BIOMASS SYSTEM & RESOURCES

BSR60 - S

2012-01-09T11:03:00.000+08:00

60,000 KCal / hour Wood Pellet Burner
Now we get into the details of Burner . First model we are launching is the small one at 60,000 KCal / hour .

It replace roughly

4 kg / hour of LPG ( gas )

6 kg / hour of Diesel

15 kg / hour of PKS

25 kg / hour of Wood Offcut

33 kg / hour of EFB

( Approximate value depending on Moisture Content and Efficiency )
The Burner come with an imported automatic burner controller . Burner will stop firing once the preset higher temperature value are reach and start firing again once temperature drop to the preset lower value . No human intervention are needed thus saving 1 manpower .
It is definitely much safer as compared to Gas or Diesel Burner as it use Wood Pellet which is not highly flamable .
The Wood Pellet Storage Tank store wood pellet to last over 8 hours of continous firing .This means there is no need for refilling for the whole day operation .
In short you can tell the worker to go to sleep once you start the burner until the end of the day to come back and make sure the operation is stop . It is that simple .

High Quality Steel Burner Head

The Burner Head Chamber temperature can reach 1,200°C at times . High quality steel and bracing are needed to prevent collapse of the burner head . Look at the red hot burner head .

Peak Power

BSR60 - S are design with peak power of 60,000 KCal / hour . The flame length is about 2 feet .

Complete Combustion

The ash are greyish white , proof of wood pellet are fully combusted . All the wood pellet are turn into energy without wastage .

Full set of Wood Pellet Burner

The BSR60 - S can be fabricated according to customer requirement as to the height of the burner head , length and size .

Case Study - Replacement of Gas Cooker to cook mushroom bag in a mushroom bag steamer

Gas usage per day - 2 tank @ RM28 / tank - Total RM56 / day

Wood Pellet Usage per day -
6 kg / hour X 10 hours = 60 kg / day X RM0.40 / kg = RM24 / day

Savings / day = RM32 / day
Savings / month = RM32 / day X 26 days / month = RM832

Payback of Burner = RM8,000 / RM832 = 9.6 month

With the rising price of LPG , payback will get shorter in time to come .
In this case you can run 24 hours with wood pellet burner , it will drop the payback period to below 5 months . GREAT ISN'T IT .

BUSINESS FOR SALE

2011-12-02T00:25:00.001+08:00

RENEWABLE ENERGY
BUSINESS FOR SALE

We are putting up our " Business " with all the asset of wood chip and wood pellet production for sale .
Brief introduction of the business :

Location   :   Tanah Merah , Kelantan
Year Establish   :   2007
Estimate Value of Asset : RM2 Million
Estimate Profit per Annum : 2012 - RM500,000

WOOD CHIP
Year                   Production record      Profit Record
2010 Average 1,800 ton per month RM200,000
2011 Average 2,000 ton per month RM150,000

WOOD PELLET
Wood Pellet Production start in August 2011 .
Production in November 2011 is 400 ton per month .
Forecast Production in January 2012 is 600 ton per month .
Plant design capacity is 2 ton per hour .

Both business are with ready raw material supply , market and existing staff will continue employment with the company .

Conditions :
Tender Document are available at RM500 / copy .
Reserve Price of the Business : RM2.5 Million ( Ringgit Malaysia : Two Point Five Million )
Tender document ready for purchase : From 10 January to 31 January 2012
Visiting Date to Plant : From 1 February 2012 to 9 February 2012
Closing date for submission of tender document   : 5pm 15 February 2012
Announcement of winning bid   : 22 February 2012

Interested party are invited to contact   redlandwood@gmail.com for further information on the bidding process .

COMBUSTION

2011-10-14T17:34:00.002+08:00

STOICHIOMETRY

Combustion is said to be STOICHIOMETRY when fuel and air are in perfect balance . Sounds too technical !!

In layman terms :

Stoichiometry = Perfect Combustion

i.e. Highest Heat Power output at the lowest fuel consumption .

The above graph can be easily explain as follows :

EXCESS FUEL - A lorry laden with overweight goods climbing steep hill , the driver hits the accelerator full throttle but there was no extra power only more black smoke , in such circumstances more diesel escape without full combustion in the engine thus EXCESS FUEL but no extra power . While

EXCESS AIR - In a furnace , say you need 6kg of air to fully combust 1kg of fuel ( normally biomass ) , but you input more air which is at ambient temperature of 30°C while the furnace temperature was 700°C , by channelling too much cold air into the furnace , temperature will drop and thus loss of heat energy .

Please note the grey highlight " Highest efficiency " , the graph show that it is not possible to have perfect combustion ( stoichiometry ) but always burner are design with certain % of excess air , normally 10 to 15% more air to ensure full combustion .

To achieve this , Burner design are critically important . Design of burner take into account factor as follows :

1 ) timing and quantity of fuel feeding

2 ) volume of air corresponding to fuel input

3 ) robustness of burner to ensure low maintenance

4 ) automatic control to achieve highest efficiencies

5 ) safety features of the burner

6 ) simple design but high efficiency

7 ) user friendly

Penny Wise Pound Foolish

Many executives of companies do not understand this and only think of cheap material to burn in their boiler but in fact not always cheapest biomass wins hands down . Then you got to know the calorific value of the cheap biomass and also the efficiency of burning this cheap biomass . More often than not cheap biomass are very low in calorific value of not more than 2,500 kcal / kg and due to the fluctuation of the Calorific Value it is not possible to have high efficiency during combustion .

I always say this , the boiler man being normal layman will open exhaust valve fully to let more air in so no black smoke in the chimney but by doing so Excess Air will drop the efficiency to below 50% . This means instead of having good burner with efficiency over 80% there will be loss of 30% in combustion efficiency .

So the combination of Biomass Calorific Value and Combustion Efficiency might overwhelm even the cheapest biomass in terms of dollar and cents .

