Reducing heat production costs
Almost half of the wood in a sawmilling process ends up as some form of wood waste or is used for some other process.
In a large number of New Zealand mills, this wood waste is burned to produce heat for drying kilns and timber treatment plants.
This
fuel is “free” in the sense that it is collected on site, but there are
still costs associated with handling the wood waste, storing the wood
waste and capital investment.
Mills that don’t use wood waste
will be using some form of fossil fuel in their heating plants and the
rising costs of fossil fuels will be impacting on the cost of
manufacturing dry and treated timber.
The
capital costs of biomass boilers are much higher than for competing
natural gas boilers. However, this initial cost is offset by the lower
fuel cost. The relative competitiveness of using wood waste for energy
is expected to improve as the wholesale price of gas, coal, and oil
increases over the next few years.
For more information on relative costs of different fuel types, including on-site biomass and forest residue, click here.
For a quick assessment of the feasibility of converting to bioenergy for heat production at your sawmill site use our biomass boiler investment tool.
For more information of the technical aspects of biomass boilers read the using wood waste as fuel section.
For more specific information talk to an expert at the call centre: 0800 BIOENERGY (0800-246363).