Natural Gas vs. Palm Kernel Shell – Steam Cost

Know that many readers are facing challenge on selecting biomass and natural gas for generating heat or steam gas. This is a never ending debate unless we could specifically compare both commodities side by side within certain criteria.

Natural Gas vs. Palm Kernel Shell Comparison

There are many type of biomass commodities in Malaysia, however we want to minimize the variation and focus on the comparison between natural gas vs. palm kernel shell. Reader could change to other type of biomass instead of palm kernel shell with the same procedure.

Objective for Comparing Natural Gas vs. Palm Kernel Shell

We want to come out a calculation to show the material cost for generating 1000kg of steam between natural gas and palm kernel shell.

Basic Calorific Value for Natural Gas and Palm Kernel Shell

Calorific value is the heat generated during the burning process. The calorific value for natural gas is 35,000kJ/m³, whereby the calorific value for palm kernel shell (PKS) is 4200kJ/kg or 17,640kJ/kg.

We need to move forward to calculate the natural gas and palm kernel shell requires in order generating 1000kg of steam.

Conversion Rate and Efficiency for Natural Gas and Palm Kernel Shell

The conversion rate for Natural Gas is 0.8 whereby the palm kernel shell is only 0.65. In order words, 80% of the natural gas’s calorific value will be used to heat up the steam whereby palm kernel shell only occupied 65% of it calorific value.

Natural gas needs to take up 80m³ in order to heat up 1000kg of steam. On the other hand, you may need up to 200kg of palm kernel shell to heat up 1000kg of steam.

Material Cost Comparison between Natural Gas and Palm Kernel Shell

Now we have better understanding about the natural gas and palm kernel shell consumption in order to produce 1000kg of steam gas. The unit price of natural gas is about RM0.80 whereby palm kernel shell is RM0.20.

With the multiplication, the raw material cost for natural gas is RM64 compare to palm kernel shell RM40.

From the calculation, we know that the biomass system (palm kernel shell) is having 50% lower in term of raw material cost as compare to natural gas.

Hope this calculation could clear up some doubt about the raw material cost comparison between natural gas vs. palm kernel shell. However we haven’t considered the operation cost between these 2 system.

November 28, 2013November 28, 2013

Palm Fibre and Palm Kernel Shell from Malaysia

Malaysia is a resourceful country especially in renewable energy. Many people know Malaysia is rich in underground oil reserves, year-round solar energy, good rainfall and rivers, however biomass energy is often ignored.
In fact, Malaysia is having plenty of resources of biomass energy. Among Biomass resources in Malaysia, crude palm oil industry is generating access biomass resource than trees. Crude Palm Oil industry is producing at least 5 million tons of palm kernel shell and palm fiber each year. These two substances （Palm kernel shell & palm fibre） are the main contribution for biomass energy .

Palm fiber

Fiber is a fluffy substance that also saying need larger space for storage and transporting. Palm fibre should go through compression into bale form in order to increase transport efficiency. However, Malaysian local biomass plant located not very far away from palm oil plant, hence the palm fiber is sent under raw form.
From application stand point, raw palm fiber mostly used as biomass purpose. For other applications , such as long fiber or palm fibre pellet, those products are processed to add value.
The long fibers extract from palm fiber will be sorted out as the material for making palm mattress. And we all know, China is currently the major palm mattress production base. In order to improve the efficiency inshipping, the manufacturer will compress the long fibers into bale form for the convenient shipping process from Malaysia to China. A 20-foot container, it can be fitted with about seven tons of bundled form long fiber.
EFB pallet is another application for short fibre. The fluffy fiber will be squeezed in the EFB pelletizing press machine rollers in order to form a high-density EFB pallet. A well establish press machine is able to produce EFB pallet with diameter of 8mm, and pallet length of 15-20mm. EFB pallet is normally asking for much higher price then the raw form of material, in most cases, the EFB pellet is selling higher price than palm kernel shell. Packing wise, a one ton bags can only load with 700kg of EFB pallet.

Palm kernel shell

As know by many people, the black colour shell from oil palm fruit is the hard shell which we name it as palm kernel shell. Palm kernel shell itself is a high density material . These high density shell , can burn for generating combustion calorific heat about 4,200 kcal / kg. Palm kernel shell is a high density and low moisture product, so it is also act as a natural biomass pallet. In this region, most of the PKS is shipped under raw form.
During transportation, a tonage bag could load around 600kg of palm kernel shell . Palm kernel shell is more favourable for transport under loose form as it will not cause damage. However for EFB pellet, it will break if the handling process is not appropriate. In many case, a EFB pellet will break into shorter pellet size after transportation.
Because of palm kernel shell is not easy to broken features, during transportation, we can ship the PKS under loose form in 20-foot container . Each 20 -foot container can carry up to 19-ton palm kernel shell, this also imply palm kernel shell is more efficiency even shipping under container.

