Palm Fiber Pellet Machine

• RICHI palm kernel pellet making machine adopts advanced gear-driving system with motors, stable and reliable.
• RICHI efb pellets equipment adopts high-qualified components, with stable performance, long service life and low noise.
• Whole transmission parts (including motor) of this palm pellet machine chooses high-quality SKF bearings to ensure the transmission efficient, stable, low noise. Main motor choose Siemens.
• This type biomass pellet mill is equipped with full single layer stainless steel feeder, forced feeder, ring die and cutter.
• Adopting international advanced technology on this palm kernel pellets making machine: German gun drill and vacuum furnace heat manufacturing process in ring die making to ensure the pellets smooth and of high quality.

01

Empty Fruit Bunches (EFBs)

In contrast to palm kernel shells and fibers, empty fruit bunches can not only be burned, but can also be shipped directly back to the palm garden for fertilizer use.

02

Palm Kernel Shell (PKS)

In traditional waste treatment methods, the pressed fibers and shells of palm mills are often used as fuel for steam boilers. After being processed into granules, it has a higher calorific value and is more environmentally friendly. These two solid fuels alone can generate enough energy to meet the consumption needs of palm oil mills.

The creation of waste pellets by converting waste from crude palm oil industry and biodiesel production to create compressed pellets is suitable for combustion as an energy sources. The process is easy and does not require heat input or a chemical change.

Energy content of pellets composing glycerin and biomass is 19.7 MJ/kg of pellet which is more than some another wastes such as dry wood, household waste, waste wood, and animal waste.

The efb biomass pellet plant pelletisation process consists of multiple steps, including pre-treatment of raw material, pelletisation, and post-treatment. The figure below presents the schematic of the palm pellet production process.

Generally speaking, just using a palm fiber pellet machine cannot support efficient efb pellet processing, and equipment for making efb pellet such as good quality efb sawdust hammer mill, high efficiency wood chips, high drying efficiency efb rotary dryer, efb pellet cooler machine, pellet screening machine, biomass pellet bagging machine, etc., are also required.

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  palm frond chipper

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  palm kernel shell dryer

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  palm kernel hammer mill

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  pellet cooling machine

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  screening machine

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  pellet bagging machine

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  palm leaf shredder

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  conveying machine

Generally speaking, it takes 50,000-3 million USD to establish a 1-100 tons per hour efb pellet plant. Economic analysis of efb pellet fuel production must consider relationship of cost, revenue, and profit; according to pelletizing process. Those parameters are:

• Cost of raw material that is varied by difference of raw material ratio;
• Transportation cost which is varied by distance between raw material site and efb pelletizing factory;
• Cost of efb pellet production line pelletizing process that is depended on size, initial cost and processing cost.

Here is an example of the design of a 5 tons per hour palm fiber pellet plant:

Crushing section—cleaning section—drying section—granulation section—cooling section—packing section

The palm waste is coarsely crushed by a drum-type disintegrator and then cut into fine powder by a special palm shredder. Then use the primary cleaning sieve and enter the three-layer drum dryer to dry the raw materials with a moisture content of 50% to about 15%, and finally carry out granulation processing with palm fiber pellet machine.

The diameter of the processed finished product pellets is 6-10mm optional, and after granulation, the pellets are cooled. Finally, it is packed into 20-50kg/bag by small bag packing scale, which is convenient for transportation and sale.

The project is a palm waste biomass pellet production line with an output of 5 tons per hour. The efb pellet plant cost is 300,000-450,000 USD. The total power of the equipment is about 890kw.

The workshop covers an area of 2,400 square meters, including raw material warehouses and finished product warehouses; the entire line is compact in design, reasonable in structure, and meets environmental protection requirements. And according to customer requirements for directional design.

1. Crushing section: Palm shells, palm leaves, and palm fruit are first passed through a drum disperser, and the long fibrous palm silk is coarsely powdered into 5-10cm long, and then cut into palm grass powder with a special palm shredder.
   
