Finding Value In Wood Waste

For Immediate Release
7 February, 2007

Finding Value In Wood Waste

New Zealand sawmillers are being encouraged to find economic value in wood waste, with the help of a range of online bioenergy calculators.

The calculators, developed by bioenergy specialists at Crown Research Institute Scion in Rotorua, have been created to help the 300 odd sawmilling companies in New Zealand find ways to reduce costs by using wood waste for energy.

In sawmilling about 50 percent of wood ends up as a waste product. But that 'waste' does have different uses for example bark can be sold to garden centres, or the wood can be used as a fuel to replace fossil fuels such as coal.

Michael Jack, a senior scientist in Scion's bioenergy group, says wood waste is often viewed by sawmillers as having no value, so the calculators are aimed at helping them asses the economic value of the waste wood as a fuel and determine the most beneficial technology for extracting that value.

Ends

© Scoop Media