cnx_vinyl/docs/biomass.md

# Biomass Fuel Strategy

**Decided 17 October 2026 (user): both business plan versions run on
biomass steam** ("option a and b should operate on biomass"): two 500 kg/h
biomass modules (or one ~1 t/h package, Getabec class, 6M to 10M THB
installed with fuel feed, grate and dust control) plus a fuel store and
handling block (1M to 2M THB, estimate) in the
[utilities CSV](finance/utilities-investment.csv). The launch plant at
~850k records burns ~954 MWh of heat a year, about 300 t of air-dry wood
or ~460 t of fresh chips, ~0.67M THB at 0.7 THB/kWh, against ~4.9M THB a
year for electric steam with its demand charge (calculator, estimates).
The electric-first staged path under Decision framing is dropped; the
electric bank stays the alternative.

The fuel comes from two sources: the team's own 60 rai of currently unused land, and northern
Thailand's agricultural waste market. Figures below are planning estimates,
plus or minus a wide margin, to be refined against the actual boiler choice
and duty cycle.

## Demand: what the boiler would burn

The five-press fleet draws 750 to 900 kg/h of steam at full demand, ~510
to 610 kW thermal, from a proposed bank of two 500 kg/h boilers
([steam and cooling](steam-cooling.html)). Fuel follows records pressed,
not presses installed. With the heat recovery architecture trimming the
load and realistic duty cycles:

- Mature plant (two shifts, ~300 days/yr, about 1.0 to 1.1 million
  records): roughly **350 to 400 tonnes of air-dry wood per year** (at
  ~80% boiler efficiency and ~4 kWh/kg air-dry wood); the start fleet at
  its full ~1.5 million records needs up to **~550 t/yr**
- Early operations (one press line, single shift): roughly a quarter of
  that, **~90 to 100 t/yr**
- Bought as fresh wood chips (~45 % moisture, ~2.6 kWh/kg) the same heat
  is **~540 to 620 t/yr**, up to ~840 t/yr at 1.5 million records, which
  is what the fuel store and the monsoon
  stock have to be sized for (estimate)

### Recovering heat at the boiler

A fired boiler loses heat up its stack, so an economizer that preheats the
boiler feedwater with the flue gas is the first heat-recovery measure to
investigate, ahead of condensate return and the feedwater heat pump
([sustainability](sustainability.md#energy-efficiency-architecture-recover-before-generating)).
How far the flue gas can be cooled is the vendor's figure: it depends on
the flue-gas temperature, the corrosion limit and the fuel. Rice husk ash
is high in silica and abrasive, so the RFQ asks for fouling and cleaning
provisions, wear protection and a bypass rather than a clean-gas
economizer ([steam and cooling](steam-cooling.html)).

## The 60 rai: own-grown fuelwood

60 rai is 9.6 hectares. Managed as short-rotation coppice (planted once,
harvested on a 2 to 4 year cycle, regrowing from the stump), fast species
proven in Thailand (eucalyptus, acacia, leucaena, bamboo) yield roughly 8 to
14 air-dry tonnes per hectare per year. So the land can sustainably supply
about **80 to 135 t/yr**:

- Enough to cover **most or all of early operations**
- About **a fifth to a third of mature two-shift demand** at ~1.0 million
  records, a seventh to a quarter at the start fleet's full 1.5 million

That makes the land a meaningful supplement and a strong brand story
("records pressed with steam from our own trees"), not a complete fuel
supply. At the market prices below, 80 to 135 t of air-dry wood is worth
only ~0.1M to 0.25M THB a year (estimate): the land's value is supply
security and the story, not the fuel bill.

### The classification check comes first

The land is currently classified as forestry, and in Thailand that carries
legal weight. Before a single tree enters the fuel plan:

- Verify the parcel's actual status: clean Chanote title vs Sor Por Kor vs
  National Forest Reserve. Planting, harvesting, and transporting trees,
  even self-planted ones, can be restricted depending on classification,
  and some species are restricted regardless.
- If eligible, register the plantation under the forest plantation
  framework, which legalizes grow-and-harvest cycles and the transport
  paperwork.
- If the parcel carries actual standing forest, it should not be harvested
  for fuel: that would undercut the sustainability commitments the plant is
  built on. Coppice belongs on the degraded or empty portions.

## Filling the gap: the northern biomass market

The region fills the remainder easily and cheaply:

- **Longan orchard prunings**: Lamphun is Thailand's longan heartland and
  prunings are an established traded fuel
- **Sawmill and wood-processing residues**
- **Corn cobs and rice husk**: abundant regional crop wastes; a
  Getabec-class solid-fuel boiler is designed for exactly this fuel mix
- Buying from local farmers also strengthens the local-sourcing story that
  already runs through packaging and PVC

## Fuel prices (market check, October 2026)

There is no public price index for biomass fuel in northern Thailand. DEDE
publishes lists of buyers and sellers (February 2026: 42 registered buyers
wanting 2.09M t a year), not prices, so the figures below are reported
market prices from bank research, a government industry unit and the
press, all checked 7 October 2026. None is a quote to this plant.

