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TECHNICAL ANALYSIS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY POTENTIAL FROM OIL PALM FRONDS AS BIOMASS THROUGH GASIFICATION IN PENGALIHAN VILLAGE, KERITANG DISTRICT, RIAU

Special Week Rotation

Zahra Fitria Amri

Presidential Development Program SRE UI 2025

1. Background

By 2025, it is expected that the renewable energy mix can grow to 23%. A dissemination meeting conducted between GIZ and Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources set bioenergy shares at 69,58% in the national energy mix target, slightly higher than any other renewable energy sources considering the massive potential of Indonesia’s agroindustry. The meeting also identifies biomass and biogas use in 3 key agroindustries namely palm oil, sugar, and pulp and paper, where biomass utilization shares a 17.56% of the national energy mix target. One way to achieve it is through the development of bioenergy power plants. One of the most significant biomass potentials in Indonesia is from solid waste from oil palm plantations. Oil palm plantations in Indonesia are the largest source of biomass with a total electricity energy that can be generated of 5495 MWe. The sources come from plantation wastes (oil palm fronds and oil palm trunks) or waste from oil palm mill production (meso scrap fiber, palm kernel shell, and oil palm mill effluent). Indonesia has five provinces with the most extensive oil palm plantations, namely, South Sumatra, Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, North Sumatra, and Riau. Of these 26 provinces, Riau Province is the province with the largest oil palm plantation area in Indonesia, namely 2.86 million hectares in 2021 or 19.55 percent of the total oil palm plantation area in Indonesia.

One of oil palm plantation wastes are oil palm fronds oil palm fronds during pruning and replantation activities are always stacked and collected at an average production rate of 9.8 t-dry/ha-estate/year and 14.9 t-dry/ha-replantation/year. A study showed that in dry basis, oil palm fronds contain 25.5% hemicellulose material, which has excellent potential to be used as a raw material for biofuels and bio-based material production. One technology that can be used to convert biomass into alternative energy without producing emissions is gasification. Gasification is the process of converting solid or liquid raw materials into thermochemical gases. Different to combustion, gasification produces higher efficiency, and the pollutants are still below emissions standards. The gasification process consists of several sequential stages, namely, the drying, pyrolysis, partial oxidation, and reduction stages. Gasification reactions occur in a reactor called a gasifier, one type of gasifier that is widely used is the downdraft. A downdraft gasifier has the advantage of a high carbon conversion rate, low tar production, and simple construction compared to other types, making it more feasible for microgrid electrification.