Persaingan Pasar Global Wood Pellet

Permintaan wood pellet yang massif terutama dari Korea Selatan sebagai pasar utama wood pellet telah mendorong pertumbuhan industri wood pellet di kawasan Asia Tenggara. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand dan Vietnam adalah negara-negara yang merespon positif permintaan wood pellet dari Korea Selatan tersebut. Pertumbuhan industri wood pellet di tiap-tiap negara berbeda kecepatannya tergantung dari kesiapan industri, ketersediaan bahan baku dan kemudahan berbagai sarana penunjang bisnis lainnya. Walaupun Indonesia tergolong lambat merespon permintaan wood pellet tersebut, tetapi sebenarnya Indonesia memiliki peluang sangat besar untuk memimpin industri ini dikarenakan potensi ketersediaan bahan baku melimpah baik dari limbah-limbah kayu maupun diusahakan dengan cara membuat kebun atau hutan energi.

Potensi luar biasa yang dimiliki Indonesia dilirik Korea untuk dipacu meningkatkan volume eksport wood pelletnya ke Korea, yang artinya pertumbuhan industri wood pellet harus dipercepat. Semakin besar permintaan dan kurangnya suplai mendorong harga wood pellet mahal, sehingga semakin banyak industri tumbuh untuk mendapatkan momentum saat ini, yakni ketika permintaan sangat besar sedangkan suplai-nya minim. Limbah-limbah industri perkayuan yang awalnya menjadi masalah saat ini mulai dilihat sebagai bahan baku potensial untuk bahan baku industri wood pellet ini.

Pasar wood pellet akan semakin baik jika kesadaran global terhadap pemakaian energi terbarukan khususnya biomasa semakin baik dan diusahakan secara berkelanjutan atau secara global negara-negara berlomba untuk menurunkan suhu bumi.  Untuk pasar wood pellet di Asia,selain Korea kini  Jepang juga sudah mulai menggeliat.  Ketersediaan biomasa berkayu untuk produksi wood pellet dan apabila bahan baku diusahakan lewat kebun atau hutan energi memerlukan waktu lebih lama, telah membuat pellet dari biomasa lainnya seperti pellet dari tandan kosong sawit (EFB Pellet) juga telah diterima, karena desakan kebutuhan  saat ini. Jika kesadaran terhadap lingkungan dan perubahan iklim telah dipahami dan dimplementasikan dalam peraturan lingkungan atau energi secara global maka trend industri atau bisnis wood pellet  pada khususnya dan biomass to energy pada umumnya akan semakin berkembang dan bertahan cukup lama.

In Madura, Pioneering an Eco-Friendly Firewood

Bangkalan, East Java. Irham Rofii stands out from your run-of-the-mill Muslim preacher, even here on the island of Madura, off the coast of Surabaya, which is home to a bevy of high-profile clerics and their Islamic boarding schools.

Irham also runs a school, but with a difference: He is known as a “green pioneer” in his community and, most recently, a biomass energy champion.

“It used to be overheated here in Madura. Now you’re arriving here drenched in sweat, but in the past we were scorched [by the sun],” the 48-year-old says, recalling how dry and barren the subdistrict of Geger in Bangkalan — one of four districts in Madura — was just a few years ago.

Irham took to planting trees in the area, which was a challenge given how nutrient-poor the soil was. Soon after he took charge of Darul Ittihad, the Islamic boarding school his father had founded, Irham began using his influence as a local religious and community leader to encourage residents to follow suit in planting trees.

The Islamic clergy holds strong sway over local communities in Madura, more so than in most other parts of predominantly Muslim-populated Indonesia, and the Madurese are said to trust their clerics more than government officials.

“So when I set the example, people came to believe that planting trees was good. So they began to do it too,” Irham says, adding that reforestation is now considered by local residents as an activity that has religious merit.

Geger has since been transformed from a once barren area. Houses sit along a road that cuts through the subdistrict, into Kombangan village where Irham lives, looking almost like intruders in an old-growth forest — when in fact it is the various trees and shrubs now growing densely in the area that were introduced more recently and now provide shelter from the searing heat of the day.
“It used to be impossible to grow rambutan trees here,” says Irham, whose tree-planting campaign has earned him the nickname Kyai Hutan (Forest Cleric).

