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Data gathering and impact assessment for a possible technical review of the IPPC Directive – Part 2

Fact sheet B2 Primary wood

Amendment B2: possible changes to the current provisions of Annex I of the IPPC Directive – extension of the current activity definition, covering production of paper and board with a production capacity exceeding 20 tonnes per day, to cover other primary wood products (such as chipboard, fibreboard and plywood), with the same capacity threshold

Status: final – 12/09/2007

1. Issue

Aim of the study: The present work intends to assess the impact of the extension of the current activity definition, covering the production of paper and board with a production capacity exceeding 20 tonnes per day, to cover other primary wood products (such as chipboard, fibreboard and plywood) with the same capacity. In practice, the work will also look at higher capacity thresholds, because the capacity of a woodworking production site is much higher than the capacity of a paper or board mill. In the sector the production capacity is expressed in m³/day.

Background: These activities are currently not covered by the IPPC Directive and there have been calls for environmental regulation of the sector to be extended by including it in the IPPC Directive. The primary wood processing activities will fall within the scope of the E-PRTR. To maximise the consistency between the IPPC Directive and the E-PRTR the inclusion of this activity into Annex 1 of the IPPC Directive is assessed. The Aarhus Convention only covers the production of pulp and the production of paper and board, but does not mention the primary wood processing 1.Issue summary: The following options will be further analysed in this fact sheet:

Business as usual (i.e. no addition to the list of covered activities) Addition of primary wood processing to the list of covered activities, with a

production capacity exceeding 20 tonnes per day (i.e. approximately 33 m³/day) Addition of primary wood processing to the list of covered activities, with a

production capacity threshold expressed in m³ per day, Addition of production of wood-based panels to the list of covered activities with

a production capacity threshold expressed in m³ per day.In the first option the different approaches of MS and inconsistencies will remain. In the second option the sector is included in the scope of IPPCD and the suggested threshold is so low that nearly each sawmilling company and each wood-based panel manufacturer is included. In the third option the threshold is increased, excluding the smaller companies and the major part of the plywood and fibreboard sub-sectors. The fourth option additionally excludes the sawmilling sub-sector which has only limited environmental effects.

2. Current practiceThis section details the current status of the sector in Europe and the key aspects of the analysis viz. sector size, environmental impacts, relevant legislation, and available technologies.

1 The production of pulp from timber or similar fibrous materials and the production of paper and board with a production capacity exceeding 20 tonnes per day are covered by the Aarhus Convention, 1998.

VITO together with BIO, IEEP and IVM 1



2.1. Scope of the sector

NACE provides a harmonized statistical classification of economic activities in the EU. NACE 20 comprehends the manufacture of wood and wood products, except furniture, which falls under NACE 36.10. Using the NACE classification, the European woodworking industry can be subdivided into the following sub-sectors:

NACE 20.10 : sawmilling and planing of wood, impregnation of wood; NACE 20.20 : manufacture of veneer sheets, manufacture of plywood, laminboard,

particleboard, fibreboard and other panels and boards; NACE 20.30 : manufacture of builders’ carpentry and joinery; NACE 20.40 : manufacture of wooden containers; NACE 20.50 : manufacture of other products of wood, manufacture of articles of

cork, straw and plaiting materials; NACE 36.10: manufacture of furniture.

In this approach the primary wood processing is defined to cover all activities that manufacture a semi-finished product. This means a product that is not yet ready for retail. The following activities are included in the scope (for technical production details see Annex 9):

- sawmilling and planing of wood- manufacture of veneer sheets;- manufacture of plywood, laminboard, particleboard, fibreboard and other panels

and boards.

These primary wood processes generate planks sawn to size and planed, veneer sheets or board materials. In the next step of the production chain, i.e. the secondary wood processing, end products are constructed by composing the semi-finished products, by joining them together or by applying a surface treatment or another finishing process. These activities yield end products that are ready to be used.

In conclusion this means that the scope of this assessment includes the activities of NACE 20.10 excluding impregnation of wood and the activities of NACE 20.20. In the wood-based panel production the finishing of the board material (application of coating, PVC-foil, impregnated paper, veneer) will not be included in the scope of this amendment, since this is also a secondary processing step, which can also be performed in stand alone installations.

The suggested threshold value for this sector is the threshold used for the production of paper and board, that is 20 tonnes per day. Since the woodworking industry does not use the unity “tonnes per day”, it is proposed to express the threshold in m³ per day. 20 tonnes would approximately be equal to 33 m³ depending on the density (and humidity) of the material.

a. Size and structure of the sector

In the following sections, the key figures of a socio-economic analysis of the industry are presented, based on:

- recent annual reports from the sector federations EPF (European Panel Federation) [8] and FEIC (European Federation of the Plywood Industry) [9];

- “European Industry, Sectoral Overview, Technical Update – 2006”, Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General, European Commission, August 2006 [10];




- the “European Forest Sector Outlook Study, 1960 – 2000 – 2020”, United Nations, 2005 [11] and

- information from CEI-Bois (www.cei-bois.org).