   After crushing, the material is conveyed and discharged by the negative pressure suction of the fan, with high output and low pollution, which can effectively suppress the dust pollution in the workshop.
2. Cleaning section: The purpose of the cleaning section is to clean up the larger impurities in the raw materials, so as to prevent the mechanical equipment and conveying equipment in the next process from malfunctioning or being damaged.
3. Drying section: three-layer drum dryer, the moisture of the material after drying is about 13-18%.
4. Granulation section: Palm fiber pellet machines used in this stage. The diameter of biomass palmako pellets is 6-10mm optional. Biomass palm pellets have the characteristics of high calorific value, no pollution, and low ash content.
5. Cooling section: It is used to reduce the temperature of the pellets and reduce the moisture of the pellets. The temperature of the pellets after cooling is generally not higher than room temperature by 5°C. The moisture of the pellets after cooling is about 8-10%, and the bulk density of the pellets is 650-750kg/m3.
6. Packing section: According to the customer's local sales needs, we can choose the appropriate packing scale to facilitate the customer to sell products. There are usually two specifications: 500-1000kg/bag small bag and ton bag.

According to the needs of different customers, the solution can optimize the configuration:

1. If necessary, buffer bins can be added between each section to replace the storage yard. The advantage is that it can improve the automation of the production line and reduce the dust pollution in the workshop; the disadvantage is that it will increase the construction cost of the pks & efb pellet production line, and because of The bulk density of the material is very light, and it is easy to arch in the warehouse without cutting.
2. If the moisture content of the raw material is not higher than 15%, it is possible to granulate directly after crushing without using a dryer; if it is higher than 15% but lower than 20%, it may be considered to mix the dry material with the wet material and then mix the moisture After neutralization and reduction, proceed to granulation;
3. The packaging equipment can be adjusted according to the customer's requirements for the finished product packaging. It can also be stored in bulk or in steel silos.

• Indonesia is the absolute number one palm tree country in the world, and the planting area that has grown explosively in recent years is entering the harvest period.
• Malaysia's production ranks second, but much smaller than that of Indonesia. Malaysia's palm and natural rubber have not grown much in the last decade.
• Thailand and some tropical countries have also added a lot of palm trees in the past ten years.
• Of course, with the exception of some countries with cooler climates, most countries have some resources of palm waste.

Experiment had been done to study particle size, raw material: water: waste glycerol ratio, temperature of adhesive (waste glycerol), palm fiber and palm shell ratio; to find optimum condition of ingredient for pelletized efb pellet fuel. The best practice efb pellets made by efb pellet machine was considered by pelletized percent, density, heating value, ash content, moisture content, volatile matter, and fix carbon content.

Particle size of palm fiber affects pelletized percent, specific density; but do not affect moisture content of pellets and ash content which is different insignificant values. Using mixed particle size (<2 mm), the palm pellets made by palm fiber pellet machine will have more than 50 pelletized percent.

Moreover, the efb pellets have high specific density and lowest ash content. For small particle (<0.5 mm), pelletized percent and density of the pellets are higher than 0.5 to 1.0 mm particles. It is also found that, the smaller particles, the higher ash content in pelletized palm fuel.

High water ratio lowers heating value of palm pellets because the higher water ratio, the more energy to dry the fuel. The higher waste glycerol ratio, the higher pellet density. Pelletized percent and heating value are also increase with glycerol ratio. Moreover, adding glycerol as adhesive increase fix carbon content of palm pelelts  but decrease pelletized percent.

In generally, ash, bulk density, heating value, pelletized percent, fix carbon content, and volatile matter; affect quality of efb pellets fuel in different way - i.e. low ash increase combustibility, high bulk density fuel is convenient to be transported, heating value must be high enough to supply the need of industries, high pelletized percent will make higher yield for EFB pelletizing process, etc.

Furthermore, high fix carbon content and volatile matter pellets made by palm pellet machine are easy to be combusted but have higher smoke. In the other hand, low volatile matter pellet have higher density.

From experiment, optimum ratio of pelletized fuel ingredient - raw material (palm fiber): water: waste glycerol; was equal to 50: 10: 40 respectively.

Pellets at this ratio which contain only palm fiber as raw material have acceptable quality in almost all parameters according to fuel standard except ash content that higher than the standard.

