Join us for a study visit to Södra Wood's sawmill and pellet factory during Nordic Pellets 2019 Conference
The 6-7 February 2019 it's time for Svebio's annual conference Nordic Pellets 2019, this time in Varberg, Sweden, in cooperation with Södra Wood, Scandbio and PelletsFörbundet. We start with a study visit to Södra Wood's sawmill and pellet factory on February 6th.
The sawdust from the sawmill is dried with a Stela belt dryer. The heat for the dryer is residual heat from the pulp mill. Photo: Thomas Carlén
North of Varberg on the Swedish west coast, the Södra Group operates a carbon-neutral production of 700,000 tonnes of pulp, 600,000 cubic meters of sawn timber and 40,000 tonnes of pellets. The operations are entirely driven by biomass and also generate 1.6 TWh of renewable bioenergy in the form of district heating, biopower, biofuels and solid biomass.
The pellet factory is located between the sawmill and the pulp mill. It can be seen symbolically, because the pellet factory is an example of profitable synergy between the two parts of the Värö plant.
A new sawmill started in 2015 and gives more sawdust than before. This has to do with the fact that the production is faster and use a new type of saw blades. The sawdust from the sawmill is dried with a Stela belt dryer. The heat for the dryer is residual heat from the pulp mill. This is the largest sawmill in Sweden.
The residual heat consists of 90-degree hot water run through a heat exchanger. We do not dry with flue gases, this means that we get cleaner pellets without the risk of contamination from the flue gases, says Fredrik Tärneberg, sales director energy products at Södra Wood.
About half the volume of the dried sawdust, 40,000 tonnes a year, is milled and is sent as a wood powder directly to the lime kiln through a 607 meter long conveyor delivered by Bruks. The rest of the wood powder is pelleted in the pellet factory, supplied by Andritz. About 40,000 tonnes of pellets are sold on the market, both as bulk and in sacks.
Södra also has pellet production in Långasjö. In energy terms Värö produces about 425 GWh wood pellets and wood powders for sale and for use in the lime kiln at the pulp mill.