I hope the above will enlighten misconception on pricey biomass .

Going Green

2011-10-10T19:33:00.003+08:00

Pellet Burner

2011-10-04T00:01:00.001+08:00

Wood Pellet Burner

We now have 2 model of Locally Made Wood Pellet Burner with power of 60,000 KCal / Hour and 250,000 Kcal / hour . We are working on 2 new Model of 120,000 KCal / Hour and possibly later for a 500,000 Kcal / Hour .

Normally , the smallest BSR60 - S ( 60,000 KCal / Hr ) are for small cooking purposes like steaming of mushroom bag , Industrial Cooking of Food , Small Oven , Heating in Small Furnace and the like .

Mushroom Cooker

BSR250 - S are for bigger furnace . The above Wood Pellet Burner Video with BSR250 - S are used in our factory to dry sawdust through a drum dryer . Capacity of drying with this Burner is 2 ton per hour sawdust from 50% MC to 10% MC . We even get savings for converting from wood offcut ( cheap biomass ) to this Wood Pellet Burner due to it's efficiency and savings on worker .

Case study for the BSR250 - S :

Before converting - 100% wood offcut usage - 600kg / hour X RM0.05 / kg = RM30 / hour

Worker needed to operate feeding of offcut to furnace = RM5 / hour

Total for 100% offcut usage = RM35 / hour

After converting - 100% wood pellet - 70 kg / hour X RM0.40 / kg = RM28 / hour

Savings = RM7 / hour

Savings = RM7 / RM35 = 20%

And we eliminate the Department of Environment penalty as there is no more smoke emission .

If you were to calculate savings based on gas or diesel it will be over 70% savings .

BSR500 - S would be a challenge as it is big and powerful which would need extra design effort and component sourcing . We would need another 3 - 6 months to complete .

Features of our Wood Pellet Burner are as follows :

1 ) Upto 70 % savings compared to Diesel Burner / Gas Burner

2 ) Stable Heat Energy

3 ) Automatic Control

4 ) Efficiency > 80%

5 ) Payback < 6 months

6 ) Minimal Modification on Current Furnace

7 ) Operate just like Diesel / Gas Burner

8 ) Small in size , Big in Power , easily install on current furnace

9 ) Clean , No Smoke

10 ) Low Maintenance

11 ) High Safety Features

12 ) Enviromental Friendly

Currently the Burner are made to order based on the below model specification . Delivery period is normally within 2 months .

Below is the price list and specification of the Burner .

Convert now for savings and environmental protection !

2011-09-12T23:40:00.003+08:00

BSR250 - S

We have now completed the testing of a wood pellet burner capable of producing upto 250,000 Kcal / hour power .

Enjoy the video for now , more information will be forthcoming in a few weeks time .

WOOD PELLET OFFER

2011-08-05T16:41:00.007+08:00

WOOD PELLET FOR SALE

2011-06-17T23:46:00.011+08:00

We now offer wood pellet for sale in the local market .

Price delivered Klang Valley at RM300 / MT in Bulk Bag .

Below are the test certificate and photo of wood pellet .

Call me at 012 9887 118 Lee Seng Ann .

WOOD PELLET MANUFACTURING

2011-06-01T21:23:00.002+08:00

Pellet Production Report

We have started manufacturing a few weeks ago and everything is going fine with small adjustment here and there . The longer than expected delay are due to testing of various materials available to us like sawdust , wood shavings and rice husk .

During testing , we encounter very big problem with local pelletising materials which we have solved . This have cost us 2 weeks delays and substantial losses . It is a journey to get the correct mix for most optimum production efficiency and yield . There is a saying ' FAILURE IS A FAR GREATER TEACHER THAN SUCCESS '

Production are now ramming up to about 1.2 ton per hour ( TPH ) per unit of Pellet Mill Model SZLH420 which is quite efficient since the supplier only promised us 1 TPH . Operation time for the machine is now 10 hours / day .

If everything is fine we will be trying to get 1.5 TPH in another month or so with 12 hours operation / day giving a total of 36 ton per day volume if raw material is available .

VIDEO - WOOD PELLET PRODUCTION

We are marketing this 2 TPH Full Production Line at RM850,000 with spare parts . Local fabrication and civil work will cost another RM150,000 or so depending on setup . We throw in service and technical advise which is the Most Important part in the setting up of wood pellet plant . Otherwise new player will have big headache in achieving optimum production within a short time .

If you notice in the video , the Plant we have are quite clean in terms of dust control even with all the machineries in operation . Some of the plant setup do not cater for dust control and in the long term it will become health hazard and difficult to maintain staff .

Costing

With this setup , we manage to bring down the total number of worker to only 8 including 2 Supervisor per shift without stoppage during tea time break and also lunch break . This is a huge savings on manpower and also during this difficulty time of getting worker . With time and additional accessories we would be able to cut another 2 worker per shift in a few months time .

Electricity consumption for the whole plant , at below 300 Ampere consumption is 125kWh of electricity which comes to RM45 / hour for a 2 TPH production . Cost of production per ton will be RM22.50 .

To achieve 1.5 TPH High Quality Wood Pellet consistently , a few problem need to be solve :

1 ) consistently stable moisture content of sawdust

2 ) particle size of sawdust

3 ) good pellet mill and accessories with proper maintenance

4 ) properly design full production line for efficient production

5 ) correct mix of tropical sawdust / rubberwood sawdust

Quality

Quality wise it is above expectation . The Certificate of Test shows that ash is below 1% and Pellet Unit Density is at 1.2 ton / m3 .

This specification is upto Germany DIN Plus Standard on Size , Unit Density , Moisture Content and Ash Content .

Like I said previously , investor need to see for themselves if it is true that the pellet mill can produce 1.2 TPH consistently and operate over long hours without stoppage .

Come visit us to see for yourself .

But no Video & Photos Allowed ( company policy ) .