The analysis is mainly based on the statistical databases of EUROSTAT. It is important to notice that most statistical systems tend to underestimate the figures for small and medium-sized industrial sectors. This is clearly the case for the data from the EUROSTAT statistical database for the woodworking industry. The underestimation is particularly important for the employment figures, since they only cover enterprises with at least 20 persons employed.

A disadvantage of using the economic figures based on the NACE-code classification of the activities is the inconsistency with the scope of this fact sheet. The primary wood processing corresponds with NACE-code 20.10 and 20.20. NACE-code 20.10 however does not only include the sawing and planing of wood, but also the impregnation of wood. The latter activity is not covered by this amendment, but by another one (B5). Consequently the data on the NACE-code 20.10 can not be properly allocated to each of the activities concerned.

In this section first the socio-economic situation of the woodworking sector is presented in general and then the sub-sectors of the sawn wood and the wood-based panels are described in more detail.

b. Key figures of the woodworking industry in general

According to a recent Commission report [10] out of total EU manufacturing, the wood sector stricto-sensu (Nace 20.10, 20.20, 20.30, 20.40 and 20.50) contributes to 1.94% of the production output, 2.11% of the added value and 3.49% of the jobs through 131 000 enterprises. Production volume grew by 15% between 1998 and 2002. The value added share of the wood and wood products in the total economy of the EU 25 amounts to 0.4 %.

The sector is somewhat fragmented and has a skewed distribution of company sizes, mostly SME’s (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: EU value added Distribution by enterprise size in % – wood and products of wood (2003) [10].




Production figures

The production value of the woodworking industry was increasing slowly until 2002 and then dropped by 5 billion EUR in 2003 (see Table 1). The value added by the woodworking industries stricto-sensu (NACE 20) remained stable, but the value added by the furniture industry dropped by 5%. In 2004 furniture as well as the other woodworking industries resumed again and the total turnover amounted to 115 and 111 billion EUR respectively. Over a five years’ period, this meant an increase by 6,7 %.

Table 1: Production in the woodworking industry within EU-25 in million EUR, 2000 - 2004Production (excl. VAT)

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 04/00 04/0320.10 26.343 25.917 26.611 26.990 27.569 4.70% 2.10%20.20 17.910 17.707 18.777 18.705 19.766 10.40% 5.70%20.30 39.655 39.080 40.977 41.721 44.096 11.20% 5.70%20.40 8.088 8.001 8.641 8.127 7.974 -1.40% -

1.90%20.50 11.510 12.783 12.424 12.116 11.676 1.40% -3.60%Subtotal 20 103.507 103.488 107.403 107.517 110.872 7.10% 3.10%

36.10 108.138 108.747 110.983 105.920 114.881 6.20% 8.50%Total 20+36.10 211.645 212.235 218.413 213.437 225.753 6.70% 5.80%

Figure 2: Importance of the different sectors of the EU 25 woodworking industry, by production value – total value €165 000 million in 2003 (www.cei-bois.org, March 2007).

For several years, furniture has accounted for more than half of the value added by the woodworking industries (see Figure 2). Within the other branches of the woodworking industry, the construction elements sector (NACE 20.30) is consolidating its position as leading sub-sector, accounting for 17 % of the total value added. The sector regrouping sawing, planing and impregnation (NACE 20.10) ranks second, although marginal market share has been lost compared to the situation in 2000. Following its positive development in production value, the wood-based panels sector (NACE 20.20) expanded its market share during 2004 and now represents 9 % of the total woodworking industry. The packaging sector (NACE 20.40) as well as the other wood products sector (NACE 20.50) both lost some market share and account for 3 and 5 % respectively.


http://www.cei-bois.org/



Figure 3: Relative importance of EU Members in 2004 [10]

Italy and Germany are the two most important production countries in the woodworking industry, as shown in Figure 3, with respectively 19,1% and 18 % of total production in 2004. With a share of 10.7 %, France comes in the third place closely followed by the UK (10,3 %). Spain takes the fifth place.

The production value of the woodworking industry stricto-sensu has been increasing sharply in 2004, as a growth of 3.1 % was registered (see Figure 2). This growth was to a large extent underpinned by the strong performance of the Baltic States. But also in other new EU Member States, such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the production value of the woodworking industries increased at high pace. In 2004 the share of Western European countries in the total value added by the woodworking industries in Europe amounted to 90 %. However, Western European countries are losing market share in the production value ranking of the woodworking industries, as they lost three percentage points compared to 2000.

More information on the production and consumption of primary wood products is given in Annex 1.

Extra-EU imports

Only trade with countries outside the EU-25 is taken into consideration. The total imports of woodworking products amounted to 18 billion EUR in 2004, which is about 2.7 billion more than in 2000 (see Table 2).

