Solid fuel feedstock from leaves litter of industrial forestry in Riau, Indonesia

Abstract

Currently, the ratio of rural electrification by state electricity company (PT. PLN) in Riau is approximately 58.79% which resulted in the slow growth of the rural economy. A total of 277 unit of the electricity generator owned by PT PLN with total installed capacity of 220 thousand KW is only able to meet 19% of electricity in Riau, and 81% of the rest is purchased and acquired from other units. As the region that consists of 61% forestry, Riau has the potency to utilize the biomass energy to meet the electricity in the rural area. Moreover, 43% of forestry area is the industrial production forest that supplied the wood material for two international pulp and paper industry in Riau. Majority planted vegetation to this forest types is Accacia spp and Eucalyptus spp. The leaves litter generated from Accacia and Eucalyptus vegetation reaches 4.4 and 13 tons ha-1 yr-1, respectively. The current utilization of leaves and other litter fall are just left in the area of plantation or burned after harvested. The calorific value of Accacia and Eucalyptus leaves litter are 13.33 MJ/kg and 17.26 MJ/kg, respectively. Utilization of leaves litter from the industrial forestry has a potential to meet the energy needs in Riau by 0.167 EJ/yr.