Pellet Manufacturing

2011-05-15T14:56:00.001+08:00

Choosing the Right Pellet Line

I received many enquiries from potential investor on setting up wood pellet or EFB pellet Plant .

Most of the questions asked are as follows :

1 ) Price of Pellet Production Line

2 ) Capacity per Hour per Pellet Mill

3 ) I want to visit your factory in production

We are more than glad to received any visitors and offer quotation for our pellet line .

In my opinion , what potential investors should have asked are :

1 ) Effciency of the Pellet Production Line

2 ) Maintenance of the machineries especially the pellet mill

3 ) Return on Investment ( ROI )

Efficiency

We claim that our pellet mill and the whole line can produce > 1 TPH for a pellet mill with 420 internal diameter die , CONSISTENTLY over prolong period of production time . I believe not many can claim this !!!

You can buy Pellet Mill from so many supplier from China are reasonable price , most can produce 1 TPH consistently but not over prolong period of time .

Pellet Mill from China are still in infant stage as the same pellet mill are for feed production . Therefore it is not as robust as machines from USA or Europe which price are at least double .

Efficiency are very important in Pellet Production as the capacity are very small i.e. 1 TPH per machine , you need to be efficient to make profit . If your machine can only run 8 hours per day but others can operate 15 hours per day , others will make double your profit .

In short pellet manufacturing is a race against time .

Maintenance

Many stories from friends regarding their pellet mill performance .

Die cracking , roller bearing need constant change , pellet refused to come out , need additives for smooth production and etc .

1 piece of Die cost RM5,000 , should last 500 ton production , if the die crack by 250 ton , then your cost will go up to RM20 per ton instead of RM10 per ton . Not mentioning down time and failure to deliver to customer will cost you more .

Return on Investment

I am not sure how many of the potential investor have data on the profitability of wood pellet manufacturing . But I believe most do not have complete and accurate data and depends on the fact that they want to go into this business as there is so many enquiries for this product .

This business are definitely lucrative as of now if you have this advantages :

1 ) ample supply of raw material

2 ) good wood pellet production line

A friend of mine once said if you get the correct combination of raw material , machines and customer , you are simply printing money every second .

Conservatively , Our Wood Pellet Line should have payback within 2 year and ROI of over 6% per month .

Whole Line Wood Pellet Plant

2011-03-31T20:00:00.007+08:00

2 Ton Per Hour Pellet Plant

We are a bit delayed in the installation of our 2 Ton Per Hour ( 2 TPH ) Whole Line Wood Pellet Plant . New date for commissioning have been push back to End of April 2011 .

Lots of minor problems with China Whole Line Design and Installation .

I admit we overlook a few areas and also the professionalism of China Machinery Supplier are in doubt especially in Project Management and also the linkage between each section in the Whole Line Plant .

But in the process we also learn a lot for our future expansion plan and possibly our new 2nd line maybe in 6 month to 1 year time .

We now believe that our pellet mill are one of the best from China and hopefully when it is in production it should give us above 1.2 TPH for the Model 420 unit with minimal maintenance .

Here are some of the photos during installation of machineries at my plant .

Current Pellet Mill / Pellet Mill Plant from China have the following problems :

a ) Pelet Mill Die cracking after short time of usage

b ) Roller Bearing need constant change

c ) Constant Jamming in the Pellet Mill Die Chamber

d ) Low Density of Wood Pellet Produced

e ) Sawdust need additives during production to ensure smooth output of pellet from Pellet Mill

We also found out that many China supplier are not genuine factory owner which means they buy and sell the machineries , thus technical wise they are not up to standard unless they are supplying the best machines from the best fabricator . Normally this is not the case as the buyer will haggle about pricing , therefore the supplier will tend to get the cheaper machines which will create problems in the end . How would you know which is the best machines from China , there is more than 100 supplier of pellet mill machineries from China , everyone say they supply the best . Unless you want to CAMP there to search for the best machines . For the record , I did 3 tour of duty to China to search for the best machineries .

Pre-requisite of establishing a Wood / EFB Pellet Manufacturing Business :

1 ) Stable source of sawdust or EFB

2 ) Total Investment - RM1 Million including machineries , electricity supply , local steel fabrication , forklifts & etc for a 2 TPH Whole Line Plant

3 ) Some technical knowledge on machineries

4 ) For now , market should not be a problem , it is a matter of pricing

Lately ( the last 3 months ) , my blog have generated tremendous search for wood pellet maybe due to the current high price of fossil fuel which at the time of writing , Nymex Oil Futures is at over USD100 per barrel . Inflation in China is also causing a problem as Wood Pellet Plant pricing have also increase from initial RM750,000 earlier to over RM850,000 now , at last count . Sawdust price have also been increasing locally . If price continue to rise , it might not be viable anymore to invest in Wood Pellet Business unless Wood Pellet price play catch up in the near term .

WOOD PELLET BURNER VS GASIFIER

2011-03-01T21:09:00.006+08:00

COMPARISON
I believe we have talk in length on Wood Pellet Burner and Gasifier , but question come to mind what is the difference between this 2 .

I list the comparison between the 2 below .

I will explain in details the pro & con for wood pellet burner and gasifier .

Pricing

After countless conversation with so many potential user who is looking for change , the big stumbling block is PRICING AND DISTRUST for new technology .

How cheap can biomass and application equipment goes , no body knows , for now this is the price and there is payback calculation for you to judge .

After considering the price , customer will ask can I see how it works , SEEING IS BELIEVING !!! AGREED .

This problem come about due to so many fly by night equipment provider who have give this industries a bad name . So once it is spoilt , it will be very difficult to make amend .

I append below according to categories , the differences :

Technicality

As mentioned above technical specification for Gasifier are much more higher than simple Wood Pellet Burner . Therefore so many of the gasifier that came up in the market in Malaysia are not successful as we Malaysian have not yet achieve the speciality in Gasification . Unfortunately some potential investor suffer due to lack of information and sweet talk by good marketers .