Table 2: Extra-EU-25 imports in million EUR, 2000-2004NACE code 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 04/00 04/0320.10 4,536 4,068 3,914 3,979 4,220 -7.0% 6.1%20.20 1,483 1,452 1,364 1,309 1,507 1.6% 15.1%2030 1,035 959 955 983 1,107 7.0% 12.6%20.40 121 116 114 108 114 -5.8% 5.6%20.50 1,095 1,125 1,100 1,096 1,210 10.5% 10.4%Subtotal 20.00 8,270 7,719 7,446 7,475 8,158 -1.4% 9.1%36.10 7,149 7,195 7,494 8,245 9,934 39.0% 20.5%Total 20.00 + 36.10 15,419 14,914 14,940 15,720 18,093 17.3% 15.1%

Source: EUROSTAT




The imports of sawmilling products (NACE 20.10) stand for 23 % of the total imports, although their market share in the total woodworking imports has been on the downward path since 2000. In 2004, global woodworking imports went up by 15.1% compared to the previous year. With a year-on-year increase of 15%,wood-based panel imports have significantly contributed to the increase of the total woodworking imports.

Extra-EU exports

Over the five last years, the exports of the woodworking industries stricto-sensu went up by more than 30 % (see Table 3). For the wood-based panels sub-sector (NACE 20.20) an increase by even 63 % was recorded. Also the sawmilling sector (NACE 20.10) registered a high growth rate (12 %).

Table 3: Extra-EU-25 exports in million EUR, 2000-2004NACE code 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 04/00 04/0320.10 2,333 2,271 2,578 2,358 2,609 11.8% 10.6%20.20 1,433 1,569 1,946 1,966 2,335 62.9% 18.8%2030 1,570 1,755 1,834 1,931 2,159 37.5% 11.8%20.40 298 326 341 334 343 15.1% 2.7%20.50 372 389 402 382 384 3.2% 0.6%Subtotal 20.00 6,007 6,310 7,100 6,971 7,830 30.4% 12.3%36.10 9,961 10,270 10,244 9,621 9,923 -0.4% 3.1%Total 20.00 + 36.10 15,968 16,580 17,344 16,592 17,754 11.2% 7.0%

Source: EUROSTAT

Within the wood industry stricto-sensu, the sawmilling industry confirmed its leading position, accounting for 14.7 % of the exports. Following its accelerating export activities, the wood-based panels sector and the building materials industry have now become second and third export sector of the wood industry.

Trade balance

For the first time, in 2004, the European Union had to deal with a negative trade balance for the woodworking industries (see Table 4). For several years, the furniture exports were counterbalancing the negative balance of the woodworking industries stricto-sensu. The increasing competition with China and the unfavourable currency evolution pushed the European furniture trade balance down.

Table 4: Trade balance in million EUR, 2000 – 2004.NACE code 2000 2001 2002 2003 200420.10 -2.202 -1,797 -1,336 -1,621 -1,612




20.20 -50 116 582 657 8282030 535 797 879 948 1,05220.40 177 210 226 226 23020.50 -723 -735 -698 -714 -826Subtotal 20.00 -2,263 -1,409 -346 -504 -32836.10 2,812 3,075 2,750 1,376 -11Total 20.00 + 36.10 549 1,666 2,404 871 -339

Source: EUROSTAT

For several years, the trade balance of the wood industry stricto-sensu has been negative, due to the large imports of sawmilling products (NACE 20.10). Despite the fact that a net improvement has been going on since 2000, the deficit still amounted to 1.6 billion EUR in 2004. The trade balance for wood-based panels improved markedly. While in 2000 a deficit was recorded, the industry succeeded in realising a net export of more than 825 million EUR in 2004. Thanks to the improvement of the trade balance of the sawmilling industry, the wood-based panels sector and the construction elements sector, the trade deficit of the woodworking industries stricto-sensu has improved.

Information on the competition in the wood processing industry is given in Annex 1.

Employment

According to Eurostat, the woodworking industries employed 2.4 million persons in 2004. Eurostat figures though only cover enterprises with more than 20 employees. As such, they tend to underestimate the employment number for small and medium-sized industrial sectors and given the SME structure of the woodworking industries, the actual total employment figure would be considerably higher. The total number of employees in the EU-25 wood industry is estimated at 2.9 million. Compared to 2000, almost 29 000 jobs in the woodworking stricto-sensu got lost in all the sub-sectors. Reorganisation and consolidations reduced the number of companies and decreased the number of employees. The employment in each of the sub-sectors is illustrated in Figure 4 and Table 5.

Table 5: Employment in the EU woodworking industries, 2000 – 2004 [8].NACE code

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 04/00 04/0320.10 272,033 273,923 274,473 266,810 267,323 -

1.7%0.2%

20.20 125,226 125,985 123,985 120,856 123,556 -1.3%

2.2%2030 546,306 540,488 547,643 549,187 535,927 -

1.9%-

2.4%20.40 90,522 91,498 94,962 91,229 89,053 -1.6%

-2.4%20.50 150,713 165,710 178,366 148,064 139,969 -

7.1%-

5.5%Subtotal 20.00

1,184,800 1,197,604 1,219,429 1,176,146 1,155,828 -2.4%

-1.7%36.10 1,268,710 1,271,173 1,261,407 1,242,087 1,211,378 -

4.5%-

2.5%Total 20.00 +

2,453,510 2,468,777 2,480,836 2,418,233 2,367,206 -3.5%

-2.1%Source: EUROSTAT




Figure 4 : Employment 2004 – Breakdown per sub-sector

In 2003, most employed workers in the EU15 wood and wood products industry were low-skilled workers (around 49%) and medium-skilled workers (around 41%). The high-skilled workers only accounted for around 9% of the employed workforce [10].

