Feedstock Security Analysis for Wood Pellet Production in Thailand

Piyarath Saosee,Shabbir H Gheewala,Boonrod Sajjakulnukit

doi:10.3390/en13195126

Abstract

Thailand is one of the upcoming wood pellet exporters in the Southeast Asia region. Wood pellet production has been gradually increasing in Thailand; however, the recent trend is more rapid. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the feedstock security for wood pellet production in Thailand. The important issue of feedstock security analysis relates to availability and diversity of feedstock (Shannon index) to meet the increased demand for the wood pellets in the future. The results present that the feedstock supply (from waste wood and fast-growing tree wood) in Thailand is 5.32 million tonnes of wood pellets per year. However, increasing 25% of wood pellet export and 50% of wood pellet domestic use causes a deficit in fast-growing tree wood because para-rubber waste wood is not distributed uniformly in all regions of the country. The present diversity of feedstock supply is quite low (Shannon index 0.17). Increasing the fast-growing tree plantation area in the wastelands could help increase diversity. Recommendations on policy from this study focus on encouragement for the increase in domestic use of wood pellets, cultivation of fast-growing trees in wasteland and optimized logistics management.

Highlights

The use of biomass as renewable energy is broadly accepted for substituting fossil fuels [1].Wood pellets are solid fuels made from biomass, especially waste wood
The results indicate that the wood pellet demand for Thailand in 2025 will surge to 582,000 tonnes
The trend of wood pellet demand, with export and domestic use increasing by 10–150% from the values in 2018, was forecast to be within a range of 398,000 to 904,000 tonnes

Summary

Introduction

The use of biomass as renewable energy is broadly accepted for substituting fossil fuels [1].Wood pellets are solid fuels made from biomass, especially waste wood. The wood pellets are bio-based products utilized for heat and electricity production in several countries [2]. Future forecast of global wood pellet demand predicts a significant increase up to 54 million tonnes in 2024 (40% demand for the heating pellet market and 60% demand for the industrial pellet market) [3]. The wood pellet demand depends on policies, weather and the price of fossil fuels. South Korea presented a wood pellet demand of around 2.88 million tonnes for electricity production in 2020 [5]. The wood pellet demand in Japan will increase to 5.8 million tonnes in 2030 because the Japanese government plans to partially substitute coal with industrial wood pellets [6].

Objectives

Results

Conclusion