Wood Pellet Burner are very simple machine with some ingenious controls and design which need very simple maintenance , therefore it can be so successful in Europe due to it's simplicity .

WHO need a sophisticated machine to do the same job for 5 times the price ! ! !

Efficiency

90 % Vs 75% , why ?

a ) all biomass are turned to ash , only the ash weight and loss of heat during combustion , therefore loss is only 10% for Wood Pellet Burner . Whereas for Gasifier , big portion ( 20 % ) are turned to carbon and therefore efficiency is only 75 % with heat loss . Unless you want to sell the carbon !!!

b ) In Wood Pellet Burner all the biomass are combusted in optimum Air Fuel Ratio ( AFR , 1 kg wood pellet to 5 kg of air ) and immediately the heat are channel into boiler / furnace , loss will be low as this happen instantaneously . Whereas for Gasifier it goes through a few process , pyrolysis , gasfication , syngas cleaning then only the syngas are channel to burner for burning . Moreover you must have very good burner to control the AFR otherwise you will not get good optimum combustion , causing more loss in efficiency

Ash / Carbon Discharge , Operator Needed and Cleaning / Servicing

As Gasification produce carbon which is higher in weight ( 20 % ) compared to fully combusted biomass where it only produce ash ( below 1% for wood pellet ) , therefore Wood Pellet Burner are much more simpler compared to Gasifier .

Moreover more monitoring are needed for Gasifier to ensure Gasification are optimum which is difficult to achieve consistently especially so if the biomass feed are inconsistent .

Gasifier end product is Syngas which is high in Tar level , to ensure burner are not clog , the syngas need to be clean , with scrubber and filtering , which in the end ( once a week , depending on system ) , need to be clean and service otherwise the Gasifier will stop working .

Control of Burner

Wood Pellet Burner as mentioned above are very simple but with good design equipment . Control in the case of firing into Boiler would be very simple , just fire into the boiler , when pressure in the boiler are reach the burner will go into sleep mode and the burner will fire again when pressure drop to lower level set , simply similar to diesel burner , that is why it is so easy .

In Gasifier case , the fuel for firing into boiler is Syngas , sometimes you get good composition syngas , sometimes you do not , so control will be difficult or it would not be optimum or lower in efficiency .

Pros for Gasifier - Application , Flexibility of Burner Positioning , Usefulness of Carbon and Cleanliness of Combustion

Unless you find you need this Pros , these are small benefit you need to forego to attained the pros of wood pellet burner .

You cannot get perfection unless you are willing to pay very high price .

REMEMBER GASIFIER IS 5 TIMES MORE EXPENSIVE !!!

WOOD PELLET / EFB PELLET BOILER

2011-02-01T12:51:00.007+08:00

BOILER

The boiler are design for winter heating in Europe and are suitable for industries which need hot water e.g hotel hot water supply and industrial cooking .

In Malaysia , currently all small and medium size boiler are fuel by either gas or diesel making it environmental unfriendly .

The high number of boiler using fossil fuel are due to the following reasons :

1 ) Previous low oil price at below USD40 / barrel ( around RM1.00 / liter )

2 ) Convenience in handling diesel boiler

3 ) No other alternative ( technology & supplier of biomass boiler )

4 ) No other suitable fuel for small boiler

5 ) Perception of Biomass Boiler are unclean

Most of the above reasons are currently being solved with new technological advancement and availability of new biomass boiler and suitable fuel ( Wood Pellet or EFB Pellet ) .

We plan to introduce this type of pellet boiler for industrial user in Malaysia with our wood pellet .

Pricing start from RM75,000 for 200,000 kCal / hour to RM200,000 for 1,000,000 kCal / hour Wood Pellet Boiler . The low cost are due to mass production for this type of boiler .

Payback are normally within 5 month to 1 year inclusive of the boiler , FOC after the payback period .

Characteristic of Wood Pellet / EFB Pellet Boiler are as follows :

1 ) Fully automatic with preset temperature needed for the hot water , burner will start and stop at preset level

2 ) 90% efficiency due to it's design and efficient air fuel ratio balance during combustion

3 ) high safety feature without chances of explosion as it uses wood pellet which is less flamable

4 ) very clean burning without smoke although ash need to be dispose off once every week

5 ) space saving as structure of the boiler is compact and sturdy

For the first unit we sell in the Malaysia market , we are giving great discount to promote this technology .

Write to us / Call us NOW ! ! !

Wood Pellet Burner

2011-01-01T09:46:00.027+08:00

Wood Pellet Burner / EFB Pellet Burner

Availability of wood pellet in the Malaysia Market have enable the introduction of Wood Pellet Burner .

Wood Pellet Burner can be categorised into small home use type ( typically below 100kw ) or big unit for replacing diesel / gas burner for industrial use ( from 300kw to 2,500kw )

Small Wood Pellet Burner

With consumption of over 10 million ton wood pellet in 2010 , Europe is the biggest market of wood pellet . Usage of wood pellet burner to replace fuel oil / diesel / gas burner have been taking place for the last 10 years or more . Therefore wood pellet burner produced are very technologically advance .

The burner have characteristic as follows :

1 ) Fully automated - even with modulated firing

2 ) lambda sensor - oxygen sensor in the flue gas , to adjust air input for efficient combustion

3 ) > 90% efficiency - very close to diesel / gas burner fuel to heat conversion

4 ) Automatic Dust cleaning mechanism

5 ) automatic ignition , sleep mode , timer , remote control , mobile phone control , etc

6 ) easy conversion from oil burner to wood pellet burner without modification

Changeover from Diesel Burner to Wood Pellet Burner

Industrial Wood Pellet / EFB Pellet Burner

We will be launching this Burner in a month or two which have the following specification :

1 ) Replacement of diesel burner with capacity of 300kw ( 250,000 kCal/hr ) to 2,500kw ( 2 Million kCal / hr ) . This is similar to diesel burner firing into a 0.5 ton per hour to 4 ton per hour steam boiler .