“If you’d been here two months ago, you could have easily picked the rambutan off the trees around here,” he adds, pointing to a tree not far from where we sit, as he addresses guests — local and foreign — who have come to see his latest project.

Having essentially created a forest where before there was none, Irham is now involved in another green project, one that has been going on for the past two years, this time on renewable biomass energy — more specifically, wood pellets.

The project was proposed by Yetti Rusli, an adviser with the Forestry Ministry, and approved for funding in 2012 by the Indonesia Climate Change Trust Fund (ICCTF). The ICCTF is a body under the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) tasked with managing funds from international donors to support climate change mitigation activities in Indonesia.

Near-zero emissions
Upon a request from South Korea, which is set to boost its biomass energy use in order to cut carbon emissions, the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) conducted a study in 2011 to examine potential of four plants for development as energy wood pellets, an environmentally friendly alternative to carbon-heavy coal.

Yanto Santosa, a professor of ecology at IPB and an adviser to the ICCTF, says the four plants were red calliandra, Gliricidia, white leadtree and ear tree. The study found that pellets produced from each plant released near-zero carbon emissions and heat of around 4,600 to 4,700 calories per kilogram — nearly as much as coal at 4,800 to 5,500 calories per kilogram. Calliandra (Calliandra callothyrsus) came out the winner due to its high productivity.

“In its first year, calliandra may be harvested after nine months, and then after that every six months,” Yanto says. “Every time a calliandra tree is cut down, seven to nine buds will appear. [Farmers] probably only need to replant the trees after 15 years.”
The other plants tested, meanwhile, took longer to grow, which meant lower productivity.

“Higher productivity means faster absorption of carbon dioxide,” Yanto adds.
He says calliandra also has the highest density, which explains its less than 1 percent ash content, meaning the wood is highly combustible with near-zero emissions — a good indication of a clean fuel.

Noer Yanto, former official with the local forestry agency who is also heavily involved in thewood pellet project in Geger, says calliandra has another advantage in that it can grow in nutrient-poor soil and degraded land. It does not require fertile soil to grow in, and in fact its nitrogen-fixing ability allows for other plants to grow more easily — making it perfectly suited for Madura, a large part of which remains dry and barren.

Those are the reasons why calliandra, native to Panama and Mexico and introduced inIndonesia in 1936, was chosen as the raw material for wood pellets in the ICCTF pilot site, he says.
A total of 214 hectares in three villages in Geger have been dedicated to growing the plant— some interspersed with other plants — after Irham, Noer and Ghozali Anshori, another local public figure, encouraged members of the local farmer’s cooperative, Gerbang Lestari, to participate in the project. Gerbang Lestari was founded by Irham.

The cleric has even allowed a plot of his land to be used to house the factory that will process the wood. He got his students and residents to help build the factory together, with funds from the ICCTF.

“We want our students to be good not just in religion, but also in science and technology,” Irham says.

A total of Rp 2.5 billion ($207,000) has been allotted for the project, including Rp 1.2 billion for the wood pellet mill, most of whose parts were shipped from China.

The machine, half-assembled in Indonesia, was ready for use a month ago and has been on a test run since then, processing narrow calliandra trunks and branches into wood pellets.

Business interests and beyond
Daru Asycarya, a Forestry Ministry official supervising the project, says it has drawn the interest of several prospective buyers, including one from South Korea who wants to buy 300 tons of calliandra wood pellets per month.

No deal has been inked, though, Daru says, as the mill is still in the testing stage and only has a production capacity of a ton per hour or around 220 tons per month.

“We want to first make sure that we can produce prime-quality products that will be more widely accepted,” he says.

As for local customers, Daru says, some tea growers in West and Central Java as well as cement maker Holcim have expressed interest in the wood pellets for use in their operations.

“Many industries have now begun using biomass energy,” he says. “Semen Indonesia [a cement maker], for example, wants biomass to comprise between 30 and 40 percent of their energy source. They’ve begun looking at us.”

Syamsidar Thamrin, the ICCTF secretary, has other uses in mind.
She says calliandra wood pellets can be an ideal solution for the electricity needs of many of the remote villages across Indonesia, especially on the smaller islands that remain beyond the reach of the national power grid run by state-owned electricity firm PLN.

