GERMANY – Dieffenbacher presented plant concepts and projects for fast-growing and alternate raw materials such as bamboo, paulownia, bagasse, straw, or recycled wood at LIGNA 2015. 

In this way, the plant manufacturer is reacting to the constantly growing demand for machine technology designed to process these special raw materials.

Operators of wood-based panel plants and the forestry sector are looking for ways to improve the annual cubic-meter-per-hectare growth on new plantations. They differ greatly depending on the wood species and region. Such is the case of South America, where more eucalyptus is being planted than pine. Eucalyptus is ready for harvesting after around only ten years. Another trend is the cultivation of extremely light woods such as paulownia. This fast-growing and extremely light wood is primarily used for lightweight panels.

In some regions, annual plants can be a cheaper alternative to wood. Environmental policy requirements provide further reasons. One example of such a project is Dieffenbacher’s exclusive cooperation with the Chinese chemical company Wanhua. In this project, boards will be produced using straw that can no longer be burned on the fields after harvest due to government guidelines.

The use of waste wood has been a topic of interest within the wood-based panels industry for quite some time. Dieffenbacher provides reliable and powerful machines in the areas of size reduction, sorting and cleaning. The plant manufacturer has now gone one step further and is packaging its entire know-how concerning waste wood processing into a new recycling division. The aim is to develop new application areas within and outside of the wood-based panel industry. A recently developed concept from the new department is the production of wood dust from dry wood chips for combustion in power plants to replace more expensive natural gas. Several panel producers already employ this alternative concept for using recycled wood and internal waste.