What is going up in smoke?

Abstract

The requirements that a business needs to consider when building a wood panels manufacturing plant are much the same as they have been for decades, but today there is also the need for multiple environmental studies and permits. These are costly and time consuming additional expenses that often are the longest lead-time items on any project. Most industrialized countries have legislation in place to limit and control the negative impact that emission of, pollutants may have on the environment. This paper discusses what is actually happening inside wood drying plants, and the prerequisite conditions for genesis of pyrolytic products relative to the operational parameters, such as choice of input raw materials, driers design and operational regime, choice of fuels for the heat generation and how these factors influence production of stack emission. The characterization of emission condensate by analytical methods is described, and survey of emission control system in use worldwide is described, and means of investigating what may be the optimum design for the control of emission is discussed. Alternate uses of utilizing the condensate, other than burning, are presented for consideration.

Keywords

Wood drying / Pollution / Emission analysis / Emission control / Alternate usage / S781 / B