Potency estimation of forest stands biomass in Gunung Walat Educational Forest, Sukabumi, West Java as fuel for electricity generation

Abstract

The need for energy in Indonesia is increasingly growing into an inseparable part of the daily life of society. However, the limited availability of fossil fuel sources as raw materials for electricity and increased public awareness to preserve the environment lead to the need for an alternative source of renewable energy such as bioenergy, which is a renewable energy that utilizes biomass as its fuel source. Furthermore, this research was conducted to estimate the potential of biomass in Gunung Walat Education Forest (GWEF) as fuel for electricity generation. Estimation of the potential of electrical energy has been carried out by using the biomass conversion approach to wood pellets (WP). The results showed that Pinus merkusii stands have the highest biomass content (12,828.62 tons with a total area of 104 Ha) and Swietenia macrophylla stands have the lowest biomass content (16.63 tons with a total area of 0.67 Ha) compare to other stands. The total biomass obtained from 358.24 Ha of eleven stands was 45,041.38 tons and it can produce electricity of 123,863.79 MWh, suggesting that the biomass in GWEF has the potential to be developed to fulfill the electricity needs of 10.6 MWh per year.