EFB Pellet or EFB Fibre Material?

We know about the advantages about EFB pellet, but in this area there are still many company using raw biomass material, such as palm kernel shell, efb fibre as the biomass material. Why raw biomass material still be used instead of fully converted to EFB pellet?

Palm fibre is one of the common biomass commodity in Malaysia, by comparing the EFB palm fibre with EFB pellet, the EFB price is much lower than EFB pellet. However the steam generating cost could be another way.

There are many biomass boiler such as crude palm oil mills are using palm fibre for generating heat. The factory may seem saving in the raw material cost, but the factory really need to re-consider the overall energy efficiency in order to make a comprehensive judgement.

EFB Pellet is Low Moisture Content

Moisture is the first consideration for raw biomass material, such as EFB fibre. Most of the EFB fibre comes with high moisture, or rather said in wet condition. The moisture could go up to 60% in most cases.

Compare to EFB pellet, the moisture always stay around 10%. The EFB fire need to go through pelleting process including drying the fibre before reaching EFB pellet machine. By comparing the moisture, we already clearly know that EFB pellet is having at least 2 times less moisture as compare to the raw fibre. In order to get the same amount of biomass, the buyer requires to buy 4 times more raw EFB fibre than the EFB pellet.

Pellet Giving Stable and Efficient Heat

Similar to wood pellet or saw dust pellet, the dry EFB pellet is able to deliver predictable energy and effective energy for biomass power plant. The steam generating cost per kg(dollar/kg-of-steam) is always maintained at a steady level and more predictable. More over, EFB pellet price is more attractive than the wood pellet price.

Base on the moisture content, we could predict the steam generating cost per kg could be shoot up 4 times more than EFB pellet. More over, there are a substantial portion of the heat is used to evaporate the water content in the raw biomass material. Because of the high moisture content, user is having difficulty getting consistent heat from the raw biomass material. EFB pellet is delivering more consistent, predictable and high efficiency heat.

EFB Pellet is more easy in Handling

Transportation is one of the area many people neglected. From green energy stand point, we want the EFB pellet be able to maintain at a reasonable price range. One of the situation is minimize the transportation cost. Every jumbo bag, we are able to pack 700-800kg EFB pellet and a 20feet container will load up around 28MT The space accupy rate is much higher than the EFB fibre or EFB briquette.

More over, we want the raw material for making EFB pellet are within 20km distance. This is to ensure the transport cost should not occupy a substantial portion of the EFB pellet cost. This is also the mind set for having “green” energy.

With these 3 major advantages, we know why EFB pellet is preferable rather than the raw biomass material.

December 22, 2012

EFB Pellet or Shredded EFB Fibre

EFB pellet and shredded efb pellet both are classified as biomass commodity; it also belongs to renewable energy commodity. EFB pellet is the compressed pellet from efb pellet machine by using

the palm fibre which distills from oil palm empty fruit bunch. Shredded EFB consider as empty fruit bunch which only go through limited process.

For bio fuel user, which one should we select? Should we choose EFB pellet or Shredded EFB Fibre?

Study the details about EFB Pellet and Shredded EFB Fibre

Shredded EFB Fiber

The oil palm fruit bunch will go through a steam process in order to dismantle the palm fruit from the bunch. The empty fruit bunch (EFB) discarded from the crude palm oil mill is at wet and hot condition. The wet EBF will be delivered to press process in order to squeeze the water out from the empty fruit bunch. Later the pressed EFB will send for shredded process.

Shredded process is similar as a “chopping” process. The purpose for the shredded is to chop the EFB to smaller dimension that easy to transport and act as biomass. The pressed and shredded EFB turn out as fibre form but in larger scale.

Shredded EFB fibre is transferred for biomass boiler for retrieving heat via burning process. Some of the biomass boilers do not requires higher energy heat will directly burn the shredded EFB fiber.

