Abstract:
The use of industrial biomass boilers in Sri Lanka is important to fulfill the energy requirement in
production processes. The largest number of biomass boilers are leading to several environmental
problems today. The fuel source for those boilers is well-grown trees, especially rubber. The main idea
behind this study was to evaluate the total amount of biomass required for the biomass boilers and
propose environmentally friendly fuel replacements to protect the environments while keeping the
industrial processes. There are around 400 bio mass boilers operating around Sri Lanka and it uses
approximately 3200 metric tons of biomass to produce the daily steam demand. Therefore, most of the
industries are currently using rubber wood as the biomass source. However, in this study, it has been
calculated and shown that annual rice straw energy potential can be used to fulfill the 257 days of steam
demand and annual energy potential of rice husk can be used to fulfill the 246 days of steam demand in
Sri Lanka. However, it is identified Most suitable plantation is Dendro as it has several side benefits. To
overcome annual steam demand from biomass boilers, it is required to maintain around 13000 hectares of
Dendro plantation annually.
