AGRICULTURAL RESIDUE BIOMASS RESOURCES IN THAILAND

摘要

Demand for energy to meet economic development and human needs are increasing. The use of fossil fuels has increased to dominate energy supply, leading to a rapid growth in greenhouse gases emission, especially carbon dioxide emissions, contributed significantly to increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. Biomass is one of the multiple options for lowering greenhouse gas emissions while still satisfying the demand of energy services. In implementing biomass for energy, the assessment of potential is needed to secure energy supply. The assessment of non-plantation biomass resources in Thailand including bagasse, sugarcane top, paddy husk and straw, maize cob, cassava stalk, palm oil residues, coconut residues, groundnut shell, cotton stalk, soybean residues, and sorghum leaves, was carried out. The harvest area and produce yield per area are taken into consideration along with residue product ratio and calorific value to estimate the non-plantation biomass. The harvest areas of all crops in 2008 are applied for the estimation. The yields of crop are categorized into minimum, maximum, average values of 1981 - 2008 and world best yield in 2008. Based on the minimum and maximum yield assumption, the non-plantation biomass potential are 15,489 and 33,809 ktoe per year. The improvement on yield of crops to approach the world best yield will result in potential of 64,829 ktoe per year.