EFB Pellet

EFB pellet resemble to wood pellet, the difference is EFB pellet is the pressed pellet from EFB fibre. The small pellet size is very much suitable for almost any input grate system. Field facility engineer could use this EFB pellet without much consideration of input system.

This dense pellet is a common biomass commodity for furnace and biomass boiler. Because of the dense structure, EFB pellet is easy to retain heat than shredded fibre. EFB pellet and palm fiber briquette are the suitable commodities for biomass power plant.

EFB pellet or Shredded EFB Fiber

For Malaysia local domestic market, because steam boiler may not require high heat energy, shredded EFB fibre is selected because of price concern. However for furnace boiler which require higher heat, EFB pellet is more suitable.

More over, the EFB pellet is dry and dense product which also favourable for packing and longer time storage purpose.

DST is one of the key biomass suppliers for Malaysia market, we also the leading pellet and palm briquette manufacturer for quality biomass product, our EFB pellet and palm fiber briquette has been widely used in many biomass industries. For interest party, please kindly write to DST and talk with us about your needs.

December 19, 2012

New to Biomass Briquettes?

General Introduction of Biomass Briquettes

Many readers are new to biomass briquettes. We should have heard about coal briquette which use in many power plant boiler. Briquette technology will give direct impact on coal performanc

Palm Fibre Briquette - Biomass Briquette — Palm Fibre Briquette – Biomass Briquette

e, same for biomass briquette.

In coal briquette, binder is added so that the coal powder will be compressed becoming a large scale of composition. A briquette is definitely better in term of actual heating as it will retain the heat. In Malaysia, the biomass industry has developed biomass briquette and biomass pellet for power plant industry. Palm fiber briquette is the biomass briquettes manufacture at Malaysia.

Biomass Briquette also a Renewable Energy

Raw material use for briquette is determining if the briquette is biomass. In most of the briquette, people are using leaf, saw dust, straw and branch pressing for briquette. Those are biomass material hence the briquette also classified as biomass briquette.

In Malaysia, we have another source of biomass, palm fibre. The palm fiber will be used to fabricate palm fiber briquette. The palm fiber will be inserted to the briquette machine and after compress; a briquette with diameter around 70mm, 200mm length is fabricated.

Biomass Briquettes and Pellet

There is an EFB pellet or biomass pellet which also made from palm fibre, both are available for biomass commodity market. EFB pellet is normal a pellet size with diameter 6-8mm, however a briquette come in larger size around 50-80mm for diameter.

There are many comparison studies between biomass briquettes and pellet however both should serve similar purpose. Because of it smaller size, biomass pellet is suitable for many industrial biomass boilers without special design in input grate. Biomass boiler field engineer should check the input grate if it is suitable for biomass briquettes which come larger in size. In most case, we could commonly see biomass briquette in biomass power plant.

Advantage of Biomass Briquettes

Biomass briquette is very good in term of retaining heat for the power plant boiler. The dense inner core may able to maintain consistent burning rate. However the dense core also becomes the discrepancy because of insufficient burning.

There are other designs of biomass briquette with inner hole, this is mainly to improve the air flow and ensure sufficient burning in the boiler.

DST is supplying several type of biomass briquette in the market, currently we are focusing in palm fiber briquettes for biomass boiler. For interested party, you are welcome to contact us or drop us a mail and check about our biomass briquettes.

December 18, 2012January 21, 2013

Use EFB Pellet as Renewable Energy

EFB pellet is a clean, low cost which able to provide high heating energy for home or industrial use.

EFB pellet classified under carbon neutral product, or also classified as renewable energy.

EFB pellet it is a compressed cylindrical pellet size with 6mm or 8mm diameter in general.

Renewable energy is referring to the energy comes from nature resource. Natural resources refer to solar, wind, tide, rain and also biomass.

Why EFB Pellet Refer as Renewable Energy?

Before we answering this question, let us understand what biomass stand for. Biomass refers to the organic matter such as wood, timber and crops that burn to generate heat and energy. Empty Fruit Bunch or EFB also part of the biomass use for this purpose.