More information on the employment in the wood processing industry is given in Annex 1.

c. Number and size of the companies in sawn wood industry

In Figure 5 presents the production of the sub-sectors sawmilling and wood-based panels in 2003. This shows that the softwood sawn wood production is by far the largest of these sub-sectors.

In 2004 the sawn wood sub-sector represented 12% of the overall EU 25 woodworking industry, producing around 91 million m3 (€ 13 000 million) from 9 000 companies, employing 268 000 people. Sawn wood products are used mainly in industrial and structural applications, such as building components (timber frames, flooring, decking, joinery etc.) and in domestic applications for panelling, built-in fixtures, furniture and finishing [www.cei-bois.org].

The largest companies are integrated forest products industries, increasingly multi-national both in terms of processing and sales/distribution operations. According to Fedustria and CEI-Bois the average yearly production of a medium sized sawmill is 400 000- 500 000 m³, which is approximately 1 300 – 1 700 m³ per day.

It should be mentioned that the production of 20 tonnes per day, the threshold initially suggested in this amendment, equals approximately a production of 33 m³ of sawn timber, which can be a 1 – 2 person operation [34].




Figure 5: EU 15 woodworking industries production in 2003 (www.cei-bois.org, March 2007)

The softwood sawn wood sector is consolidating. The top ten producers, typically world-scale multi-national forest products businesses, increased their share of the market from 15% in 1995 to 25% in 2004.

Hardwood sawn wood EU 25 production increased by a significant 6,7% in 2004, led by France, while demand grew by 5,2%, thanks to increased housing starts. This part of the industry is relatively fragmented, consisting of a large number of smaller businesses. Production is on a local, regional or national level, exploiting niches created through local forest resource or markets, but with growing international sales. Industry consolidation is low, although forward integration into secondary wood processing is significant, serving specific product or market needs.

More information on the trends in production and consumption of sawn wood is given in Annex 1.

d. Number and size of the companies in the wood-based panel industry

This is an important sub-sector, accounting for 9%, or €13 billion, of total industry production, employing around 80 000 people within the EU. In 2004, EU-15 production totalled 45.6 million m³ (www.cei-bois.org).

Figure 6 shows the relative importance of the production volumes of the different types of wood-based panels in Europe. Within this industry the production of particleboard is by far the most important sub-sector, followed by the production of MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard).




Figure 6: Relative importance of the wood-based panel types [12]

Wood-based panels are used as intermediate products in a wide variety of applications in the furniture industry, the building industry (including flooring), the packaging industry, or as ‘do-it-yourself’ products.

The most important end-users for plywood and OSB are the construction market and the packaging industry, although plywood also enjoys specific niche markets, such as transport, boat building and musical instruments. The furniture industry is the main user of particleboard (41% in 2004), while laminate flooring is a booming market for MDF and now accounts for more than 40% of all applications. In fact, laminate flooring is at present the fastest growing product in the woodworking industry.

Thanks to major growth and consolidation amongst the Western European producers of reconstituted wood-based panels (particleboard, MDF and OSB (Oriented Strand Board)), manufacture is concentrated into a few dominant world scale companies, operating multi-nationally. These businesses are increasingly establishing production and extending markets in Eastern Europe, utilizing the benefits of low cost production and growing markets. This growth is partly caused by the relocation of secondary wood working businesses from Western to Eastern Europe.

Production of particleboard, MDF and OSB

The number of enterprises manufacturing particleboard, MDF and OSB in the EU countries in 2005 is illustrated in Table 6, together with the production figures (based on [8]).




Table 6: Number of production sites of particleboard, MDF and OSB and production in 2005 Country totala particleboard MDF OSB

# production (1000 m³)



Austria 7 6 2 200 2 520Belgium 5 5 1 875 1 250 1 300b

Bulgaria 4 4 340 1180

Czech Rep. 3 3 965 1 100 1 360c

Denmark 1 1 320Estonia 2 2 261Finland 3 3 459France 22 16 4 264 4 1 050 2 450Germany 33 16 9 450 12 3 768 3 1 200Greece 4 4 570Hungary 2 2

566Ireland 4 1 140 2 520 1 350Italy 22 20 3 525 4 1 260Latvia 2 1 177 1 50c

Lithuania 3 3 270Luxemburg 1 1 250 1 200b

Poland 6 62 620

3 1 050

1319

Portugal 5 3 900 3 470Romania 5 4 483 1 350Slovakia 3 3

570Slovenia 2 1 130 1 79Spain 18 11 3 174 6 1 247Sweden 5 4 487 1 90UK 8 7 2 276 2 870 1 320b

