Hello Keith, ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 11:12 AM Subject: [Biofuel] Fwd: Information on Sawdust processing
> Greetings all > > I was sent this by an NGO in Sri Lanka. Any advice for them? They're > not list members, but I'll forward any responses. > Thanks! > regards > > Keith > > -------- > > From: "National Development Foundation" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Information on Sawdust processing > Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 23:13:12 +0600 > > National Development Foundation > > 63/2, Yahampath Mawatha, Piliyandala Road, Maharagama, Sri Lanka. > > Tele: +(94)-011-5526679 or +(94)-011-5522776 E-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Monday, October 25, 2004, > > Journey to Forever Organisation. > > Dear Sir/Madam, > > Ours is a Non-governmental, non-profit making organisation devoted to > development through self-help development programmes. We also > carryout environmental protection programmes with local communities > in Sri Lanka. > > Recently we were informed of a long-standing problem in a suburban > city, due to sawdust. There are large numbers of timber mills, > carpentry workshops and woodwork centers in the area. They produce > tons and tons of saw dust and dump them into the nearby lake > polluting the area. Recently the government has no other alternative, > but found another dumping site and the sawdust is now dumped in this > site spending large sums of money for transportation. For a > developing country like ours this type of spending is unaffordable. Truly a huge waste of a very valuable resource. What an unnecessary, avoidable and costly expense for dumping/disposing of this "waste"! And the pollution. > We have been trying to find a solution to re-cycle and use saw dust. > As we understand, it is possible to make Sawdust Bars - fire logs, > briquettes etc or even insulating boards if properly experimented. We > were also made to understand that there are many organisations, > private sector companies engaged in this business. A good idea would be to convert the saw dust into fuel briquettes using either punch-and-ram or extrusion presses. The briquettes from the former cost less to make while those from the latter retain their structural integrity better over time. The fuel briquettes could be used as fuel in the local rural economy replacing logged wood/coal/paraffin. We have a large number of briquette manufacturers in India. However, since densification of biomass (which is what briquetting does) adds only limited economic value by reducing specific transport cost without adding to the calorific value, they have limited markets in tea/coffee plantations, where felling of alternative biomass such as trees is banned, to prevent landslides. > We thought of searching for a simple technology that could be > introduced to the low-income generation groups in the area, > especially to the women, who could produce some type of an item to > the market, could be a fire log, a briquette or an item that could be > used in daily life. The saw dust briquettes could be very gainfully converted into high quality energy such as producer gas to replace fossil fuels, or as electricity. Gasifiers use the briqettes as feedstock, when solid biomass is converted into producer gas viz. a mixture of combustible gases such as H2, CO, CH4 and inerts such as CO2 , N2. The producer gas is then cooled, cleaned and used in conventional (compression ignition) diesel generators replacing about 70-80% of the diesel otherwise used in the liquid fuel mode. Alternatively, the gas can be used to generate electricity in the gas alone mode using spark ignition natural gas engine generators, with special adapation kits to operate on producer gas. In a developing country such as Sri Lanka with limited fossil fuel resources, the generation cost of electricity would be significantly higher in the dual fuel mode with imported diesel compared to the gas alone mode with locally generated biomass. Such a 100% gas engine based power plant would have a number of advantages. The electricity required for the briquetting plant could be supplied from the power plant itself, adding to the green dot nature of the plant. The plant can be configured from 20 kWe to 2000 kWe capacity, depending upon saw dust generation and the local power requirements. Electricity would be generated at the "pit head" avoiding the transmission and distribution losses of centralised power grids. And the gasifier power plant would be a force multiplier for the local economy whose needs are now met with local fuel. The other inherent advantages such as pollution avoidance and saving in disposal cost and effort cannot be overemphasised. (Below, In Rs. stands for Indian Rupees, SL Rs. is Sri Lankan Rupees and US c and $ are United States cent and dollar resp.) Assuming the delivered cost of saw dust as zero (savings in disposal cost), the briquetting cost would be about $ 10/MT (In Rs. 450/MT). including power, manning and maintenance costs. The generation cost/kWh of electricity in the 100% gas mode would then work out to : 1. Cost of raw material @ 1.2 kg/kWh @ $ 10/MT=US c 1.20 (In Rs. 0.55) 2. Cost of lube oil @ 1.5 gm/kWh @ $ 2/kg= US c 0.33 (In Rs. 0.15) 3. Cost of manning @ 8 manhours/MWh @ $ 5/manhour= US c 0.45 (In Rs. 0.20) 4. Other maintenance costs @ 5% of the capital investment= US c 0.57 (In Rs. 0.25) 5. Interest & amortisation costs @ US c 0.8/kWh= US c 0.80 (In Rs. 0.35) Total generation cost/kWh= US c 3.35 (In Rs. 1.50) If on the other hand you assume the landed cost of saw dust as US $ 20/MT (In Rs. 900/MT), as we do for most woody biomass in India, the feedstock cost would increase by another US c 2.4 and generation cost would increase to US c 5.75/kWh (In Rs. 2.65/kWh). These are achieved numbers on installations which have already worked over 6,000 hours at several locations. In the dual fuel mode, using about 90 ml of diesel/kWh for replacing 70% of diesel in a conventional generator @ US $ 0.65/l would add another US c 5.9/kWh (In Rs. 2.70/kWh). I believe, the Sri Lankan utilities charge the consumer about SL Rs. 10/kWh (In Rs. 5/kWh), making this power plant a very profitable project, not counting the substantial environmental, social and local economic benefits. Funding such a project in Sri Lanka should not be difficult as the Government itself has a policy of encouraging renewable energy projects with capital subsidy and the project will also qualify for CDM/JI funding under the Kyoto protocol, if additionality can be established. The CGPL, IISc technology we employ has already been tried out at a pencil factory for over 2500 hours, where saw dust, 'a waste product' of pencil manufacture is being briqetted in situ and gasified to generate 200 kW of electricity in a dual fuel diesel generator. > If we could introduce this type of a technology then it will help the > poor to generate income. On the other side it will arrest the > pollution problem in the area and save public money that is spent at > present for clearing and dumping. > > Considering the above we are very much obliged if you could help us > in finding a technological enterprise who would willing to conduct an > investigation on this matter. > > Since ours is a NGO, we are unable to fund such a programme. If the > programme proves to be successful, we may be able to convince a > suitable and sympathetic funding agency to support the initial stages > of this challenging project. > > I send an article as an attachment to this e-mail that describes the > problem in the area. > > We sincerely hope that you will give your sympathetic consideration > to this request. > > Thanking you and hoping to hear from you favourably, > > Sincerely yours, > > Upali Magedaragamage, > > Executive Director, > > NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION. > <snip> Regards. balaji _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable): http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