| Fuel | Reported price | Source | Heat cost (estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wood chips, fresh (45 to 50 % moisture) | 1,350 to 1,800 THB/t delivered | [LH Bank Research, wood pellet outlook](finance/biomass/LHBank_Wood_Pellets_Industry_Outlook_2026-03.pdf), 9 March 2026: 1,700 to 1,800 THB per fresh tonne for export; a power-plant chip quota in Nakhon Ratchasima at 1,350 THB/t, at most 45 % moisture (undated trader post) | ~0.65 to 0.85 THB/kWh |
| Firewood and rubberwood offcuts, air-dry | over 1 THB/kg at the farm gate, up from 0.55 to 0.70 before late 2025 | [OIE Rubber Intelligence Unit](https://rubber.oie.go.th/Article.aspx?id=66365), 2026; southern rubber belt, so chipping and haulage to Lamphun come on top | ~0.3 to 0.5 THB/kWh before chipping and haulage |
| Corn cobs and stalk residue | 2 THB/kg, bought from farmers in Mae Chaem (Chiang Mai) | Sunsweet's "no burning, we buy" programme, [Prachachat](https://www.prachachat.net/economic/local-economy/news-1498508), February 2024; an incentive price set to stop field burning | ~0.6 THB/kWh |
| Rice husk | ~1.5 THB/kg at past demand peaks | [FTI renewable energy group](https://re-fti.org/%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%9F%E0%B8%9F%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%8A%E0%B8%B5%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%AA%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%B3%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%B2%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%B8%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%87/) (undated); power plants compete for it and northern milling volumes are small | ~0.5 THB/kWh |
| Wood pellets, domestic | 3,000 to 5,000 THB/t | LH Bank Research, March 2026; export FOB averaged 4,482 THB/t in 2025 | ~0.75 to 1.25 THB/kWh |

Heat cost assumes an 80 % boiler (85 % on pellets) and ~2.6 kWh/kg for
fresh chips, ~4 for air-dry wood, ~4.2 for corn cobs, ~3.75 for rice husk
and ~4.7 for pellets (estimates).

What it means for the plan:

- **Planning price: 1.35 to 2 THB/kg delivered**, which is ~0.5 to 0.9 THB
  per kWh of heat. The earlier assumption of 1 to 2 THB/kg of air-dry wood
  (~0.3 to 0.6 THB/kWh) was too low at the bottom: the cheap end is
  farm-gate wood, not chipped fuel at the plant gate. At maturity the fuel
  bill is **~0.6M to 1.2M THB a year** (~0.15M to 0.3M early), still a
  quarter to a tenth of electric steam (see
  [grid tariff](sustainability.md#grid-tariff-pea-and-what-it-decides))
- **Prices are rising and follow diesel.** With diesel near 40 THB/L in
  2026, chip traders feeding power plants parked trucks and cut purchases
  ([Thai Post](https://www.thaipost.net/district-news/971839/), 30 March
  2026), and rubberwood firewood roughly doubled since late 2025. Haulage
  is a large share of a delivered tonne, so source within ~50 km and write
  a diesel clause into the fuel contract rather than a fixed price
- **Supply is not the constraint.** Lamphun alone produces more than
  900,000 t of farm residues a year (Maejo University, via
  [ThaiPublica](https://thaipublica.org/2026/08/lamphun-reduce-pm2-5-agricultural-waste-biomass-fuel/),
  August 2026) against the plant's ~600 t. Buying them also counts against
  the burning season, which is part of the story
- **The local price-setter is in Mueang Lamphun.** Ratch Pathana's
  [biomass buying centre](https://www.ratchpathana.com/th/our-businesses/related-and-other-businesses/biomass-business)
  at Pa Sak, Mueang Lamphun, buys wood waste, sawdust and corn cobs from
  farmers for Saha Cogen Green's 9.6 MW, 25 t/h steam cogeneration plant
  in the Saha Group Lamphun industrial park. It is the reference price to
  ask for and the main competitor for the same fuel. Further out, Clover
  Power at Wang Chin (Phrae) buys chips, corn husks and cobs, and bamboo
  ([DEDE buyer list](finance/biomass/DEDE_biomass_buyers_2026-02.pdf),
  February 2026)
- **Next step:** written quotes from the Pa Sak centre and two or three
  chip suppliers within 50 km, priced by moisture content (an oven-dry
  tonne carries roughly twice the heat of a fresh one), before the boiler
  decision

## Logistics on site

To reflect in the facility planning: a fuel storage shed (biomass
must be kept dry; monsoon-season storage sizing matters more than dry
season), chipping for coppice wood, ash handling, and the emissions stack
that comes with solid fuel. These are the capex/opex adders that the
biomass premium in the utilities CSV (roughly 4M to 7M THB for the boiler
package vs 2.5M to 4M electric/gas) partially reflects; fuel handling and
storage are additional.

## Decision framing

- Biomass makes the steam genuinely renewable and pairs with cheap northern
  fuel, at the cost of higher capex, fuel logistics, ash, and an emissions
  point
- The 60 rai tilts the economics and the story further toward biomass, but
  only after the land-title check clears
- The electric boiler remains the alternative: cleanest permitting, no fuel
  logistics, but effectively grid-powered steam at a ~520 to 625 kW draw
  for the five presses. On PEA's time-of-use tariff that costs ~5.2M to
  6.0M THB a year at mature load against ~0.6M to 1.2M of fuel for
  biomass, and ~1.6M to 1.8M (one 500 kg/h module) against ~0.15M to 0.3M at early load, because the demand charge follows
  the boiler's full-power draw (estimates; see the
  [grid tariff](sustainability.md#grid-tariff-pea-and-what-it-decides)).
  The electric boiler is the more efficient machine; biomass is the far
  cheaper heat
- (Superseded 17 October 2026: biomass from the launch.) A staged path is possible: start electric (fast, clean permitting), plant
  the coppice now (first harvest in 2 to 4 years), and add the biomass
  boiler at the automated-line expansion when demand and the fuel supply
  have both matured. At the tariff above that is a permitting and logistics
  choice, not a cost one: every year on electric steam costs roughly 1.4M
  to 5.4M THB more than biomass, so the switch should come as soon as the
  permit and a fuel contract are in place