Total 170 12636 022

4511 924

123 679

Average production per site per year

286 000 m³/year 265 000 m³/year 300 000 m³/year

Average production per site per dayd

950 m³/day 883 m³/day 1000 m³/day

source: based on [8].

a total number of production sitesb production capacity instead of productionc planned annual production capacity for 2006 d assuming a production of 300 days per yearThe average production capacity of the different board materials was estimated by calculating the mean production value per site, which is 883 m³/day for particleboard, 950 m³/day for MDF and 1000 m³/day to OSB. Some companies may have installations for the production of different types of panel material at the same site, this was not taken into account.

The European Panel Federation (EFP) supplied a further analysis of the capacity and company size distribution in the wood based panel industry. Table 7 shows the total production capacity of particleboard, MDF and OSB production installations at one site.




The table should be interpreted as follows: all companies exceeding a production capacity of 1000 m³/day, represent 74,01 % of the total capacity and 44,44 % of the total number of installations. In other words, 44,44 % of the companies produce more than 1000 m³/day and have a joint production capacity of 74,01 % % of the total wood-based panel industry. Two assumptions were made:

- activity of 335 days/year;- production of particleboard, MDF, and OSB takes place at the same site.

Table 7: Capacity and company size distribution in the particleboard, MDF and OSB sub-sectors (source: EPF).

Production/day Number of Sites Capacity335 days/year % %

> 2000 m³ 8,19 22,85> 1500 m³ 19,88 44,03> 1250 m³ 35,09 64,09> 1000 m³ 44,44 74,01> 850 m³ 53,80 82,14> 500 m³ 69,59 91,86> 250 m³ 85,96 98,09> 100 m³ 94,74 99,63

Production of plywood

The production figures of plywood based on the different types of raw wood in EU countries in 2005 are illustrated in Table 8 (based on [9]). The total production of plywood in the EU amounted to 3 263 886 m³ in 2005. In the production of plywood more broadleaved wood is used than coniferous wood.




Table 8: Production of plywood in EU countries in 2005 (in m³).

Country tropical broadleaved coniferous otherBelgium 20 000Bulgaria 36 392Czech Rep. 5 807 23 065Estonia 43 000Finland 523 500 784 545France 257 250 19 250 112 150Germany 2 000 14 500Greece 30 000IrelandItaly 48 710 289

1629

766 42 362Latvia 210 916Poland 91 85 318 50 426 7 776Portugal 11 700 5 400 500 4

400Slovenia 6 400Spain 390 000 40

000Sweden 91 500Romania 90 450 4 200 3

350UKTotal 339 751 1

750 0951

116 152 57 888source: based on [9].

In [9] the distribution of the capacities of the plywood companies in the EU in 2005 are reported in m³/year. The distribution ranges are converted into capacities expressed in m³/day and given in Table 9. Only 3 companies have capacities above 333 m³/day.




Table 9: Distribution of the production capacities of plywood companies in EU countries in 2005 in 1000 m³

Production capacities in 1000 m³/yearm³/year > 400 100-400 50-100 10-50 <10

Production capacities in m³/daya

m³/day > 1 333 333 – 1 333

167 - 333 33 - 167 < 33

Belgium 1 1Bulgaria 1Czech Rep. 1Estonia 2Finland 1 6 6France 1 4 8 2Germany 1 3 8Greece 1 2IrelandItaly 2 12 12Latvia 1 1 1Poland 2 4Portugal 2Romania 9 11Slovenia 1Spain 1 3 21Sweden 1 1UKTotal 0 3 18 54 59source: based on [9].a assuming a production of 300 days per yearProduction of soft board and hard board

The production of hard board and soft board (for technical production details see Annex 9) is estimated at 2.35 million m³ in 2005 according to CEI-Bois. The amount approximately corresponds to the figures supplied by Feropa (see Table 10). In the past some fibreboard mills have been closed in Western Europe (mostly in Sweden), but have been set up again in other EU countries (i.e. Portugal and Poland) or outside Europe (Africa, China).

Table 10: Distribution of the production capacities of hard board (HB) and soft board (SB) in EU countries in 2007 in 1000 m³ (based on information from Mr. Omdahl, Feropa)

Production capacities in m³/day*m³/day > 500 300-500 200 – 300 100 - 200 50 - 100Austria 253 HBBulgaria 133 HB

200 HBEstonia 150 SBFinland 206 HB




250 SBFrance 337 SB 233 HB 83 HBGermany 600 SB**Italy 250 HBLithuania 190 HB

190 SBPoland 800 SB

1267 SB800 SB

***

400 SB 203 HB250 HB233 SB293 SB

126 HB126 HB166 HB190 HB

Portugal 266 HBRomania 200 HB

200 HBSlovakia 510 SBSpain 240 HBSweden 116 HBSub total 4 SB 2 SB 8 HB

3 SB10 HB5 SB

1 HB

Total 4 2 11 15 1* assuming a production of 300 days per year** probably 3 companies.*** distribution of SB production in Poland over the number of companies is uncertain.According to these figures 79 % of the companies have capacities between 100 and 300 m³/d. Probably 1 plant exceeds a production capacity of 1000 m³/d and 2 plants have capacities of 800 m³/d, that is if we assume the working activity is 300 d/y. The number and capacity of the companies that use a wet process is not known. Figure 7 shows the geographical distribution of the production of hardboard.