The palm pellets must be reacted by horizontal force due to packaging, storage, and transportation. Therefore, horizontal compressive strength of efb pellets must be considered. It was found that pellet with raw material ratio 80:20 (wt%) of palm fiber and palm shell respectively with particle size of raw material <2 mm, and added heated glycerol at optimum ratio of 50:10:40 (wt%) raw material, water, glycerol respectively; had average horizontal compressive force 5.37 MPa.

 

Fuel plays an important role in household, business, and industrial sectors. Especially, in business and industrial uses which about 60% of energy used are imported. Thus, sustainable fuel energy development in Thailand and similar countries must consider limited energy resources and there usage.

Selected fuel must be cheap, abundant, and environmental friendly. According to the policies of Thailand and other countries to promote biofuel as renewable energy, oil palm cultivated area has been increasing.Crude palm oil production left large amount of palm fiber and shell as waste. To increase their value, palm fiber and shell were selected to be raw materials of pelletized fuel.

Despite most wastes from palm oil production are currently used, i.e. palm shell is sold to be fuel in other industries or used as raw material for pellets, empty palm fruit brunch is used for mushroom production, and palm fiber is used as fuel for electricity and steam production in factories; a lot of palm fiber is still left as waste because its bulky particles which are difficult for transportation.

Palm fiber is a possible raw material to be pelletized to be used in industrial furnace. There were a lot of researches reported that biowaste such as bean pod, cereal husk, cotton waste, wheat straw, etc.; can be pelletized to be utilized as good fuel.

• Need No Additives While Pelleting: Oil palm fiber is extracted from empty fruit bunches. It contains about 13-25% of lignin and 43-65% of cellulose. And the content of lignin is a key component for making pellets by efb pellet machinewithout adding additives.
• Low Moisture: The moisture content of EFB pellets is around 8-12% while the moisture of shredded EFB fiber is generally around 60%. It means that you can save your costs on transportation.
• High Heating Energy and Thoroughly Combustion: EFB pellets made by palm fiber pellet machine have a high calorific value of 4300-4800kWhr/ton, which equals to sub-bituminous coal and high density wood pellets. Palm fiber is proved to be very effective when burning. EFB pellets can be burned thoroughly and there is only 5% of substance left over as ash content.
• Generate Little smoke During Combustion: EFB pellets made by palm tree fuel pellet making machine generate little smoke while burning which means very minimum particulate being discharge to the air.
• Abundant Material Resources: It is very popular and common in Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia, Thailand. You can easily get sufficient materials from palm oil plants with very low price.

• EFB pellets easy handling and storage
  They can be packed in a bag with weight around 700-800kg per bag with bulk bag packing machine. In a standard 20ft container, palm EFB pellets can be packed into 40 jumbo bags, which mean a 20 feet container can ship around 28MT of EFB pellet.
• Easy control and broad application
  Pellet size is small in dimension and easy for repack if house-hold application is needed. Some of the palm EFB pellets made by efb fiber pellet mill are repacked into convenient bag size in order to be sold to end users for BBQ burning substance.
• EFB pellet suitable for most boiler grating system
  Pellets made by efb wood pellet machine normally come in 8mm diameter and length about 20-30mm. This is also a suitable dimension for most of the boiler input grate.
• EFB pellets generate low to no smoke during the combustion
  Air pollution is one of the hot topics that always draws many users' attention. One of the significant advantages for palm pellet made by RICHI super quality efb pellet mill machine  is that it will not generate smoke or fume during the combustion process, which means very minimum particulate being emitted to the air.

Palm fiber contains significantly high ash content (9.84%). It composes of 43.25% carbon, 28.65% oxygen, 5.93% hydrogen, and the rests 0.12 to 0.39% are sulfur and nitrogen. It can be calculated that heating value of palm fiber is 19.62 MJ/kg which is slightly higher than palm shell (17.776 MJ/kg).

Chemical composites of palm fiber and palm shell are similar (Table 2). The main chemical composition are SiO2, CaO, Al2O3 and K2O. It is also shown that palm fiber contains Al2O3, SiO2, CaO and Fe2O3 more than palm shell.

Waste glycerin generated from transesterification process contains alcohol, catalyst residue, carry-over fat/oil, and some esters. Heating value of glycerin is slightly less than palm fiber and palm shell. A kilogram of glycerin burned gives 19.71 MJ/kg of energy.