2011 International Conference on Alternative Energy in Developing Countries and Emerging Economies
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Abstract
--
Fast pyrolysis is a thermal decomposition
process that occurs in the absence of oxygen to convert
biomass into liquid products (Biomass to liquid, BtL). BtL
produced from different pyrolysis reactors, and by
differenct factors such as biomass type, feedstock
pretreatment (particle size and shape, moisture and ash
contents), pyrolysis condition (temperature heating rate,
residence time, pressure, gaseous environment) as well as
vapor filtration and condensation. As a result, the product
properties of different BtL usually vary in wide ranges. This
paper is concerned with economics assessment of the
possible BtL production chain. It is necessary to have an
understanding of the transport costs, amount and chemical
compositions, and location of accruance of biogenic
residues. Palm kernel shells are selected as the most
promising biomass type for the further considerations of
this study. It was found that there are palm kernel shells
about 847,674 tons/a in Southern Thailand. To build a fast
pyrolysis plant with a thermal input capacity of about 100
MW are 5 plants. It is able to produce biosyncrude or slurry
which is a use to one central 500 MW gasification plant for
produce synfuel.
The results show that the production cost
of slurry is 20 bath/liter and production cost of snyfuel is 42
bath/liter. Production costs of synfuel consist of 47 % slurry
including transportation cost and 27 % capital cost. Finally,
the economical analysis of the production of slurry and
synfuel are performed and its payback period is short.
Index Terms
—
cost estimation, biomass to liquid, fast
pyrolysis, slurry, synfuel.
I. I
NTRODUCTION
It is well known that global use of energy has been
growing faster than the world population; the
development of energy sources is not keeping pace with
spiraling consumption. The world major energy demand
is provided from the convectional energy sources such as
coal, oil, natural gas and so on the life of all the
convectional fuels is limited by the present and
foreseeable future energy consumption of the world. So
the attention is being given to new and renewable energy
sources such as solar, wind, thermal, hydroelectric, and
biomass. Electricity production based on fossil or nuclear
fuels requires more cost than use renewable energy
sources [1].
Thailand is a developing country which is achieving
constant upward industrial growth in past few decades.
This work was supported by National Innovation Agency (NIA)
Thailand.
Likewise, its commercial energy consumption is also
growing with the same pace of high economic growth and
industrial development.
Thailand’s final energy
consumption in 2010 was 71,166 ktoe, an increase of
6.7% from the previous year. The total value of final
energy consumption was 1,294 billion Baht. Commercial
energy consumption was shared 81.1% of the total final
energy consumption, and the rest 18.9% was renewable
energy. Total final commercial energy consumption was
57,749 ktoe, an increase of 6.5% from the previous year.
Of this amount, petroleum products consumption totaled
32,997 ktoe, increased 4.2%, electricity 12,737 ktoe,
increased 10.6%, coal & Its Products 7,061 ktoe,
decreased 5.8%, and natural gas 4,954 ktoe, increased
38.8%, while renewable energy consumption (fuel wood,
charcoal, paddy husk, bagasse, agricultural waste,
garbage and biogas) was 13,417 ktoe, increased 7.7%.
However petroleum products consumption played the
greatest proportion 46.4% of the total final energy
consumption, followed by renewable energy, electricity,
coal/lignite and natural gas shared 18.8%, 17.9%, 9.9%
and 7.0% respectively [2].
It is well known that transport is almost totally
dependent on fossil particularly petroleum based fuels
such as gasoline, diesel fuel, liquefied petroleum gas, and
compressed natural gas. As the amount of available
petroleum decreases, the need for alternate technologies
to produce liquid fuels that could potentially help prolong
the liquid fuels culture and mitigate the forthcoming
effects of the shortage of transportation fuels increases.
There are several reasons for biofuels to be considered as
relevant technologies by both developing and
industrialized countries. They include energy security
reasons, environmental concerns, foreign exchange
savings, and socioeconomic issues related to the rural
sectors of all countries in the world [3]; biofuel is
becoming increasingly important because of its
environmental benefits.
Biomass represents a renewable domestic source of
liquid and solid fuels. Biomass is clean for it has
negligible content of sulphur, nitrogen and ash, which
give lower emissions of SO
2
, NO
x
, and CO
2
emission can
be achieved zero because it will be recycled into the
plants by photosynthesis quantitatively [4]. It has been
widely reported the feasibility of using agricultural by-
products or biomass as renewable source of energy by
means of pyrolysis and gasification processes [5].
Analysis of Costs Estimation for Biomass to
Liquid (BtL) Production in Southern Thailand
K. Hussaro*, M. Fr
ö
hling**, and F. Trippe**
*Rattanakosin College for Sustainable Energy and Environment,
Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin, (
Thailand
)
**Institute of Industrial Production, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, (
Germany
)