Figure 7: Geographical distribution of the production of hardboard, 2005.




source: http://www.feropa.org

Summary of the key elements about the size and structure of the sector useful for this exercise

In the woodworking industry the vast majority of companies are SME's, with only a few large groups, typically in the softwood sawmill, panel and parquet sectors. The two sub-sectors that are covered in this amendment are the sawn wood sector and the wood-based panels sector.

The sawn wood sub-sector represents 12 % of the overall EU 25 woodworking industry, producing 91 million m³ sawn wood in 2004 from 9 000 companies employing 268 000 people. The production of soft sawn wood is mainly situated in Western Europe, whereas the production of hard sawn wood is distributed more evenly. These figures also include the wood preservation activities.

The wood-based panel industry is an important sub-sector of the woodworking industry, accounting for 9% of total wood industry, producing 57 million m³ wood-based panels in 2005 and employing around 80 000 people within the EU. The average production per site amounts approximately to 850 – 1000 m³/day for the production of particleboard, MDF and OSB. But only 3 production facilities for plywood exceed a daily production of 333 m³/day. And only 3 production sites for soft board reach a production capacity of 850 m³/day. The largest production capacity for hard board is 270 m3/day. The production capacities of the different sub-sectors in the EU-25 for 2005 used in this assessment are presented in .

The particleboard is the major wood-based panel sub-sector accounting for 62,2 % of production volume of total wood based panel industry, followed by MDF production with 20,6 %. The OSB production represents 6,4 %, that is close to the plywood production with 5,7 % . Finally the soft and hard board sub-sector represent 3 % and respectively 1,8 % [12].




Table 11: Production figures for different wood-based panel materialsProduct Yearly production

(m³/year)share of total volume of wood-based panel sub-sector (%)

average production per site per day (m³/day)

Particleboard 36 022 000 62,2 950MDF 11 924 000 20,6 883OSB 3 679 000 6,4 1000Plywood 3 264 000 5,7 < 50*Soft board 1 750 000 3,0 417Hard board 1 031 000 1,8 171

* 84 % of the companies produces < 50 m³/day, the rest produces between 350 and 50 m³/day.

2.2 Environmental Impacts

The main environmental issues related to the production of primary wood products are emissions to air (dust and also VOC) and the generation of wood residue. Energy consumption is inevitably linked to the use of production machinery and drying operations. Discharges to water, contamination of the soil and noise nuisance may also occur, but to a much smaller extent or only associated with specific production processes.

In the first part of this section, the dust emissions and the waste generation are discussed for the wood processing sector in general. But since the type and quantity of the environmental impact depend very much on the type of processes that are applied, it seems more appropriate to discuss the environmental effects of the two sub-sectors of the primary wood processing industry, that is the wood sawmilling and wood-based panels, separately in detail.

Dust emissions

Emission of particulate matter (PM) is a typical environmental effect of the woodworking industry in general. Dust generation varies according to the species of wood and the wood moisture content, plus the woodworking parameters [20]. The process of sanding of wood and wood-based materials is responsible for the greatest production of dust, followed by routing and circular sawing [13]. Some of the dust emissions are collected and treated, other dust emissions are diffuse.

The dispersion of the dust that is emitted after dedusting, remains mainly local. Only the fine dust particles are dispersed widely. According to [6] wood industry yields a major contribution to the diffuse emissions of fine particles besides the building industry, the building material industry, the paper industry and the basic metal industry. Note that the emission of dust in the working place is also subject to health and safety regulations which urge to install extraction systems. It is the efficiency of the filtering device that determines the final emissions to the environment.

For the estimation of the dust emissions from the sector two approaches are presented. Annex 7 describes the approach based on reference [13], a study on PM10 emissions from the woodworking industry in Switzerland. This approach can be extrapolated to the European wood working sector, but may be less suitable for all the sub-sectors concerned, as it does not take into account the emissions from combustion and drying plants.




Annex 8 estimates the emissions from the particleboard, MDF and OSB industry in EU-25 based on emission data from the companies in one MS. Here the assumption is made that the situation in this MS could be generalized, which is an hypothesis that was not validated and could lead to anomalous results.

In the above mentioned estimations the fugitive emissions are not included. There is a lack of information on fugitive emissions and no estimations could be performed.

Waste

The woodworking industry generates all kinds of wood residues: massive wood pieces, bark from the logs, shavings and sawdust.

