Sihayo to operate biomass power plant
Tuesday, March 27 2012 - 05:50 AM WIB
Australia-listed firm Sihayo Gold Limited said that it had appointed DP CleanTech (DPCT) to complete a standard Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) document for the design, construction and commissioning of a 9.9MW Biomass Power Plant.
The company said in a press statement on Tuesday that the biomass power plant would be fulfilling the electricity need of its 75 percent owned Sihayo Pungkut Gold Project (SPGP) in North Sumatra.
Previously, the power production was based on diesel generators and at a basis of US$100/bbl oil, its cost of power was approximately US$0.25 kw/hr.
DPCT has designed, constructed and successfully commissioned over 40 biomass power plants across Asia and Europe with a combined installed capacity of 1,000MW.
The primary fuel source for the proposed power plant is Palm Kernel Shells (PKS), which is a waste from the palm oil production process.
The PKS market is well established in Sumatra, and its export volume to North Asia and Europe as a primary fuel for biomass power plants has been steadily increasing over the past five years.
In addition, new palm oil plantations are being established within the area and will provide additional future supply of PKS.
The PKS is fed into a boiler which will generate steam from water sourced from the local river. The steam from the boiler will be sent to the steam turbine generator for the electrical power generation.
It stated that the total cost of the Biomass Power Plant is US$30.1 million. Operating costs are in the final stages of estimation and based on the current market price for PKS per ton delivered to the power plant location will be in the range of US$0.08c ? US$0.l0c per kw/hr.
Based on the overall operation?s annual power requirement, the Biomass Power Plant delivers annual operating cost savings of approximately US$9m compared to diesel power generation.
Editing by Benget Besalicto Tnb.