2nd Renewable Energy Sources - Research and Business RESRB 2017 conference

RESRB2017.0069
Feasibility study of pilot scale gasification systems for rice husk power
generation in Java Island, Indonesia
M. Syamsiro1,*, S. Ma`arif2, W. Widyawidura3, A.S. Nizami4, M. Rehan4, I. M.I Ismail4

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Janabadra University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; 2Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Proklamasi 45 University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; 3Department of Petroleum
Engineering, Proklamasi 45 University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; 4Center of Excellence in Environmental
Studies (CEES), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; *corresponding author email:
syamsiro@janabadra.ac.id; address: Jalan T.R. Mataram 57 Yogyakarta 55231, Indonesia

Abstract
Indonesia is the third-largest rice producer countries in the world with the total production capacity of
around 70 million tons per year. Rice husk is the main residue from rice milling and is about 20% of the
paddy grain weight. Typical utilization of rice husk includes fertilizer, animal feed and as cooking or
heating fuel. Rice husk fuel has a lower heating value of about 14 MJ per kg that is about half of coal
heating value. Therefore, there has been significant interest in recent years in generating power from
the rice husk instead of heat using the gasification technology. The process of gasification converts the
rice husk into a synthetic gas that can be used for electricity production. This paper aims to examine
the potential of rice husk in electricity generation for on-grid applications using gasification technology.
The study was carried out by collecting the rice husk from two provinces of Indonesia such as West
and East Java. The data was collected in the paddy plantation area, paddy production, rice milling
industry and electrification ratios. It was decided based on the potential analysis of collected data to
develop the rice husk gasifier power plants in Indramayu District of West Java and Lamongan District
of East Java. The basic engineering design (BED) and detailed engineering design (DED) for these plants
were carried out after selecting the plant locations. The plant was designed for 100 kWe electricity
capacity using a fixed bed reactor equipped with a gas cleaning system. The design was made as simple
as possible so that a local manufacturer can fabricate the reactor. In addition, the economic analysis
has been carried out using the primary methods of NPV (Net Present Value), IRR (Internal Rate of
Return) and PBP (Pay Back Period) assessment. The results showed that the economic viability of the
proposed system is always acceptable with positive PBP and NPV values.

Keywords
rice husk; biomass; gasification; power plant; economic analysis; waste to energy

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Indonesia for the financial
support and PT. Nadya Karsa Amerta for valuable contribution to this project.

Proceedings of the 2nd Renewable Energy Sources - Research and Business RESRB 2017 conference
June 19-21, 2017, Wrocław, Poland

102