Most of these residues can be reused or recycled internally or externally. The main recycling options are: reuse in particleboard production, use in paper and board production and heat recovery in combustion facilities on-site or off-site. Consequently the wood waste stream does not really cause an environmental burden, provided that the recycling and recovery operations are carried out in an environmentally safe way (eg controlled combustion).

a. Environmental impact of the sawmilling and planing of wood

The main environmental effects of the sawmilling and planing of wood are dust emissions to air, the generation of wood residues, run-off water and the use of energy.

Emission to air

Air emissions from sawmill operations are generated from a number of sources. - emissions of wood dust and larger particles are generated during sawing and planing

operations;- emissions of CO, NOx, SOx particulate matter and VOC are caused by incineration of

bark and wood;- VOCs may also be emitted during kiln drying of wood [14];- dust from transport and storage.

Dust

Based on a first approach described in [13] (see Annex 7) the dust emissions generated by the EU sawmilling industry may be estimated. In 2004 the production amounted 91 million m³ sawn wood and the dust emissions caused by the sawmilling sector can be estimated to range between 2 100 and 10 700 tonnes of dust. This is approximately of the same order of magnitude as eg. the total dust emission of the European cement industry, another IPPC-sector, that emitted 1 720 – 68 800 t/y2 before applying BAT. However if the BAT range for dust 20 – 30 mg/m³ is taken as a reference, the post-IPPC estimation for total dust emissions from the cement industry would be 6 900– 10 300 tonnes per year at the most. [30].

2 This is an estimation based on the emission factor of 0.01 – 0.4 kg/ton clincker and a production of 172 million tonnes per year in 1995 [30].




According to the first approach in [13] the PM10 emissions originating from the sawmilling sector in the EU-25 equals 90 – 4 300 tonnes PM10.

According to the second assumption described in [13] (see Annex 7) the emission factor for the dust emissions from the sawmilling and planing industry is approximately 3,5 g/m³ of wood. Then the sawmilling sector in the EU-25 would emit only 320 tonnes dust and between 50 and 130 tonnes PM10.

For both estimates the assumption is made that the Swiss situation is representative for the European wood working industry, which in not validated. Both approaches overrate the actual total dust emission caused by the sawmilling sector because the production figure of 91 million m³ does not only include the sawmilling and planing activities but also the preservation of wood, which is not included in the scope of this fact sheet. Unfortunately there is no specific information available to which extent the production figure should be lowered in order to take this effect into account. On the other hand this approach disregards the dust emissions from combustion and drying installations used in this sector. Due to a lack of information the dust emissions from combustion and drying installations in the sawmills could not be estimated.

In the estimations the fugitive emissions are not included. There is a lack of information on fugitive emissions and no estimations could be performed. Considering that there are health and safety requirements for the protection of workers exposed to wood dust and dust extraction systems are standard in most plants, fugitive emissions can be supposed to be limited.

Combustion gases: dust, SOx, CO, CO2, NOx

Combustion gases are generated when heating processes for drying of wood or space heating are involved, or when wood is incinerated. Since data concerning the number and size of the combustion installations of sawmills or planing factories are not available, total emission from combustion gases are not calculated. Combustion installations with a thermal input exceeding 50 MW are already subject to IPPCD. This threshold value may be lowered in the future to 20 MW. It is not known which fraction of the sawmilling companies is already (and will be) covered.

VOC

When wood is dried, inevitably some VOCs (incl. aldehydes, terpenes) are released. This phenomenon becomes more important at higher temperatures. The majority of sawn timber is no longer currently dried naturally, but at elevated temperatures. A distinction is made between normal temperature drying (< 100°C) and high temperature drying (from 100 to 150°C). In the drying of sawn timber, steam-loaden exhaust gases arise, which contain organic substances, such as formic acid, acetic acid, methanol, formaldehyde and monoterpenes as well as α and β-pinene. These substances can cause odours.

The exact composition of the exhaust gases depends of the type of wood. No emissions are calculated due to lack of data concerning the emission factor of this activity and the amount of wood that is dried at high temperatures, but it may be assumed that the drying temperatures in this sub-sector are lower than those for chips dryers in the particleboard production, resulting in lower VOC-emissions.




Waste

Sawmilling and planing results in the generation of wood residues, waste originating from maintenance operations (waste oil, sanding bands, used equipment, cleaning products, …) and waste from combustion processes (fly ashes, bottom ash). In case of condensation and vacuum drying, a condensate arises which contains organic substances and must be disposed of.

The generation of wood waste such as massive wood pieces, shavings and sawdust is directly related to the conversion efficiency of round wood to sawn lumber or other final products. Conversion efficiencies from round wood to sawn lumber are often below 40 %. The use of modern equipment and trained staff may increase efficiencies to 70 % [14]. This results in total waste generation between 40 and 140 million m³ wood residues.

Opportunities for recycling of wood waste exist through the use of residues as inputs for secondary products in other industries or as a source of fuel for heat and power generation. E.g. chips and sawdust are collected and find their way to the pulp/paper, wood-based panel or pellet industries and the production of renewable energy. Often the latter two activities can be found on the sawmilling site, thus limiting transport of the material.