2 ) Control is by pressure sensor similar to diesel burner automatic firing although modulation firing are not available currently .

3 ) Savings in fuel consumption are from RM37/hour for 300kw unit and RM298 / hour for 2,500kw unit .

Cost of the Burner from RM40,000 to RM120,000 . Payback in 6 months for the small unit and 4 months for the big unit . Gasifier of similar capacity cost 4 to 10 times more .

Wood Pellet Burner - 200MW / 180,000 Kcal / hour

THIS IS ONE OF THE MAIN REASON WE HAVE BEEN HOLDING BACK ON OUR GASIFIER PROMOTION FOR THERMAL APPLICATION .

By far and large , wood pellet due to it's size consistency , high and consistent calorific value , availability , stable price & eco friendly fuel are very suitable for the replacement of diesel or gas .

START helping the environment to reduce emission of CO2 ,

DO YOUR PART .

Drum Dryer

2010-12-05T17:29:00.004+08:00

Sawdust Drying

We are touching this topic specifically due to it's importance to make good wood pellet unless your sawdust is already dried to 15% Moisture Content ( MC ) .

If you have gone through our earlier writings , the cost of drum dryer are significant for a Whole Line Wood Pellet Plant . The High price are due to it's big structure and complication in maintaining stable MC sawdust output . Sawdust comes in various MC from 12% to 60% , therefore it is important to control the MC for optimum pelleting otherwise you would not get high standard wood pellet and high production efficiency .

We will now study a typical drying process base on the following conditions :

1 ) Input Sawdust MC 35%

2 ) Output Sawdust MC 12%

3 ) Drying Rate 2 Ton Per Hour Output

To reduce MC from 35% to 12% you would need to evaporate 20% of water , based on 2,000 kg per hour output , water that need to be removed is 600kg and the input sawdust is 2,600 kg/hr .

To remove 600kg of water you will need 640kw ( 550,000 kCal/hour ) of energy which is equivalent to burning 200kg/hour of wood offcut . In short 100kg/hour need to be combusted to dry 1 TPH ( output ) sawdust . Cost of drying would be about RM5 / ton sawdust if your offcut cost is RM50 / ton .

The Calculation Chart below is from ASPENTECH software and reconfirm by manual calculation which I did not show here due to it's tediousness of calculation , suffice to say the input data , output data and design of the dryer are correct .

Drum Dryer selection are important , many factor affect the cost of the dryer , in this case we believe Drum Dryer Size of Diameter 1.5 meter X Length 9 meter should be enough to dry 2 TPH of sawdust .

Cost of this dryer should be around RM200,000 landed in Malaysia c/w stove , electrical panel and cyclone .

We hope to use this Dryer and the Pellet Mill to make EFB Pellet once we have started Wood Pellet Production probably in August 2011 .

Wood Pellet Plant

2010-11-30T14:16:00.002+08:00

Whole Line Wood Pellet Mill Plant

As promised , today I will be writing about Densification of Wood Biomass to make Wood Pellet .

Wood Pellet can be made of wood sawdust , wood shavings , timber offcut and woodchip .

The purpose of Densification are as follows :-

1 ) common size - enabling automation ( automatic feeding and burning just like diesel/gas burner with high efficiency )

2 ) high calorific value - optimum combustion efficiency ( 90% efficiency is possible )

3 ) high density - lower transportation and storage cost

To achieve the above purpose , Feed Mill Machines have been turn to make wood pellet with some modification as wood have higher density and more difficult to be pelletised compared to animal feed .

Unless you are setting up large size Pellet Mill Plant of 20 TPH , small machineries from China would be more suitable due to their much more lower cost .

From our studies of wood pellet processing , optimum size of operation should be of 2 TPH to 5 TPH due to the availability of raw material , operation cost , profit margin and marketing .

Let's take a closer look at a 2 TPH Whole Line Wood Pellet Plant .

It will include sectional processing as follows :

1 ) Material Processing - Hammermill , Screener - RM75,000

2 ) Drying - Drum Dryer - RM180,000

3 ) Pelleting & Conditioning - Pellet Mill , Conditioner / Cooler - RM160,000

4 ) Packing - Storage Bin , Packing Machine , Weighting Scale - RM30,000

All the Segment above can be connected with belt conveyors , screw conveyors or bucket elavator to make it fully automated with only 5 workers during operation . Additional cost for this could be around RM150,000 .

Electrical , Local Fabrication , Installation Cost , Training will cost another RM120,000 .

Provision for 6 months Spare Parts and Miscellanous will cost RM50,000 .

The above is indicative cost of setting up a Whole Line Wood Pellet Plant based on 2 TPH production .

You could refer to the side bar and the bottom for some pictures of the above machineries .

Call us if you need further consultation .

Pellet Mill

2010-11-21T18:29:00.010+08:00

Pellet Mill are the " HEART " for Wood Pellet Production , Very Important . All other equipment are Ancillaries .

Pellet Mill Equipment from China are still at a very infant stage as compared to American or European Pellet Mill , but pricing wise , it is only 1 / 5 the price .

Unless you are going for very high output and have the investment capacity to invest for very long term , China Machines are of better choice .

And even so , you have so many Suppliers , Hundreds maybe , some are Merc , some Toyotas and some Protons , you could guess what I mean , pricing starts from USD20,000 to USD50,000 / unit for a Pellet Mill and Whole Line Plant can range from USD200,000 to USD650,000 for a 2 TPH Line . We have scour many part of China for the right machines .

