAHAHAHHAHAH , BE CAREFUL .

But I promise you if you can wait a few years ( or your factory can wait for a few years ) I will try to bring 90 % to you . These is when Oil at USD200 per barrel and EFB can be use .