In order classifying biomass as renewable energy, user needs to replant certain tree or plants in order to trap the carbon oxide discharge in the air during the burning or combustion process. By doing so, the ecological system will reach a balance stage of carbon neutral stage.

Wood is one of the typical types of biomass people can think off. But apart from wood, there are other crops such as straw, rice husk, leaf. In Malaysia, there are Empty Fruit Bunch discards from palm oil process also consider as biomass.

Since EFB pellet is built from the source of Empty Fruit Bunch, hence it also consider as renewable energy.

The difference between Wood Pellet and EFB Pellet

Wood pellet is a compressed pellet from saw dust, sometime it also name as saw dust pellet. However EFB pellet is the pellet compressed from EFB short fibre. The EFB pellet is mainly used in commercial or industrial power plant. We are seeing the increase market share for EFB pellet because current biomass boiler design is able to adapt this EFB pellet. Interested reader could refer EFB palletizing process for the more process details.

Even though wood pellet classified as renewable energy but growing up a tree may take longer time than chopping it down. We are seeing volume constraint shows by saw dust pellet, and EFB pellet should be the good substitution for this needs.

Where to by EFB Pellet?

Malaysia definitely is one of the EFB pellet supplier or manufacturer. There are many companies in Malaysia start manufacturer EFB pellet. DST Technology is committed in supplying EFB pellet for oversea market. All interested EFB pellet buyer are welcome to contact DST for inquiry, or write us a mail at sales@biofuelresource.com.

EFB Pellet has no doubt becomes popular in current market; we foresee the demand for EFB pellet is increasing in near future.

December 14, 2012December 16, 2012

Raw Material for EFB Pellet

Pellet is defined as a small piece of material make by compressed material such as saw dust, of efb fibre. An EFB pellet is a pellet make from the EBF fiber. Many readers should have known about pellet but very new to EFB. In this article, we are going to talk more about EFB fiber and EFB Pellet.

What is EFB fiber?

EFB is the abbreviation for Empty Fruit Bunch from oil palm fruit. An oil palm fruit will be processed for crude palm oil and the remaining bunch is discarded as empty fruit bunch. The empty fruit bunch is at wet form and goes through subsequent process for biomass application.

From the nature of empty fruit bunch, the EFB will go through several more processes to distill the long EFB fibre and the remaining short EFB fibre will be putting aside for biomass purpose.

Short EFB fibre is always comes in loose fibre stage, even though short EFB fibre is a good source of renewable energy however the loose stage has make it less usable in practical stage.

Converting Loose EFB fiber to EFB Pellet

Biomass engineer has developed a chopper or crusher machine for chopping down the fibre into smaller in length. The shorter EFB fibre can directly put into the palletize machine and goes through the palletize process. EFB pellet is the outcome product. EFB pellet also use the raw material for biomass boiler.

In most cases, in order to have a better quality of pellet, short EFB fiber will go through a crushing process to shorten the fibre length, this will improve the EFB pellet quality.

Why EFB pellet but not Wood pellet?

A compressed and palletize efb pellet has been classified as renewable energy. Pellet will provide more consistent and predictable result while comes to practical use. Further more, Malaysia is a world leading in oil palm plantation and crude palm oil production. EFB is the discard by-product for crude palm oil process.

Currently shredded EFB has been used for local domestic biomass, however shredded EFB is not preferable for export market. The EFB will be further process to EFB pellet which favourable for export market.

Comparing EFB pellet to wood pellet, wood pellet is dominating the market for past few years. We are seeing EFB pellet start coming into the market, and we expected to see more in coming years especially for industrial or power plant.

For house user, we think wood pellet still be the first choice. This is because household biomass boiler is more demanding than industrial biomass boiler.

EFB pellet is manufacture from EFB fibre through series of processes. Base on the EFB raw material availability, we have no surprise Malaysia becomes one of the main EFB pellet manufacturer for world renewable energy market.