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.