Imagine an apricot with a nut inside. The same principle exists with palm. The palm oil plant produces an edible fruit with a nut inside. During a steaming treatment the fruit’s flesh is melted and the residual nuts are further mechanically crushed to extract the seeds or kernels. The shells of these kernels are called palm kernel shells — a virgin biomass with a calorific value which varies between 15 and 17 GJ per tonne.

Palm kernel shells can be considered like a natural pellet and do not have to be compressed like a woodpellet. Palm kernel shells has a very low sulfur, ash, and nitrogen content. They are therefore a high-grade solid renewable fuel for burning, ideal in cofiring with steam coal or burned in stand-alone biomass power plants, usually blended with other grades of biomass, like woodchips.

The big palm oil plantation companies in Malaysia and Indonesia use more and more palm kernel shells themselves to generate cheap heat and electricity. Therefore it is more and more difficult to buy substantial regular quantities for export.

8.4.4