A
BSTRACT
As Thai’s energy security is extremely relied on the
imported crude oil product
,
Thai’s government promoted
the use of alternative energy sources as the substitute to
fossil fuel through the Alternative Energy Development
Plan. By which, 3,630 MW electricity should be derived
from biomass or agricultural residues in 2021.
Although
some agricultural residues have been commercially used
as fuel in biomass power plants, corn residues are still
leftover and have high energetic potential in some
regions, e.g. in the northern part of Thailand. This study
will focus on the supply chain management of using corn
residues as alternative energy source for power
production in Nakorn Sawan and Petchchaboon. In 2011,
almost two million tons of corn residues were generated;
about 200,000 tons of which was corncob (HHV of 15-16
MJ/kg) and the rest were corn trash/skin and stem (HHV
of 13-15 MJ/kg).
Because of the uniform and compact
shape of corncobs, they are completely utilized as fuels in
a stoker fired boiler for heat production. In contrast, corn
trash/skin and stem are leftover in the field or burnt on
field without any energy recovery because corn trash/skin
and stem are bulky and non-uniform fuel with high
moisture content which leads to the difficulty in
collection, transportation as well as in thermal
conversion. Resulting from this study, the processing
unit, e.g. drying, grinding and pelletizing of corn
trash/skin and stem is necessary to improve the properties
of corn trash/skin and stem to be used as solid fuel. This
processing unit can be established centralized or on field
where residues are generated. Regarding to economic
analysis including raw material cost, collection cost,
transportation cost and processing cost, the overall cost of
bio-pellet from corn trash/skin and stem is estimated to be
49.4-56.8 US$ per ton depending on the pelletizing
capacity. The bio-pellets from corn residue can easily be
transported for a long distance to be used as feedstock for
heating or power generation by direct combustion, co-
firing or gasification technology.
Keywords: Alternative Energy, Bio-fuel, Corn Residues,
Supply Chain Management
Corresponding Author
I
NTRODUCTION
The increasing in Thai’s population, the expansion of
Thai economy as well as the growth the industrial and
manufacturing sectors leads to the increasing demand of
energy and final energy consumption. The final energy
consumption in Thailand in 2012 was accounted for
73,316 ktoe which was increase 3.9 % from 2011. The
most important energy source used in Thailand is derived
from fossil fuel, e.g. petroleum products, natural gas and
coal with its share of 82 % of final energy consumption in
2012 [1]. Because Thailand has an inadequate source of
crude oil and low rank coal, Thailand has to import crude
oil and good quality coal to be used for domestic
consumption, resulted in a high expense of more than
1,000 million Baht [1] in 2012 and the imported crude oil
as well as fossil energy sources is predicted to be
increased continuously. As the consequence of using
fossil fuel, CO
2
is emitted during the energy conversion
process. In 2012, the amount of CO
2
emission in Thailand
was estimated to be 221,458 kton where power
generation sector is the main source of CO
2
emission (40
% of total CO
2
emission) [1].
Since Thailand has spent a large amount of money for
importing fossil fuel and faced to the problem of
increasing CO
2
emission, there are many attempts to
reduce both the use of fossil fuel and the CO
2
emission by
using renewable energy as a substitute to fossil fuel. This
renewable energy includes solar energy, wind energy,
hydro energy as well as energy derived from biomass. As
Thailand is the agricultural based country, there are a lot
of agricultural crops, e.g. paddy rice, sugarcane, cassava
and palm oil. During the harvesting and processing of
these agricultural crops, some residues are left over, e.g.
rice straw and rice husk from paddy rice, bagasse and
sugarcane leave from sugarcane, cassava rhizome from
cassava as well as palm oil shell, palm oil fiber and palm
oil empty fruit bunch from palm oil fruit. These residues
have a very high potential to be used as renewable
energy. Ministry of Energy of Thailand has promoted the
use of biomass as alternative fuel by announcing the
10-Years of Alternatives Energy Development Plan
(AEDP, 2012-2021). The objective of this AEDP is to
strengthen and promote the utilization of renewable
energy in order to replace the fossil fuel consumption.
The main target of AEDP is to increase the portion of
Approach of Using Corn Residues as Alternative Energy
Source for Power Production: A Case Study for Corn from
Northern Plain Area of Thailand
S. Kerdsuwan and K. Laohalidanond
The Waste Incineration Research Center, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, 1518 Pibulsongkram Rd., Bangsue, Bangkok, 10800 (
Thailand)
2013 International Conference on Alternative Energy in Developing Countries and Emerging Economies
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