The sawmill at Sävar expects to save around half a ton of woodchips every hour by installing the flue gas condenser. The mill will be able to sell these chips, which will then replace other energy sources elsewhere.
“It’s great that we can help Norra Skogsägarna improve the efficiency of their business even further and that we can complement the bioenergy plant we delivered previously by adding flue gas treatment and condensation,” says Claes Scheibe, CEO of Opcon Bioenergy.
By installing the SRE Renergi flue gas condenser, which can recycle up to 1 MW of waste heat, the sawmill can replace a significant portion of the 3 MW of district heating made to the Sävar district heating network with energy that would otherwise have gone up in smoke.
High electricity and oil prices, together with the current concerns about nuclear power following the disaster in Japan, have made energy an intensely debated topic all over the world, not just in Sävar, where district heating is powered by biomass.
“We are convinced that bioenergy, which in many cases can be extended relatively quickly compared with other sources of renewable energy, will become an increasingly important part of future energy systems. But if we are to achieve lasting change, it is crucial to work on improved energy efficiency. Just like Norra Skogsägarna is doing at Sävar using our technology,” says Claes Scheibe, CEO of Opcon Bioenergy.
Picture: The boiler house att Sävar sawmill, which is located 20 kilometers north of Umeå in northern Sweden.