“Wind power is not always economical. Solar cells remain expensive. Kerosene is cheap only because it’s subsidized. And don’t forget the cost of fuel shipment,” Syamsidar says.
“Calliandra, though, is cheap. I hope this project will be replicated, and later on scaled up for the whole of Madura. And in 10 or 20 years from now, I hope [calliandra wood pellets] will be used to support ‘power the villages’ programs,” she adds.

With as many as 24 million hectares of land across Indonesia categorized as degraded or barren, Yanto says there is a large potential for industrial-scale calliandra cultivation and a massive wood pellet industry that will benefit not only local farmers and communities with additional incomes, but also Indonesia with a new potential power source, and eventually the world, with reduced carbon emissions.

Indonesia is currently facing an energy crisis, with domestic oil reserves expected to be depleted by 2025 if no new reserves are found. Gas reserves are expected to last only for another 30 years, while only highly-polluting coal is expected to stay around for longer — for the next 60 years, according to the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT).

But despite the situation, and the amounts of carbon the fossil fuels emit into the air, the development of sustainable and renewable alternative energy sources in Indonesia has been going at a snail’s pace.
Fossil fuels still dominate Indonesia’s energy mix, with less than 5 percent coming from renewable sources, namely hydro-electricity and geothermal power, according to 2010 data from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.

Syamsidar dismisses concerns that a wood pellet industry will turn out like the palm oil industry, which has led to the wholesale destruction of huge swaths of pristine forest to clear land for oil palm plantations. If that were to happen with the calliandra industry, experts say, it would go against the whole point of producing clean energy for lower emissions.

“Oil palm requires productive land. But with calliandra, we’re focusing on barren and degraded lands,” Syamsidar says. “Rather than letting those lands stay abandoned, why not put them to use?”

Source : http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/madura-pioneering-eco-friendly-firewood/ 

Mengapa Memilih Kebun Energi SRC Daripada Kebun Sawit ?

Sejumlah perkebunan sawit rakyat yang menghasilkan tandan buah segar (TBS) ternyata tidak mampu ditampung oleh pabrik kelapa sawit (PKS), artinya rasio jumlah pabrik tidak sebanding dengan banyaknya kebun sawit. Indonesia adalah produsen CPO terbesar di dunia dengan luas kebun sawit mencapai 10 juta hektar pada tahun 2013. Produktivitas tanaman sawit mencapai 27 ton/ha/tahun dengan yield minyak sawit sekitar 3,7 ton/ha/tahun, dengan mulai panen setelah berumur 4 tahun dan masa produktif sekitar 25 tahun. Dengan harga TBS rata-rata Rp 1800/kg untuk setiap hektarnya akan dihasilkan sekitar Rp 48 juta/tahun, sebuah pendapatan yang menjanjikan dari usaha perkebunan tentunya. Tetapi dengan tidak terolahnya buah sawit tersebut akibat tidak adanya pabrik tentu hal tersebut tidak akan memberikan keuntungan yang diinginkan. 

 

Kebun energi dengan tanaman trubusan atau SRC adalah alternatif bagi yang ingin mengembangkan usaha perkebunan dengan investasi yang tidak begitu besar. Tanaman trubusan seperti kaliandra dan gliricidae sangat mudah tumbuh, mudah perawatan, cepat panen, terus produktif selama sekitar 25 tahun  dan menyuburkan tanah. Peningkatan nilai tambah bisa dilakukan dengan tumpang sari misalnya dengan palawija. Lahan tidur maupun lahan marginal bisa diupayakan untuk kebun energi tanaman ini. Dengan produktivitas kayu rata-rata 20 ton/ha/tahun, dengan harga katakan Rp 400/kg maka akan didapat Rp 8 juta/tahun untuk setiap hektarnya,   memang secara keekonomian jauh dibawah sawit, tetapi dengan usia 1 tahun sudah bisa panen, biaya bibit dan perawatan yang juga sangat murah, maka hal tersebut bisa menjadi pertimbangan.

