PRESSRELEASE Everyone needs to contribute to a more sustainable world. This particularly applies to sawmills. Sawmills is an electricity-intensive and energy-demanding business, where the drying of wood accounts for the greatest need for electricity and heat. Can sawmills BOTH meet the global goals of Agenda 2030 AND strengthen their competitiveness with the right investment? We sort it out and get concrete.
Agenda 2030 is the UN's established action plan with 17 global goals for the transition to a sustainable society for people, the planet and prosperity. The UN member states agreed on the goals in 2015. In order to see whether we are on the right track or not to achieve the goals, the UN has compiled a total of 231 global indicators.
In our opinion, sawmills can, with the right measures, contribute to goals no. 6, 8, 12, 13 and 17. But how? Let's assume a normal sawmill with 20 drying kilns of 140 m3 and that each drying kiln dries approx. 50 drying batches with pine/spruce per year.
Minimise the use of water in the drying process
To dry a drying batch using conventional drying methods, approx. 6000 liters of water is required (usually ordinary tap water) depending on how tight the drying kilns are. If a drying kiln is leaky, support basing is usually required. Water consumption costs the normal sawmill approx. €18,000 per year with an assumed price of €3 / m3 of water.
Potential with the right investment: Water consumption should, with the right conditions, be able to be reduced by at least 30%, which would mean approx. €6,000 per year for the normal sawmill.
Dry more efficiently with lower electricity and energy consumption and to higher quality
It takes about 100 years for a tree to fully grow. It is man's duty to get the most possible refinement out of the resource in such a resource-efficient and gentle way. To dry a drying batch using conventional drying methods, roughly 4400 kWh of electricity is used. This means about 4,400 MWh per year for the normal sawmill at a cost of almost €900,000, calculated on an electricity price of €0.2/kWh.
To heat a drying batch using conventional drying methods, approx. 30 MWh is needed. The heating boilers are heated by burning pellets, sawdust, bark and other residual products from the sawmill. Combustion produces exhaust gases that must be cleaned. The heat cost is around €600,000 per year for the normal sawmill, with an average price for heat of around €20/MWh.
Potential with the right investment: A proper investment for the drying process SHOULD remove the water from the wood both faster and more gently while maintaining quality. For drying pine and spruce (soft wood) electricity consumption can be reduced by approx. 45%, which for the normal sawmill would mean approx. €390,000 per year. When drying birch and oak (hard wood), electricity savings can reach 55-60%.
The heating cost can be reduced by approx. 30%, with the right conditions and the use of upcoming products from Alent Dynamic, which corresponds to approx. €180,000 per year for the standard sawmill. The drying time can also be shortened by 5-20%, which would mean at least €60,000 converted into money for the normal sawmill. The increased quality of dried wood with fewer cracks, less deformation and discoloration further increase the sawmill's competitiveness. Which of course has a monetary value and at the same time maximizes the processing of natural resources in the form of forests. The more efficient drying of the wood also reduces the emission of CO2.
Adaptive drying with regards to variation in drying batches and customer requirements
This goal concerns the work of a sawmill in matters that increase the precision of the manufacturing process. To produce exactly what is needed in the next stage, to reduce waste, to minimise production times. Everything to save natural resources, i.e. to have a sustainable way of working.
Some advice for the right investment: Invest in a drying process from a company that can guide the sawmill's development going forward. All sawmills have their specific conditions, all drying kilns are different, each drying batch has its history and has been exposed to different environments before drying. Thus, the drying process should have distinct adaptive functions and aids for continuous improvement of the drying against customer requirements. The process should also offer an AI-based drying analysis that shows improvement actions.
Stimulate activities for the climate through concrete company profits
Many companies have very ambitious plans for their sustainability work and express this in concrete and well-formulated documents. Sawmills in general are no exception and many also realise the words with real action. The common thread of this article is to get more sawmills to invest in the right drying process and thereby combine two things - gain substantial business effects AND meet the climate goals at the same time. The drying process itself must also contain periodic reports for monitoring resource use that affects the climate, with the aim of constantly stimulating improvement work.
Global spread of good efforts for a more sustainable society
Investing in the right drying process has demonstrable economic and environmental effects. The development of the drying process, which is becoming increasingly adaptive and automated in relation to customer requirements, also increases the added value of the wood.
Substantial economic effects for sawmills spread to other businesses in the immediate area and the world. The customer effects inspire further investment in research and development of the drying process, together with sawmills and research institutes. The drive to increase one's competitiveness can go hand in hand with a more sustainable society. If the sawmill makes the right investment in the drying process.
The potential of investing in Alent Dynamics' patented dynamic drying process for a normal sawmill can be described in numbers as roughly €600,000 per year plus all increased quality effects on the dried wood. The effects are based on reduced water consumption, reduced need for electricity and heating, which is good for the environment.
The use of wood is increasing today. With the right investment in the drying process, the wood's competitiveness can be further strengthened.
What effects can be expected at a specific sawmill when switching to Alent Dynamics' automatic dynamic drying process? We ask Nicola Bagutti, sales manager at Alent Dynamic
“The effects that our customers exhibit validate the benefits reported for the normal sawmills. The effects are naturally sawmill’s related and influenced by many factors linked to the specific drying application. Beside significant and measurable electrical savings, a recurring benefit is the improvement of the drying quality that our experienced customers recognize after their visual inspection of the dried material. We see that more and more sawmills choose our dynamic drying process with interval drying as a base, and the acknowledgement of our way to dry wood increases globally. This is also validated by the fact that, today, even kiln manufacturers, increasingly, offer controls that come closer our way. This makes us very confident that in future our drying method will become the new standard that ensures a profitable production and the highest regard to the environment. For customers that want to know more about the Alent dynamic process, we have gathered all our experience in an Analysis service that shows them which particular benefits the change to a dynamic drying process would bring for them”. says Nicola
Good environmental work pays off.
For more information, please contact
Nicola Bagutti, sales manager Alent Dynamic
nicola.bagutti@alentdynamic.se
+46 70 608 53 82