When I published the introductory column in Particle Mill, I received direct feedback from an unexpected place: China.
Like other Asian countries, China is not only planning to increase the particle consumption of coal power plants, but is still busy building a pellet power plant. From my conversation with the director of a particle factory in China, I learned that when it comes to different types. When we use wood raw materials, we need to consider more variables.
We all know how to deal with soft wood such as pine and spruce, even hardwood such as oak and beech. But what about the mixture of two-thirds of wood chips and one-third of the powder using mahogany residue? Brinell hardness 3.1N/mm 2, mahogany almost and oak (3.5N/mm 2) and beech (3.7N/mm) 2) as hard.
The biggest difference is that redwood is a very oily wood, so it is more difficult to pelletize. High oil content does not allow high water content. However, due to low water content, dust emissions increase, resulting in decreased production efficiency, particle quality degradation, fire The risk increases. So what should I do?
Adding an adhesive like starch is not an effective solution because these adhesives do not bind the powder. However, soon a company will provide a dust-proof additive for wood particles.
Adjusting humidity is a way to regulate dust, but there are limits to the amount of humidity – not only because of the particle standard, but also because buyers are not willing to pay for water. One way to get a better product is to improve the pretreatment. Before the feeder homogenizes the material, install the mixer, which will provide a good mixing material for the pellet machine.
Due to the political framework supporting biomass, Japan and South Korea are currently the main drivers of the Asian biomass energy market, which has been exponentially growing since 2012. South Korea imported 2.4 million tons of pellets, leading Asia's biomass demand. More than 80% The products are from Southeast Asia, Vietnam is a major supplier of palm kernel shells, and palm kernel shells account for a large proportion of woody biomass used in Asia. Japan's annual demand for 500,000 tons of pellets is mainly from Canada (71%). However, palm kernel shell (PKS) has 1.4 million tons, accounting for the vast majority of biomass.
The positive trend in the Asian biomass market will continue in the long run as the green policy will not change in the short term and six new biomass power plants have been approved.
Author: Holger Streetz
Bathan AG, International Operations Manager