The lower range will get you to do more maintenance and lower production and the higher range might not be feasible for Malaysia Environment . So , choose wisely .
Due to it's infancy , choosing the right Pellet Mill are important as it have the following problems that need to be address :

1 ) Die Chamber too Hot thus Die will break under stress ( Die cost RM6,000 / unit )

2 ) 24 hours operation not possible

3 ) Standard Die size of 420mm Diameter ( the normal Model SZLH420 MZLH420 ) definitely cannot produce more than 2 TPH per machine , if all conditions are right maybe you would get 1.5 TPH , this is where the learning curve start , how soon can you achieve optimum production , simple calculation , shortage of 0.5 TPH X 2 machine X 16 hour / day X 26 day / month X 3 months X RM100 / ton = RM124,800 in Sales Value , so imagine the savings if it is longer than 3 months . ( Some Manufacturer are claiming above 2 TPH , even 3 TPH )
The Pellet Mill we chose have somehow resolve partially some of the above problems with the right combination of ancillaries equipment . In our opinion it is of reasonable pricing and technically capable to handle over 2 TPH wood pellet production with minimum staffing .
You are invited to visit us once production starts .
The problem above may need another 5 years to solved as the supplier of this machines learn from mistakes and improved on it .
Our target is to invest in reasonably priced machine , high efficiency and low maintenance , so that we can recoup our investment in shortest time possible and have a decent profit to show .

WOOD PELLET

2010-11-20T16:36:00.023+08:00

WOOD PELLET

This is a new industry in Malaysia with only a few small plant of 1 ton per hour ( TPH ) production .

We are putting up a 2 TPH Whole Line Wood Pellet Mill Plant operational in April 2011 .

Write us if you need Wood Pellet or want to set up a Wood Pellet Plant .

The chart shows normal Biomass Calorific Value with various Moisture Content .

These means the higher the Moisture Content ( water in the Biomass ) the lower the Calorific Value of the biomass because when you burn biomass you will need to heat the biomass to above 250 ºC . before you reach this temperature , during combustion water need to evaporate at 100 ºC , the more water you have in the biomass the more energy you need to spent to evaporate the water thus the lower Calorific Value if the MC of the biomass is high .

It means , you are buying WATER not ENERGY !!!

Many articles have put Wood Pellet Calorific Value at 4,200 kCal/kg with bulk density of 600 kg/m3 thus making it more viable to be transported over long distance as compared to woodchip at 300 kg/m3 and sawdust at 200kg/m3 .

Furthermore Wood Pellet are dry at below 10% MC thus giving it a high ratio of enegy / volume .

From the table , Wood Pellet are reasonably priced in relation to it's energy value . The high cost per ton are due to processing cost needed for densification and drying .

As Wood Pellet are of constant size it usage can be easily automated just like gas or diesel burner . And the beauty is you can achieve over 90% combustion efficiency just like gas / diesel burner as compared to normal burning in furnace which efficiency are low at below 80% combustion efficiency . It is very technical !

In fact , most European Countries and now Korea , combustion now have shift to Wood Pellet from gas or diesel due to it's availability , environmental concern and government tax on fossil fuel .

Lately there is this hot topic of turning EFB to EFB Pellet . It would be great if it is suitable and there is market for it .

We are working on launching Wood Pellet Burner in a few months time together with our Wood Pellet .

STAY TUNED .

Gasifier for Power Generation

2010-07-02T10:22:00.011+08:00

Trillion Gasifier

Now we have a gasifier which work on bi-fuel ( Diesel & Syngas ) mode to reduce the consumption of diesel for engines whether it is for electricity generation from diesel engine generator or for producing mechanical power to run water pumps .

Savings from this gasifier can reach as high as 80% .

Good thing is that this gasifier are multi fuel which means you can use different biomass like Palm Kernel Shell ( PKS ) , Wood Chip , Wood Pellet , Rice Husk , Coffee Husk & etc .

This is very important where in some places one type of biomass are scarce .

The operation of the gasifier are easy and only one operator are needed just to top up fuel and discharge ash . Gasifier cleaning only need to be carried out in interval of 200 hours operation .

In most cases the investment of the gasifier can be recoup in less than 1 year .

No modification are needed on the existing diesel engine , the supply of producer gas ( Syngas ) are just plug into the engine to reduce the consumption of diesel .

Benefits of TG70

- Multi Fuel

- Diesel Savings upto 80%

- Simple Operation

- No Modification on Engine needed

- Very Clean Gas

- Compact Design , Space Saving , Operation Cost Low

- Gauges and Sight Tube & Glass for monitoring operation

Gasifier Application

2009-07-12T19:15:00.022+08:00

Gasifier Application can be categorise into 3 broad category :

1 ) Thermal Application

2 ) Power Generation

3 ) Chemical Production

We will only delve with thermal application here .

This is a summary of article from India on ' Scaling up Biomass Gasifier use : an application specific approach ' at page 7 which I have link at the sidebar .

A partial extract of the document ,

" A large number of SMEs require substantial amounts of process heat as part of their industrial operations . These include chemicals manufacturers, large brick kilns, steel rerollers, foundries, limekilns, rubber driers, and ceramics manufacturers, to name a few categories . A number of these rely on liquid fuels, such as diesel and furnace oil , to meet process-heat requirements, thereby adding significantly to production costs due to high costs of fuel . Those enterprises that do not use liquid fuel use biomass, albeit in an inefficient manner. A shift from inefficient biomass burning to biomass gasifiers can increase the overall efficiency of the heating process substantially, often by as much as a factor of two . Our analysis shows that a replacement of either liquid-fuel combustion or solid biomass burning by gasifier-based system would lead to substantial economic and monetary benefits for the enterprise owner " .

Brick & Ceramic Industry

In many tunnel kiln , gas is used to fire the green dried brick or tiles in the process of making it hard and gives the brick or tiles strength . In this case producer gas from gasifier can be used to replace gas which are more expensive . Due to the nature of tunnel kiln which operate continously , 24 / 7 , investment in gasifier can be recoup in less than 6 months .

