The raw material and energy costs play a very important role in the plywood industry. In the Nordic countries the process waste, residues or side flows (there are different ways to define them) have traditionally been used for energy production. Due to this fact, general understanding is that wood products are very green products, provided the raw material is produced sustainably. Commonly there is even excess energy produced in the process, which can be sold. However, this situation may be changing, as the climate change raises completely new viewpoints that should be considered. The energy use in the process has to be assessed in a larger context and there is also a need to calculate the carbon footprint of products. When developing the manufacturing processes further, these matters and their implications have to be taken into account. For instance, the electricity use has a major impact on the carbon footprint of wood products. As a second example, also the way the process heat is produced affects through the calculation and allocation process. There is ongoing discussion how the carbon footprint should be calculated.
There are also some more general issues related to energy and raw material use in wood industry, such as the scarcity of raw materials and sustainable wood resources, increased use of bio-energy etc. There are many takers for wood in its different forms: virgin wood, process residues and wood waste. For instance, subsidized bioenergy production or substitute products using cheaper raw material can pose problems to traditional products. This poster will discuss these energy and raw material issues in the context of plywood and panel products industry. Comparison of different forms of process energy and the concept of energy mix will be used to demonstrate and highlight some of these trends and issues.
Keywords: energy use, plywood, carbon footprint
Authors
Paajanen O.
Department of Forest ProductsTechnology, School of Chemical Technology, Aalto University, Aalto, Finland
Linkosalmi L.
Department of Forest ProductsTechnology, School of Chemical Technology, Aalto University, Aalto, Finland
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