From the perspective of biomass energy, palm kernel shell is one of the favourable biomass commodity. This product is more favourable to transport and providing high calorific value and less moisture. Palm kernel shell is currently the most common biomass energy commodity for exports and overseas market.

February 17, 2013

Coconut Shell

Coconut is one of the major agriculture commodity in Malaysia. The largest coconut estate located in Perak state Bagan Datoh area. The tall coconut tree has many application, coconut milk

becomes the major composition for food beverage, the coconut water is a refreshment drink, the fibre on the coconut is a good material for mattress, and the coconut shell is a good source for active carbon or charcoal.

Many coconut estates has converted to oil palm estate, however there still have substantial area of coconut tree in the area to support the coconut related business.

General Introduction of Coconut Shell

The outer coconut fibre will be removed and left the enclose hard coconut shell. The hard coconut shell will chop in half. The white colour coconut fresh will be removed for retrieving coconut milk, this left the half coconut shell.

The outer area of the hard coconut shell is yellowish in colour and inner area may attach with some left over white colour fresh.

Some Applications for Coconut Shell

The coconut shell used to be a biomass energy resource but it has better value now. The hard shell is a good nature fabricate into active carbon for water filtration. The carbonized coconut shell will go through grinding in order to becomes activated carbon.

Another application is converting the coconut shell to charcoal. The coconut shell charcoal is a porous substance that has been used for air filter.

Supply of Coconut Shell

DST is supplying the coconut shell to local and worldwide market. Our coconut shell will be packed in 20kg bag which ready for shipment.

We welcome any inquiry about coconut shell.

February 7, 2013

Biomass Energy Resource from Malaysia

Even though Malaysia is a fossil fuel export country, but this does not stop the country from committing in developing renewable energy. Malaysia is a country rich in biomass energy resource, many materials can easily convert to biomass.

There are several common biomass renewable energy in Malaysia, such as palm pellet, EFB pellet, EFB, palm kernel shell, wood chip and saw dust pellet. In this article, we will discuss slightly more about the prospect for each biomass energy resource in Malaysia.

Biomass Energy Resources in Malaysia

EFB

EFB stands for empty fruit bunch discarded from palm oil mill. The EFB will go through pressed and shredded process before it can be used as biomass power plant. The shredded efb will always high in moisture and not favourable for shipping.

Palm kernel shell

Or in abbreviation PKS. The palm kernel shell is a good biomass resource with high calorific value, low moisture and easy transportation and handling. Unfortunately the supply of palm kernel shell is saturated. A large portion of palm kernel shell has been used at local Malaysia market.

Mesocarp Fibre

This short and dry fibre is favourable in biomass for heat retrieve, however the volume is small and unable to support the biomass industry.

Rice Hust

This is the husk salvage from rice mill. The rice husk is light and having high silica content. Not very suitable for biomass. Perhaps the light weight also not favourable for biomass boiler.

Coconut fibre

Most of the coconut plantation in Malaysia has been converted to oil palm estate, hence the coconut fibre is shrinking from year to year. It left very limited coconut fibre available in the market. Coconut fibre has not been used as biomass purpose.

Wood chip

Malaysia is a country cover with wood lodge. The left over wood will send to crushing process for chopping it into chip form. Wood chip is a renewable energy commodity however the re-planting is taking longer time before the tree mature. The wood chip volume is at decreasing stage meanwhile price is getting higher.

Wood pellet

The raw material of wood pellet is saw dust, so it also name as saw dust pellet. Wood pellet is resemble as wood chip. It provides similar heating effect and function as wood chip. However the price of wood pellet is getting higher.

EFB pellet

This is the new pellet product manufacturer at Malaysia. The shredded EFB will go through EFB pelletize process for making EFB pellet. EFB pellet consider relatively new as the biomass commodity for biomass market. Due to it availability, we foresee EFB pellet will become one of the major biomass energy choices in the market.

Malaysia is the country rich in tree and many others agriculture commodities, many commodities has been widely used as the biomass energy resources in Malaysia. Oil palm is one of the larger agriculture products and many researches / application has developed for converting the by-product of palm oil waste into biomass commodity. The prospect of oil palm related biomass energy resource is bright as it has becomes major sustainable energy in Malaysia and world wide market,