Steel Industry

Annealing is a heat treatment process that is used to change the properties of metal . Typically , annealing is accomplished at temperatures ranging from 760 to 910 ° celcius . These process use a lot of fuel and syngas can be use in replacement of gas or diesel fuel .

Aluminium Melter

Aluminium recycling does not damage the metal's structure and it can be recycled indefinitely . Recycling aluminium also takes a lot less energy at only 5% of the energy used to make new aluminium . As aluminium melt at around 800 ° celcius , syngas from gasifier are ideal for this purpose as syngas combustion flame temperature can reach 1,200 ° celcius .

Furnace , Dryer & Boiler

Dryer can come in many type , rotary drum dryer , conveyor dryer , tunnel kiln dryer and flash dryer to name a few .

These dryer can gets it heat from steam , hot water or hot air from combustion of fossil fuel . In place of the burner burning diesel , fuel oil or gas , syngas burner can be channel to replace this burner .

These application is very wide as there is a lot of industries using process heat for their drying , heating , cooking and steam production .

These picture show a gas burner firing into a furnace for heating purpose . The hot air is used for drying . Similarly Syngas Burner can be used in it's place for the same purpose .

Hot Mix Asphalt

Asphalt is produced by mixing bitumen , sand and aggregate together in a drum that is heated to 200 ° celcius . Consumption of fuel oil used to heat the mixture are often in the range of 5 to 7 liter of fuel oil per ton of hot mix asphalt .

In short , syngas produce from gasifier are suitable for the above application and often the replacement cost are only a fraction of fossil fuel .

Gasifier - Simple & Efficient

2009-06-02T11:26:00.010+08:00

I was just back from a trip to study a gasifier from rice husk .
Great job by the designer , simple unit , scalable , smoke free , blue flame and etc , etc .
This unit and other that they have , have very good design which I will try to explain as below :
Simple
The design was simple and easy to fabricate if you have the drawing and knowledge of gasification . Thus the cost of this gasifier will be in the range of half the cost of other gasifier I have seen .
Depending on how much automation you need which will increase the cost of the gasifier , a simple one will do for normal small scale industry cooking , heating and drying .
Scaleable
Normal 1 stove gas cooker produce about 10,000 KCal / hour themal output .
In the above video slides the gasifier produce about 25,000 KCal / hour thermal output .
For this type of gasifier it is possible to scale up to 1,500,000 KCal / hour .
This size of gasifier will save around 160 liter of diesel per hour if a diesel burner is used for thermal purpose . WOW , for some area which the rice husk is free ( you still need tranportation ) , savings from diesel fuel is 160 liter X RM1.60 per liter = RM256 per hour , RM2,048 per day ( 8 hours shift ) , RM53,248 ( 26 days working month ) . Price for this range of gasifier are around RM0.40 to RM0.50 per KCal / hour . Thus payback is in 1 year at current diesel price of RM1.60 per liter .
Smoke Free and Blue Flame
This designer method of tar cracking have manage to bring down the tar level produce in the gasifier to very minimal thus very high level of bluish flame are attained which is not normally possible for rice husk gasification .
etc,etc
Among other pros of this rice husk gasifier are
simple design - no moving parts , less breakdown , simple to operate , continous mode of gas production , easy ash disposal , cheap to fabricate , low cost , interchangeable from stove burner to jet burner , explosion proof , high efficiency and ????? cannot recall so many more !!!!!

Thank you for reading ,

I am ready to take comments ,

pls go ahead .

HURT no more for NOW !!!

2009-02-01T21:44:00.017+08:00

It have been 3 months since the last posting and oil have peak at USD147 per barrel and now hovering around USD40 per barrel .
What happen to the prediction that it could fly to USD200 , who knows ?
Today I got to take out the main picture of " Yep's It's gonna hurt " for now until the time comes by again .
Many prediction have been made on oil with most of the consumption of world oil being as per chart below :

Part of the prediction in the chart is true but due to US recession occuring now demand for oil have drop thus bringing down the price of oil .

The low oil price is not good in a sense that companies will curtail the spending on R & D to find source of renewable energy therefore slowing down the efforts of reducing the effect of Global Warming .

I remember being to a few companies which are heavy user of diesel fuel for heating purposes and gather that when Nymex oil future were above USD100 per barrel all are gearing up to change to biomass due to its lower price and insignificant fluctuation in prices . I would guess as of now none is intending to do so as price of diesel have drop back to RM1.50 per liter for industrial usage .

When will this industrialist change their mind set as oil will not continue to be low and continous burning of fossil fuel is not helping the humane cause of reducing global warming .

In short , Malaysians are not only short sighted but reluctant to move out of their comfort zone as compared to Europeans which have been changing to wood pellet heating instead of gas for the last 10 years or so .

The encouraging change over to biomass heating in house hold in Europe are due to a few factor list as below :

1 ) high government tax on fossil fuel , noticeably Europe Gas Price is over double the Rest of The World, click Link : " Gas Prices Around The World " on the sidebar

2 ) availability of convenient automated heating stove and proper fuel in wood pellet

3 ) the caring way of Europeans which are moving to complying to KYOTO PROTOCOL even though price of wood pellet are just a fraction cheaper than Heating Fuel

None of the above factor exist in Malaysia ( or even outside Europe ) thus making it difficult to convince consumer to change over to biomass for heat and power .

Malaysia Government are at least now holding the price of Industrial Diesel at RM1.50 per liter to encourage industrialist to find ways to reduce fossil fuel consumption although Nymex oil at USD40 per barrel would translate to RM1.10 per liter . These is an encouraging effort by the Government which should be applauded .

The government should do more by using the tax collected on the diesel by giving grant to companies which change from fossil fuel to biomass . These is widely practice in Europe and even Japan to encourage usage of biomass .

