Reference FSDPs
(EC-ASEAN COGEN Programme Phase II)
Wood residues combustion for timber drying in Malaysia
AT A GLANCE
 A small wood waste-fired boiler will produce steam of 5 t/h at 12 bar, 193 °C, to meet the heat requirements of a kiln drying plant in Negeri Sembilan. It will replace an old and highly polluting boiler. BACKGROUND
Many small and medium size wood industries in ASEAN are still using old, inefficient and polluting boilers. Recently, the Department of Environment in Malaysia has decided to warn, fine and even close all the mills which do not comply with its environmental regulations. Efficient, non-polluting combustion technologies have been developed in Europe for more than a decade. More recently, the manufacturing of some equipment has been delocalised from Europe to South-East Asia, making it more accessible for the local customers.
That is what motivated the management of Bekok Kiln Drying and Moulding Sdn. Bhd. to invest in an environmentally friendly wood-fired steam boiler to cover their own heat requirement for kiln drying applications. The company specialises in the chemical preservation of rubber wood, timber kiln-drying, moulding and furniture making.
LOCATION
The plant is located in Gemas (Negeri Sembilan),
about 200 km south-east of Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).
TECHNOLOGY
The plant consists of:
- a silo with a capacity of 200 cu.m.;
- an automatic fuel feeding system;
- a boiler producing 5 tonnes of saturated steam at 12.3 bar;
- a multi-cyclone dust collector.
SOME ECONOMICS
The total investment cost amounts to ECU 208,000 (USD 280,000), excluding civil works. Based on the fuel oil consumption of a similar steam generating plant, the annual savings represent ECU 151,000 (USD 203,000). Without taking into account the added value to the dried timber due to an improved regular drying cycle, the pay-back of this plant is only 1.5 years after commissioning.
CONTACTS
Customer |
European Supplier |
Bekok Kiln Drying and Moulding
Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia)
Tel: (60-7) 9482697; Fax: (60-7) 9482708 |
Nordfab A/S (Denmark)
c/o Nordfab (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
Tel: (60-3) 6913221/3; Fax: (60-3) 6913224/2 |
CUSTOMER'S VIEW POINT
 "Rubberwood drying requires a continuous amount of heat. We used to produce this with our old locomotive boilers. However, during the last few years, the Department of Environment informed us that we would not be authorized to use them anymore as their smoke emissions were far above the pollution limits," explains Steven CHEW, Managing Director of Bekok Kiln Drying and Moulding Sdn. Bhd.
"I investigated the market and I was particularly impressed when I first saw a boiler supplied by Nordfab. Due to the efficiency of the system, the pay-back period is very short," pursues Steven CHEW.
"The boiler operation and maintenance costs will be reduced to one third of what they used to be, because the new system is fully automated. Instead of buying slabs as fuelwood, I can now utilize my own sawdust, wood shavings and off-cuts, which I need to dispose of anyway. With my old boiler, I could not get a regular drying cycle. The new plant shortens the duration of the drying cycle and allows a better control of the drying temperatures. I get better products that I can sell at a higher price. I am very grateful to the COGEN Programme and to the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM), the local coordinator of the COGEN Programme, for their technical support, especially in terms of training of the operators and monitoring of the plant," added Steven CHEW.
"I am proud of being a pioneer in implementing this environmentally friendly combustion equipment, and I can only encourage the other small and medium size wood industries to adopt the same kind of technology," concludes Steven CHEW.
SUPPLIER'S VIEW POINT
 Nordfab A/S (Denmark), in association with Weiss GmbH (Germany) a sister company within the A.P. Moller Group, can offer complete dust collection equipment with combustion and boiler systems to the wood industry."Our product is particularly well adapted to the South-East Asian market," comments Allen NG, Managing Director of Nordfab (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd, a joint-venture company created in 1992
"There are still a lot of small wood industries in the region. They all need clean and efficient technologies which enable them to cover their energy requirements by using their residues as fuel. Most of them, however, cannot afford imported equipment. Thanks to our joint-venture with Nordfab A/S, we are in a position to offer equipment which meets the European standards in terms of quality, efficiency and smoke emission, but at a local ASEAN price," comments Aaron LEE, General Manager."A lot of sawmills and particle board factories have invested a lot of money in European machine-tool equipment. But those machines cannot run without a good cleaning and filtration system. That's why Nordfab proposes a complete filtration and combustion plant for the wood working industry," adds Jorgen KROGH, Business Development Manager, Nordfab A/S.
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