Advantages of EFB Pellet

Scientis and engineers have never stop looking for new substitution energy source, especially explore the possibility of renewable energy. Biomass is one of the renewable energy which has been widely promote and EFB pellet is one of the new commodity for biomass.

Not many people in the market aware about EFB pellet however they do aware of saw dust pellet or wood pellet which originate from discarded saw dust. The EFB fibre go through pelletize machine and process, the products becomes EFB pellet.

What is the advantages for EFB pellet?

EFB Pellet Generate Low to No Smoke during Burning Process

Smoke and fume discharge during the burning process is one of the key contributor for air pollution, however the EFB pellet will not generate smoke during the burning process. This is because the pellet is a dense and dry substance which will introduce full combustion without discharge smoke or fume.

EFB pellet is a Renewable Energy Source

EFB fibre is a renewable energy and same to EFB pellet which also made by the EFB fibre. More over, the pelletize process also involve eletric energy, hence the pellet shipping from a country to another country also imply the export of electric current.

Haven’t said that, Malaysia electric tariff is much lower than many other countries such as Japan & Korea. While exporting the Malaysia local made pellet to Japan also imply Japan is enjoying competitive electric tariff as in Malaysia.

EFB Pellet is Easy in Handling, Transportation and Storage

The 6 to 10mm diameter with length <30mm pellet will be packed in a jumbo bag. The small size and high density also ensure every jumbo bag could weight around 700kg per bag. The jumbo bag could be transfer from one place to other via truck or container without wasting too much empty space.

A 20 feet container is able to store around 28MT of EFB pellet. The jumbo bag could steadily pile up in the store for storage purpose. A 20ft container is able to store more EFB pellet than palm fibre briquette.

EFB Pellet Deliver Consistent Burning Efficiency

EFB pellet will be easily burn and fully converted to ash. The pellet which put into the biomass boiler grate will thoroughly combust. 6 to 10mm diameter pellet will ensure the inner core portion of the pellet fully burn and not left any uncombust portion. An EFB briquette may need to have dedicated inner hold design in order to promote the combustion process.

EFB Pellet is Turning Waste to Usable Energy

Malaysia is one of the country with many discarded Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) with very minimum usage. Converting EFB fibre to EFB pellet has awarded Malaysia as one of the EFB pellet manufacturer. EFB pellet is one of the application to make full use of EFB fibre which initially with low to no use. The loose EFB fibre is thin and light which is not very favourable for generating heat.

EFB pellet is the compressed pellet from EFB fibre, it is a dense pellet which very suitable for combustion and heat retrieve. The smoke free during the combustion also means the EFB pellet is a good renerable energy source that will not not discharge airborne contaminant to the environment. By comparing between EFB pellet and coal, EFB pellet has much less particulate discharge during the combustion process.

January 16, 2013

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 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.

August 20, 2012December 16, 2012

EFB Pelletization Process

Biofuel pellet is increasing it demand and application. In order to cope with the increase demand, many raw feed stock materials have explored becoming biomass pellet. In this article, we are elaborating the pelletization process by using EFB pellet as an example to reader who is interested to understand this process.

1. Preparation Before Pelleting

The shredded EFB fibre is the raw material from palm oil factory. The shredded EFB fibre may reach up to 200mm in length. The long length of EFB Fibre is not suitable for pelletization process.

The first step of pelletization process is grinding. The shredded EFB pellet will go through the grinding process to grind to shorter length, in most cases, the grinded length should reach 3mm or shorter.

2. Drying the Grinded Fibre

Due to the nature of Shredded EFB fibre, the grinded fibre also consist high moisture content, around 50-60%. The grinded fibre will send for drying to the suitable moisture level.

The moisture content is the important parameter for pelletization process. The Grinded EFB fibre need to maintain 10-15% moisture level in order to produce quality pellet.

3. Pelleting process

The dry fibre will send for pelleting machine. There are not additional binder adds requires during pelleting process.

The EFB pellet is in dense form, hard surface and high temperature right after extruded from the pelleting machine.

4. Pellet Cooler Machine

The hot EFB pellet will transfer to the cooler for removing the surface temperature, the hot heat will be absorb and discharge.

From machinery design, the hot air removing from the post extruded pellet will send for drying purpose.

5. Pellet Packing Mechanism

The EFB pellet will send to packaging. In our case, the EFB pellet is packed under jumbo bag form. Every jumbo bag weight around 800kg, this is mainly for easy handling purpose.

EFB Pelletization process is a simple, it mainly contributes by 5 major processes, namely 1) Grinding; 2) Drying; 3) Pelleting; 4) Cooling; 5) Packaging. However manufacturer needs to wisely control the process in order to deliver quality product.

A quality EFB pellet is hard in surface, not easy broken, smooth and shinny surface. Kindly contact DST Technology for any interested in EFB pellet.

August 12, 2012December 16, 2012

EFB Pellet Moisture vs. Calorific Value

Moisture is one of the intrinsic nature for any of the biomass substance. The EFB pellet moisture is the important parameter affecting the calorific value. Base on difference biomass material, it may consist difference moisture level which eventually affecting the net calorific value. For instance a Shredded EFB fibre always consist moisture around 60%. On the other hand, Mesocarp fibre is lower in moisture level. However, an EFB pellet which process from Grinded-EFB fibre only consist of 10% moisture level, this is 4 times lower than it originate source.

In this article we are going to discuss about the impact between high vs. low moisture level.

Why Moisture Cares?

Calorific value is the main concern for biomass substance. Customer is willing to pay higher for low moisture substance as compare to higher moisture substance.

From our instinct, high moisture level substance is not preferable for burning process. In order to get a clearer picture about the impact for moisture level, we need to compare the net calorific value. By comparing the net calorific value, user will be easier to make appropriate judgment.

Calorific value for high and low moisture Level

EFB pellet is made from shredded EFB fibre. Let us compare EFB pellet together with Shredded

EFB fibre.

A shredded EFB fibre with 60% moisture claimed having a gross calorific value at 3200kcal/kg. After considering the 60% moisture level, the net calorific value for shredded EFB fibre drop to 960kcal/kg.

An EFB pellet which consists of 10% moisture is having a gross calorific value of 4900kcal/kg. The net calorific value for EFB pellet is 4070kcal/kg.

In actual biomass boiler process, we could notice only 960kcal/kg of heat energy will transfer to the heating process, other heat energy 2240kcal/kg has been consumed because of the moisture level. In other words, there is 70% of heat energy lost due to the moisture.

From this example, we know the reason why the biomass boiler or factory owner request lower moisture level. Perhaps the 70% lost is solely from the substance heat energy stand point, it also imply a substantial portion of the transportation cost has been consume by the unwanted moisture.

Calorific value for EFB pellet

An EFB pellet make from shredded EFB fibre. In a standard EFB pellet process, the fibre will send to grind and dry before moving to the pellet process.

The EFB pellet comes with the range of moisture of 8-15%. With low moisture level, it implies that most of the gross calorific value will be bringing to net calorific value. A gross calorific value for an EFB pellet is 4900kcal/kg and the net calorific value is 4070kcal/kg. Around 20% heat energy lost due to moisture concern.

High moisture or Low moisture?

By comparing the EFB pellet and shredded EFB fibre, we are seeing and heat energy ratio of 4.2 times, this means from net calorific value stand point, an EFB pellet should sell 4.2 times higher than the shredded EFB fibre price.

Please bare in mind, this has not consider the shipping cost, storage space as well as other hygiene control through out the transportation process.