Searching for potential wood biomass for green energy feedstock: A study in tropical swamp-peat forest of Kutai Kertanegara, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract. Amirta R, Haqiqi MT, Saparwadi, Septia E, Mujiasih D, Setiawan KA, Sekedang MA, Yuliansyah, Wijaya A, Setiyono B, Suwinarti W. 2019. Searching for potential wood biomass for green energy feedstock: A study in tropical swamp-peat forest of Kutai Kertanegara, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 20: 1516-1523. Recently, much attention has been focused on finding suitable plant species, from different forest ecosystems, having the potential to be used as sources of renewable energy. Most of such information was reported from the lowland forest area and only limited information is available regarding swamp-peat forest species, including their energy potency. Therefore, in this paper, plant diversity and energy potency of swamp-peat forest wood biomass were studied to reveal their potential as green energy feedstock. Physico-chemical characterization of wood biomass was performed using the American Society for Testing and Material (ASTM) protocols. Twenty-seven species of plants, consisting of 23 trees and 4 shrubs, belonging to 19 families were identified, amongst which Shorea balangeran had the highest importance value index (87.72%). The results showed that T. obovata exhibit the highest suitability to be used as energy feedstock indicated by the highest energy production of 4.60 MWh per ton of dry biomass, followed by L. indica (4.56 MWh/ton), D. excelsa (5.52 MWh/ton), F. rukam (4.20 MWh/ton), P. galeata (3.66 MWh/ton), S. caudatilimbum (3.61 MWh/ton), A. elmeri (3.59 MWh/ton), G. nervosa (3.49 MWh/ton) and G. bancana (3.42 MWh/ton). The high density of wood species correlated with the high value of energy potency. In contrast, the fast-growing tree and shrub species, such as K. hospita (1.76 MWh/ton), C. odorata (1.36 MWh/ton) and O. sumatrana (1.17 MWh/ton), showed lower energy potency. The most dominant plant species, S. balangeran gave only 2.96 MWh energy per ton of dry biomass and it was classified in the middle group of plant species suitable as green energy feedstock, along with other species, such as C. brachiata, C. rotundatus, P. javanicum, V. umbonata, L. speciosa, V. pinnata, and A. longifolius. Due to suitable energy properties, growth rate and also adaptability of this woody biomass, they can be exploited to support sustainable supply of biomass feedstock for the green electricity program in the study area.

Fast-growing native tree species to the secondary forest of East Kalimantan, Indonesia: Physicochemical properties of woody materials for bioelectricity feedstocks

“…It was clearly observed that all woody materials contained C higher than O, indicating its high suitability used as the energy feedstock since high C content will increase the obtained calorific value. Moreover, the C content, with a value of more than 40% in this study, was in line with that of the C content of various tropical woods (Amirta et al 2016;Amirta et al 2019;Yuliansyah et al 2019;Mukhdlor et al 2021). Ratio of H/C was also assessed since a higher value could contribute to improving energy efficiency and decreasing released emissions during combustion (Gopalakrishnan et al 2019).…”

“…Our previous study shows fast-growing species in the lowland community forest, such as Gmelina arborea, Anthocephalus cadamba, Acacia mangium, and Paraserianthes falcataria, had relatively low energy potency (1.37 -1.70 MWh/ton) (Amirta et al 2016). Another study also reported that fastgrowing and shrub species found in the tropical swamppeat forest of Kutai Kartanegara in East Kalimantan generated low energy potency: Kleinhovia hospita (1.76 MWh/ton), Cananga odorata (1.36 MWh/ton), and Octomeles sumatrana (1.17 MWh/ton) (Amirta et al 2019). However, our findings in this study indicated that fast-growing species native to the secondary forest in East Kalimantan, especially F. splendidissima, could produce woody materials with superior energy capacity for electricity production.…”

Short Communication: Diversity of plant species growing during fallow period of shifting cultivation and potential of its biomass for sustainable energy production in Mahakam Ulu, East Kalimantan, Indonesia

“…In the present study, M. pearsonii, M. hypoleuca and M. triloba were classified as species with low wood density (<0.4 g/cm 3 ). The lower wood density is related to fastgrowing ability of plant biomass species, thus affecting the cost of transport, storage and drying process (De Oleivera et al 2013;Amirta et al 2016aAmirta et al , 2016bAmirta et al , 2019.…”

Assessment of Wood Biomass Productivity from Anthocephalus macrophyllus Forest Plantation for Energy Production

“…Some countries geographically located in the tropical region receive significant benefits to obtain high biomass yield since plants can grow faster than other areas on the earth. Several works have been performed to evaluate some tropical woody species [5][6][7][8].…”