The wood and wood-based materials industry rely on thermally demanding processes: drying systems, single and multi-opening / daylight presses, continuous presses, coating and laminating systems, as well as glue production facilities, all require a consistently stable heat supply that meets very precise requirements in terms of temperature, controllability, and high availability – well over 8,000 hours per year. At the same time, significant quantities of residual materials are generated, such as bark, log offcuts, wet and dry wood chips, sanding and sawing dust, edge trimmings and production rejects / scrap. These material streams are extremely heterogeneous – characterized by widely fluctuating physical moisture content and consequently, inconsistent calorific values, broad particle size distributions and, at times, very high ash and impurity contents. It is precisely here that expertise, experience, and the design of the combustion and heating surface systems determine the quality, throughput and operating costs of the heat supply.
CAW develops and supplies customized, comprehensive system solutions for the full range of industrial process heat in the wood industry. The focus is on the safe and precise delivery of heat using thermal oil heaters and thermal oil systems, hot gases, and steam, supplemented by waste heat systems and heat recovery. For sites with their own waste materials, CAW designs highly efficient and robust incineration plants to utilize these waste streams for energy. This enables a permanent reduction in disposal costs while simultaneously decoupling the plant’s heat supply from fossil fuels.
For exhaust air and gas streams from drying, thermal wood modification, (also known as thermal wood treatment, resp. ThermoWood®) coating, and resin processes, thermal oxidizing / incineration systems treat the exhaust streams strictly using oxidative technology and recover heat in the process. In energy-optimized designs, economizers and tube-and-shell heat exchangers are used to preheat feedwater, thermal oil, or process air. Where a suitable and economically viable level of waste heat is available, an ORC system can also generate electrical energy.
CAW has long supported the wood industry, from fuel and load profile analysis to the design of combustion systems, heating surfaces, and network calculations, to seamless integration into existing plants and utility systems. The goal is to achieve a heat supply that operates stably in real-world production, improves control quality, and delivers measurable energy savings.
Over a period of about 20 years, beginning in 2005, CAW has developed specialized thermal oil heaters and exhaust gas incineration systems – along with indirect steam generators – specifically for ThermoWood® production and has supplied them to the plants of all leading ThermoWood® manufacturers worldwide (see here: https://thermowood.fi/members). Do you operate ThermoWood® kilns and / or are you in need of well-proven, robust, and industrial-grade equipment for your heat supply and exhaust gas combustion? Please feel free to contact us.
