3T/H Empty Palm Fruit Bunch Pellet Production Line in Indonesia

Indonesian customers are very interested in our palm empty fruit bunch granulator production line, and have a very large purchase intention. This time, I traveled thousands of miles to visit our factory in person, and had a detailed meeting with the engineer. After seeing the factory’s production environment and biomass pellet machine production line, the customer expressed affirmation of our factory’s production scale and technology, and successfully signed a contract with our factory to order a 3T/H palm empty fruit bunch pellet production line. Our long-term cooperation. During his visit to our factory, he gave valuable suggestions to our wood pellet machine to help our plant’s biomass pellet machine better adapt to the local market. We express our heartfelt thanks to our factory for this and look forward to long-term and extensive cooperation in the future.

Palm pellets: an emerging fuel

With the continuous development of the global economy, the existing energy resources are increasingly unable to meet the growing fuel demand, so the development of sustainable fuel resources to deal with the reduction of fossil fuels, forestry resources and environmental degradation and other issues. One of the emerging biomass resources that can solve these problems: palm pellets.

The palm is a versatile plant capable of producing a variety of biomass. The production of 1 kg of palm oil can be accompanied by the production of 4 kg of oil palm biomass. Palm biomass and its by-products are seven times that of natural wood. Palms are mainly planted in Southeast Asia, with Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand ranking the top three. In 2005, the planted area of palm in Asia was 7,599,000 hectares, producing 146,093,000 tons of fresh fruit bunches and 102,240,000 tons of empty fruit bunches.

Empty palm fruit bunch composition

Palm particles are oily and bulky, composed of cellulose and hemicellulose lignin, containing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, oxygen and other elements, and have a high moisture content of about 65%. The physical properties of palms make them valuable while also making them difficult to exploit.

Utilization rate of empty palm fruit bunches

Empty fruit bunches have traditionally been underutilized and are usually used in the following ways:

• 1. Incineration. Their ash is recycled as fertilizer for plantations, but large-scale burning is now not permitted.
• 2. Returning to the field for use as mulch not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions, but also reduces the need for artificial fertilizers by improving carbon sequestration in soil organic matter.
• 3. Some empty fruit bunches are sent to landfill.

Because the traditional utilization of palm fruit bunches is limited, a large amount of palm biomass energy is wasted. Now with the innovation of palm empty fruit bunch conversion technology, palm biomass can be successfully converted into pellet fuel for co-firing system and biomass boiler to generate steam and electricity.

Relevant data show that in 2009, 88.74 tons of empty palm fruit bunches in Asia generated 1,714 GWh of off-grid energy at a rate of 20 kWh/ton, with a total off-grid power generation of 357 MW and 400 hours/month.

Granulate palm fruit bunches

Why are palm fruit bunches made into pellets? Can’t we feed palm biomass directly into boilers or power plants? The reasons are as follows:

• 1. Generally speaking, after palm fruit bunch biomass is converted into pellets, its energy content will increase.
• 2. Palm pellet fuel or briquette with calorific value between 4,200 – 4,900 kg cal/kg 28 can be used to replace coal to relieve energy pressure and environmental pressure.
• 3. Palm pellets are sustainable and renewable, can be produced on a large scale, and are very friendly to the environment.
• 4. Palm pellets are dense and clean, easy to transport and store, and the pellets produce little smoke when burned.

Palm pellet production

Various palm pellets can be made according to different requirements of consumers. When investing in the production of palm pellets, you can refer to the following advice from mature palm pellet mills:

• 1. It is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the palm pellet production line.
• 2. The production process of palm pellets should meet the requirements of the target market.
• 3. Raw materials should be sufficient to ensure the continuity of pellet production.
• 4. The quality of raw materials must be guaranteed. The ideal moisture content of the raw material is 15%, and if it exceeds 15%, the raw material should be dried to control the moisture.
• 5. The location of the palm pellet factory should be convenient for raw material transportation.
• 6. Feasible investigations need to be conducted in advance.

Processing Technology of Empty Palm Fruit Bunches as Granules

A typical palm pellet production line includes the following sections: crushing, drying, grinding, pelletizing, cooling, screening, dust recovery and packaging.

Usually, in the whole palm pellet production line, the following equipments are involved:

• 1. Electrical cabinet (used to control the equipment in the whole palm pellet production line)
• 2. Palm Crusher (to make palm biomass into a size suitable for drying)
• 3. Dryer (control raw material moisture to meet granulation requirements)
• 4. Crusher (grinds properly sized and dry material into powder for granulation)
• 5. Palm granulator (make the prepared material into granules)
• 6. Cooling system (the temperature of the pellets coming out of the pellet machine is too high and needs to be cooled before packaging)
• 7. Packaging machine (packing palm particles into bags)

Precautions for pellet processing:

• 1. Operators should carefully read the instruction manual and be familiar with the various technological processes of the equipment before using the machine.
• 2. During the production process, it is necessary to operate strictly in accordance with the regulations and sequence, and perform installation operations according to its requirements.
• 3. The host equipment needs to be installed and fixed on the horizontal concrete floor, and the screws should be tightened.
• 4. Smoking and open flames are strictly prohibited in the production site.
• 5. After each start-up, it needs to idle for a few minutes first, and confirm that the pressure roller fits the mold and rotates before feeding.
• 6. It is strictly forbidden to add hard debris such as stones and metals to the feeding device, and remove iron before granulation to avoid damage to the granulation chamber.
• 7. During the operation of the equipment, it is strictly forbidden to use hands or other tools to remove materials to avoid danger.
• 8. If there is abnormal noise during the production process, the power supply must be cut off immediately, and the machine can be started to continue production after checking and handling the abnormal situation.
• 9. Before shutting down, first stop the auxiliary feeding, and then put in the oil, and wait until the mold hole is filled with oil and the granulation chamber is empty of oil before shutting down. The purpose of feeding oil is to make it easier to discharge during the next production.

Correctly operate the pellet machine as required, and pay attention to relevant matters as required, not only can improve the output and operating performance of the equipment, but also prolong the service life of the equipment.