Here is a link to Peak Oil cartoon .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jriYKmMN8_I

Don't worry it did not happen as yet .

CHEAP OIL

2008-11-27T12:28:00.013+08:00

OIL price per barrel have fall to USD50 per barrel now which work out to around RM1.40 per liter for industrial diesel user . These is only a fraction of the peak price of around RM4.00 per liter in June 2008 .

Today we will talk about oil .

I append a few chart on oil .

Worldwide oil consumption have been stabilising at 80 million barrel per day for the last 5 years and yet there is no more significant new oil reserves found in the last 2 decades .

Although currently the price of oil have drop significantly due to recession in the USA , China and India are continuing with annual GDP growth of over 8% . Imagine this 2 country compounding growth of cars alone will consume all the supply available in a few years time .

In fact now , China monthly vehicles sales nearly top 1 million unit per month .

Therefore " PEAK OIL THEORY " are very real in time to come .

Energy & Peak Oil

2008-10-15T10:05:00.015+08:00

ENERGY AND PEAK OIL

The last few decades of mankind progress depended on oil and gas .

Over 80 % of the world energy needs are generated from oil and gas which is categorised under fossil fuel which is non renewable . Fossil fuel which takes 150 million years to be generated will be consumed in our life time and future energy needs will come from renewable sources such as solar , wind , hydro and biomass .

Many journals on energy are convinced that current oil production at around 80 million barrels per day are peaking and the spike of oil to USD147 per barrel are due to simple mathematics where demand exceed supply . Although currently oil have turn bearish to USD80 per barrel it will peak again in the future as oil are a finite resources .

A lot of hype on peak oil subject when oil shoot over USD100 and many documentaries have been made on the matter . Some even predicted it will go to USD500 per barrel !!! . It might , in the future go to this price especially when China and India have GDP growth of over 8% per annum .

High oil prices will encourage government and business sector to find ways to reduce fossil fuel consumption and spend on R & D to find alternatives . The growth of oil consumption to these level are due to low oil prices during the 1970s to 1990s where it hover below USD50 per barrel . Thus the low oil price have cause other problem such as excessive carbon dioxide emission which bring to global warming .

Earlier last month the north pole are accessible by ship for the first time due to melting ice .

High oil prices in Europe ( due to taxes by govenrment ) have created more advance technology and more changes to usage of renewable energy . Currently a high percentage of winter heating in Europe home is by biomass such as wood pellet or wood chip . A power plant in Holland even import Palm Kernel Shell from Malaysia for the combustion in their power generation plant .

In Malaysia where there is abundance of biomass but due to lack of Research and Development, biomass is only being used by certain industries which have biomass at their door step . Most other industries are using diesel or gas for their thermal needs as it is more convenient to do so .

There will come a time when oil peak again , many industries which are caught napping will file for bankcruptcies especially if their portion of energy usage are high .

And if you or your company are a high user of fossil fuel please try to change to renewable energy as global warming are real and it will affect us and our children in the future .

The famous quote :

We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children

Type of Gasifier

2008-09-01T16:06:00.018+08:00

Basically Gasifier are categorised based on the reactor design . Two main category of gasifier are fixed bed gasifier and fluidised bed gasifier .

Fixed bed gasifier then can be differentiated according to design of gas outlet which are namely :

a ) down - draught

b ) up - draught

c ) cross - draught

The different design of the gasifier cater for different kind of fuel , size of fuel , calorific value of fuel and etc . The most advance type of gasifier in the market now are mostly down - draught gasifier as it have more benefits compared to the others and therefore more research have been done on it compared to others .

In this post we will not touch on fluidised bed gasifier due to the application which are normally for bigger capacity , difficulty in controlling load changes and etc .

The main benefit of down - draught gasifier is that it produce very low tar level of syngas . These low tar syngas can therefore be use even in engine , clean combustion in furnace and lower chances of burner choking . The low tar level are due to gas produced from the reaction in the reactor need to pass through hot glowing bed of charcoal at the bottom of the reactor before exiting the reactor . The tar in the gas is therefore nearly fully combusted thus giving much more lower tar syngas . These process is called ' tar cracking ' .

The exiting syngas is further clean by a few number of filter depending on the usage of the gas .

The selection of gasifier is a very important decision as it involve many parameters that need to be taken into account . There are no gasifier that can run all type of fuel as each different fuel have different characteristic of size , moisture content and calorific value .

Factors that need to be considered are as follows :

a ) Fuel type to be used for the gasifier , these will include moisture content of the fuel , normally it must be below 25 % , rate of combustion of the fuel so the movement of the fuel from top to bottom can be calculated for the height of the reactor , calorific value of the fuel where this determine the quantity of syngas output , and etc .

b ) Current consumption of heat by diesel or gas , this factor determine the size of the gasifier so that the replacement gasifier fabricated produce the equivalent of syngas to fire the furnace with equivalent thermal energy . Mistake in determining size will end up with under size gasifier which produce smaller amount of syngas which might not be able to replace the diesel burner heat requirement thus lowering the drying or heating process of the factory . Over sizing will cause inefficiency of the gasifier and increasing the cost of the investment .

c) Integration of gasifier with the current system of the factory . Most potential client of the gasifier are reluctant to have big changes to their existing system . Therefore the new gasifier system must be able to be integrated to existing process flow without much changes and also must have the option of going back to diesel burning if needs arise . This is to ensure choices when price of diesel is low and also during maintenance of the gasifier .

d ) Automation of the gasifier are important as most current industries using diesel burner are used to automatic modulating adjustment of burner heat output . Normally there is still need for at least 1 human intervention in gasifier operation if the gasifier are automated enough . Below is a photo of fully automated gasifier producing syngas to run a generator set . This is a very small unit .

We are able to advise potential client on their need to change to gasification . Just give us a call or drop us a line through our e-mail .

Remember , Savings is over 70 % ............ and you can do your part in helping Reducing Carbon Emission .