A Study of Raw Material Management

A Study of Raw Material Management Innovation
Problems in Biomass Power Plants
Abstract—Study examines the raw material management
innovation problems of biomass power plants in Thailand. In
this study, the bamboo is the raw material being highlighted. In
fact, the bamboo has never been utilized in Thailand as raw
material for generating electricity of biomass power plant.
Moreover, this study will analyze the problems in order to
provide solutions to the problems related to the use of bamboo
as raw material. The qualitative method was employed in this
study. Furthermore, the in-depth interview technique was used
for collecting data. The sample in this study comprised two
main groups. The first group is the farmers who planted the
bamboo, and the second group is the entrepreneurs who
established the biomass power plant. The finding indicated that
the main problem of farmers who planted the bamboo was the
small number of bamboo produced. Generally, the bamboo in
Thailand is used in various fields, so the amount of bamboo for
producing electricity was not enough. The problems of
entrepreneurs who established the biomass power plant were
threefold. First, the return on investment in selling electricity to
the Provincial Electricity Authority, Thailand (PEA), was low.
Second, the transportation cost of raw material as agriculture
residues was high. Third, the biomass power plant was not
accepted by the community around the plant which was a major
problem. As a result, the approaches to solving these problems
are that the biomass power plants should set up cooperation
between the farmers and the community around the power
plant and give the chance to them to participate in the activities
of the power plant as the biomass power plant community.
Moreover, the community can produce the bamboo in
conjunction with farming and sell the bamboo to the biomass
power plant. These approaches can increase revenue to the
community and reduce those problems