 Harga pabrik kelapa sawit modern dengan harga rata-rata Rp 4 M untuk tiap ton  TBS/jamnya. Dengan kapasitas pabrik sawit mengolah 45 ton TBS/jam maka dibutuhkan investasi Rp 180 M, jumlah investasi yang besar. Sedangkan untuk harga pabrik pellet kayu (woodpellet) kapasitas 3 ton/jam berkisar Rp 5 M sehingga menjadi lebih terjangkau. Analisa ekonomi pabrik kelapa sawit  dan pabrik wood pellet hampir sama, dengan rata-rata RoI (Return on Investment) 3,5 tahun.

Optimasi Kinerja Pelletiser

Carpet adalah lapisan tipis bahan yang dipress, yang berasa pada puncak permukaan die. Ketika bahan baku masuk pelletiser maka akan terdorong oleh roller dan membentuk carpet. Semakin banyak bahan dimasukkan ke pelletiser maka akan semakin menambah carpet. Carpet inilah kemudian yang ditekan ke lubang die dan menghasilkan pellet. Sehingga untuk material yang bisa membentuk pellet, awalnya harus bisa mementuk carpet. 

Semua produksi wood pellet adalah masalah mengurangi kebutuhan energi dan tingkat keausan peralatan sementara secara simultan meningkatkan kualitas pellet dan produktivitas. Hal ini mengapa produksi kualitas pellet membutuhkan skill tersendiri. Setting antara roller dan die dengan jarak tertentu yang biasa disebut roller gap itulah hal yang penting untuk maksud tujuan diatas. Karakteristik bahan baku berupa densitas dan kemampuan perekatannya adalah parameter lain yang perlu diperhatikan. Roller gap bisa diset pada jarak tertentu sehingga kinerja pelletiser akan optimal. Umumnya gap 1 mm adalah kondisi optimumnya, tetapi variasi gap bisa dicoba untuk kondisi spesifik bahan baku tertentu.

Pada lubang die kalau kita cermati lebih dalam, ternyata bentuk lubang juga tidak berupa silinder dari ujung ke pangkalnya. Kondisi demikian juga sengaja dirancang sehingga proses pemadatan (densifikasi) tersebut bisa optimal. Apabila bentuk ujung yang melebar pada bagian inlet die aus dan hilang maka kualitas pellet yang dihasilkan akan menurun bahkan tidak terbentuk pellet. Perbandingan panjang (L) dan diameter (D) pada lubang die yang sesuai karakteristik bahan baku juga akan menghasilkan kinerja yang optimal. Pemilihan material logam yang sesuai akan membuat proses pemelletan tersebut bisa dilakukan secara ekonomis. Kualitas logam dan pengerjaan logam untuk die tersebut membuat belum ada produsen dalam negeri yang membuatnya. Faktor lain berupa belum banyaknya produsen wood pellet di Indonesia kemungkinan juga menjadi faktor keengganan produsen dalam negeri untuk membuat die untuk wood pellet ini.Tetapi seiring kebutuhan wood pellet atau pellet fuel yang semakin meroket maka hal diatas adalah dimungkinkan.

Produksi Energi dari Pellet Fuel

Pellet fuel atau pellet bahan bakar adalah bentuk modern biomasa yang dipadatkan sebagai salah satu sumber energi terbarukan yang potensial dikembangkan di Indonesia, yang terdiri dari wood pellet dan biomass pellet. Wood pellet berasal dari kayu dan biomass pellet berasal dari biomasa lainnya seperti limbah-limbah pertanian dan perkebunan semisal tandan kosong kelapa sawit. Pellet fuel yang diproduksi bisa memiliki variasi kualitas yang besar karena faktor bahan baku dan teknologi produksinya. Teknologi pemnfaatan pellet fuel secara thermal untuk produksi energi yakni pembakaran dan gasifikasi telah banyak diaplikasikan

Produksi energi dari pellet fuel ini berupa panas dan listrik. Pembakaran pellet fuel secara normal adalah mudah dan kebutuhan untuk inspeksi serta menjaga nyala api dari burner atau boiler umumnya kecil karena pengumpanan pellet yang umumnya dilakukan secara otomatis. Tetapi problem pembakaran dapat muncul misalnya jumlah abu bertambah banyak yang menyebabkan sistem pembakaran terjadi slag dan efisiensinya menurun. Problem tersebut sering disebabkan oleh rendahnya kualitas pellet atau pilihan teknologi pembakaran yang salah atau setting sistemnya yang tidak pas.

