Bio-Energy from Agricultural Residues in Phitsanulok Thailand

This paper presented the potential of bio-energy resource from agricultural residues in Phitsanulok province, Thailand. Agricultural wastes with high in gross calorific value are competent to other biomass such as wood fuel and low rank of coal. The objective of the current research is to evaluate the source, amount and higher heating value of agricultural residues in Phitsanulok province where the University main campus is based. The research result is benefit to the energy department for planning the small power plant utilizing those residues. In the current study, the crop data retrieved from Provincial Agricultural Extension Office was analyzed first to indicate the types of agricultural product from each district. A survey and residue sample collecting were carried out next. It is found that the most cultivated plant is rice, sugar cane, cassava and corn. Hence, the agricultural residues available in Phitsanulok are rice straw, rice husk, sugarcane trash, bagasse, cassava root and corncob. Calculation based on the residue-to-product ratio, the yearly yield for each residue is obtained at 1024, 527, 448, 431, 120 and 73 kton respectively. The heating value of residues was measured by an automatic bomb calorimeter. The results show the higher heating value of 14.93, 14.30, 16.70*, 16.30, 15.37 and 19.27 MJ/kg respectively. The annual energy from agriculture residues is 40,581 TJ which would be sufficiently supplied a very small power plant.