Alternative fuel for biomass boilers in Sri Lanka

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.