Nilai kalor, kadar abu, kimia abu, kadar air, dimensi pellet dan kepadatan adalah beberapa parameter penting dari pellet fuel. Pilihan pellet fuel akan menentukan teknologi pembakarannya. Saat ini telah tersedia alat untuk membakar pellet fuel dari skala rumah tangga yakni kompor pellet (pellet stove), skala medium hingga untuk produksi panas dan listrik skala besar hingga mencapai puluhan megawatt (MW). Alat-alat atau sistem tersebut umumnya dilengkapi katup-katup pengaturan udara baik primer atau sekunder bahkan tersier untuk optimalisasi proses pembakaran yang dilakukan. Setting operasi yang benar membuat sistem bisa bekerja optimal sesuai spesifikasinya.  

Proses Produksi Pabrik Wood Pellet

These variables have tended to make pelleting more of an “art” than a “science”, through significant strides are being made in the sophistication of this process, bringing these variables under more control.

Find more detail info in presentation here

Korean delegates see wood pellet potential in RI

Dr Ir Yetti Rusli,  The Forestry Ministry's environment and climate change expert

Abundant forests in Indonesia have the potential to supply Korea with much-needed biomass energy, says a Korean business delegate. 

Han Gyu-seong, chairman of Korea Association of Pellet, made the statement before around 50 Korean business delegates during the “Biomass Industry in Indonesia” business forum organized by the South Korea Embassy in Jakarta on Thursday.

Prof Gyu-Seong Han,  chairman of Korea Association of Pellet 

Thee forum discussed the prospects and challenges in developing Indonesia’s biomass potential, specifically wood pellets.

The East Asia nation saw an increase in pellet consumption, with 2013 figures estimated at 500,000 tons, compared to 174,000 tons in 2012.

Wood pellets, which can be used to fuel power plants, are compressed biomass deriving from sawdust and waste from sawmilling.

Many forum participants said the energy from wood pellets was “renewable, clean and economical”.

Kim Young-Sun, South Korean Ambassador

Korea is currently looking for biomass sources overseas, including from Indonesia, as the East Asian country is enforcing a 2012 energy policy mandating firms to resort to renewable energy to cut carbon emissions.

It is also targeting a 20 percent boost in renewable energy use as well as aiming to reduce fossil fuel consumption.

“Korea is the world’s 10th-largest energy consumer, fifth-largest oil importer, second-largest coal importer. Sixty-four percent of its electricity is produced from fossil fuels,” Han said.

To reach their objective, Korean firms have sought investments in a number of Asian countries for the development of wood pellets, mainly Vietnam and Malaysia.

Korea imported 122,447 tons of wood pellets in 2012, mainly from Russia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

According to data from Korea, Indonesia offers the cheapest pellet, with the cost, insurance and freight (CIF) price of US$ 131 per ton, below Vietnam’s US$ 144 per ton, and Malaysia’s US$ 141 per ton.

In Indonesia, Korean firm Depian Co. Ltd will work with state-run PT Inhutani III toward developing forest industries and a facility in Pelaihari, South Kalimantan, through PT SL Agri.

Depian has stated its readiness to invest US$20 million in the project, which will supply wood pellets to South Korea.

They will start building the planned facility in October and expect to start operating the plant by March 2014.

The plant will be able to produce 30,000 tons of wood pellets annually, before being upgraded to 100,000 tons annually in 2016.

Trees would be planted on 5,000 hectares to 8,000 hectares of industrial forest that PT Inhutani III was currently preparing, said SL Agri president director Muhammad Akbariah last month.

Depian plans to export all wood pellets produced at the plant back to South Korea.

Association of Indonesian Forest Concessionaires (APHI) executive director Purwadi Soeprihanto said the government should accelerate plantation forest development by issuing new licenses for industrial plantation forests, a key factor in supporting wood pellets.

“But if that is not possible, Korean firms can cooperate with domestic companies to use their licenses,” he said.

He said that out of the total industrial forest permits (HTIs) issued, only 45 percent were active. Many companies holding licenses had ceased operations due to losses.

“The government should also encourage clear incentives to utilize logging waste, as well as reduce
the fossil fuel subsidy,” Purwadi added. (asw)

Source : http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/09/06/korean-delegates-see-wood-pellet-potential-ri.html