Growth of Biomass in Sri Lanka

The growth of biomass fuels and petroleum fuels consumed by the industrial sector in Sri Lanka during the past 2 decades are shown in the chart below. The consumption of biomass fuels in the industrial sector is growing around 3 to 4% per annum during the past 20 years. On the other hand the use of petroleum fuels in this sector is virtually stagnant. The primary reason for this disparity is the relative low cost of biomass fuels compared with petroleum fuels. With the increase in trend in international oil prices and the continuous depreciation of Sri Lankan Rupee, this gap is bound to increase.

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A number of industries which have been using petroleum fuels to generate process heat have already switched to biomass fuels.  Presently around 160,000 tonnes of petroleum fuels are used by the industrial sector to generate process heat. In the near future at least 50% of these industries will also switch to biomass fuels. This would increase the demand for fuel wood by 320,000 tonnes per annum. To supply wood for this ADDITIONAL demand we need to cultivate nearly 10,000 ha of with Gliricidia.

Moreover, many electricity generating projects with total capacity of 72MW using biomass fuels are in various stages of development. To cater to 50% of this need we need 14,000 ha of Gliricidia plantations. Hence there is an immediate need to establish 24,000 ha of Gliricidia plantations in the country.

1. Fuel Conversion on Industrial Boilers

Many industries in Sri Lanka require steam for industrial processing. While many factories in Sri Lanka use biomass fuels to generate steam, a few industries use petroleum based fuels such as furnace oil, or diesel for this purpose. With the prevailing prices of Rs. 3.50 per kg of biomass and Rs. 90 per liter of furnace oil, the cost of generation of industrial heat using biomass fuels is very much less than the cost of generation of heat using furnace oil. The cost of fuel for the generation of a tonne of steam using furnace oil is Rs. 6390. The same quantity of steam could be generated using wood for Rs. 1000 to Rs. 2120. By switching to wood the cost could be reduced at least to one third. Hence many industrialists are getting ready to install and operate biomass fuels based heat generation equipment Biomass energy generation.

We have found that large number of industries that use Furnace oil can be easily converted to bio-mass fuel which helps country to achieve the objective of low carbon economy. In view of this we have identified the Ambewala Spray Dried Milk Powder Factory (ASDMF) and Digana Milk Factory (DMF) is two of the most eligible candidates to use biomass instead of Furnace Oil. For Example,At present ASDMF consumes 2,190,000 liters of Furnace Oil annually at the cost of 201.48 million Rupees per year. This drains 1,500 000 of US$ foreign exchange annually. If biomass fuel is used instead of furnace oil, the factory can save 40% of their total fuel cost in addition to help the country to save 1.5 million US$.

SLCF is in the process of preparing two PoAs (1) for Small Scale Biomass Power CDM in Sri Lanka, supplying electricity to national grid and (2) for Small Scale Biomass Based Thermal Energy Generation CDM in Sri Lanka & two PDDs (3)  Sevenagala Small Scale 10 MW Biomass Co-Generation Project (4) Pelwatte Small Scale 15 MW Biomass Co-Generation Project

The Buttala Small Scale Biomass Power CDM Project is the 1st CPA under the 1st PoA. The Buttala biomass power project (capacity 5MW) utilizes sustainable biomass generated from home gardens, tea, rubber, coconut estates and dedicated energy plantations (to be established in scrub lands) located in Buttala in the Monaragala District of Sri Lanka. This power plant is expected to generate and sell electricity to the Ceylon Electricity Board under the Standardized Power Purchase Agreement (SPPA) formulated by CEB. The expected emission reduction of this project is about 20,000 tCO2e per year.