The optimal recycling options from environmental perspective, i.e. waste hierarchy, depend on local market conditions and the size (e.g. sawmill chips or sanding dust) and dryness of the material, however the larger-dimensioned wastes are usually more profitably utilized as input in woodworking processes than as fuels. The value and disposal options for sawmill waste are usually enhanced if the waste is bark-free, which necessitates debarking logs before primary breakdown [14].

Water consumption and wastewater effluents

In some situations wastewater may occur:- when (sawn)wood is stored uncovered, the run-off water from irrigated storage areas

will contain high concentrations of BOD (150 – 5000 mg/l), COD (750 – 7500 mg/l) and particulate matter and may also contain toxic chemicals (such as tannins, phenols, resins and fatty acids) leached from the timber and soil and other materials washed out of the bark [14];

- when wood is dried using a dehumidifier a small amount of process water is formed;- when a wet scrubbing system is used for treating combustion gases from a

combustion installation, a waste water stream is generated.

According to [14] the industry benchmark value for water use is 290 l/m³, although the sawmilling and planing do not use any water, beside some used for cleaning activities or unless this figure also includes the water consumption in preservation activities. For the European sawmilling sector this equals to 26 390 million l water or 26,4 million m³ water. This figure seems rather uncertain.

Energy

The main energy consuming operations in this industry are the mechanical processes and the ventilation (dust removal). Energy is also needed for drying wood and for space




heating. Often waste wood is used as a fuel in the combustion processes for generating the heat.

The energy consumption factor for this activity is not known and the total energy use of the sector could not be calculated. Nevertheless it is assumed that for this activity energy use is not a major issue, also because often the wood waste stream is used as an energy source.

Noise

Sawmill may result in elevated noise levels

b. Environmental impact of the production wood-based panels

The main environmental effects of the production of wood-based panels are emissions to air (dust, combustion gases and VOCs), the generation of wood residues and the use of energy. Apart from this, typical environmental effects (e.g. discharge to water) may occur depending on the type of panel and the specific production processes that are applied.

Table 12 presents an overview of the releases to the environment and the sources.

Table 12: Summary of direct releases [27].

Source

Releases

De-

Bar

king

Rec

over

ed W

ood

hand

ling

Chi

p W

ashi

ng

Woo

d C

hipp

ing

(Pre

pare

d) W

ood

Par

ticle

Sto

rage

Dry

ing

Mix

ing

of R

esin

s / A

dditi

ves

Mat

For

min

g

San

ding

& F

inis

hing

Coo

ling

Ope

ratio

ns

Lam

inat

ing

Line

Effl

uent

Pla

nt

Boi

lers

WE

SP

Oxides of Sulphur A A

Oxides of nitrogen and carbon

A A

Particulate/Total suspended

A W A A A A A A A W A A

Formal-dehyde

AW A A W A

W

Isocyanates A A A

VOC A A A A A

Total aldehydes A A A A A

Solid waste or sludge W W W W W

Phenol A A A

Ammonia W




Noise *** * *** ** **# *

KEY A – Release to Air, W – Release to Water, L – Release to Land, *** - High, ** - Medium, * - Low # from fans

Substances include their compounds, except where separate reference to the compound is made. Releases to air may also be released to land or water, depending upon the abatement technology employed, e.g. via collected dusts, sludges or liquors. N.B. It should be noted that this is not necessarily an exhaustive list. Equally not all installations will necessarily have all these releases.

Emission to air

Table 13 gives an overview of the relevant air pollutants for individual process steps.

Table 13: Overview of relevant air pollutants for individual production steps in the wood-based panel industry [18, At].

Process Relevant pollutants

Transport and storage dust, wood dust

Mechanical operations Chipping, chip grading, cutting, sanding of pressed board, …

wood dust

Formaldehyde- and adhesive (glue) production

HCHO, VOC

Particleboard and MDF production

Direct heated dryers incl. energy supply dust, NOx, NH3, SO2, CO, VOC, HCHO, org. acids, HCl, phenol, PCDD/F

Indirect heated dryers dust, SO21), VOC, HCHO, organic acids,

HCl1), phenol

Press dust, VOC, HCHO, organic acids, phenol, SO2

1)

Fibreboard production

Wet process VOC, organic acids, phenol, HCHO

Combustion dust, heavy metal dusts, NOx, SO2, NH3, VOC, HCl, HF, HCHO, CO, PCDD/F

1) potentially, if chloride or sulphate-containing accessory agents and additives (hardening agents) such as ammonium sulphate or ammonia chloride are used.

One of the main soures of emissions to air are the dryers used in the wood based panel industry. Some values for emissions of particles to air from a chipdryer at full load are given in Table 14 [31, 32]. The range of emissions from the dryers of fibreboard at full load are presented in Table 15 [18, 32].

Table 14: Emissions (mg/Nm³) from chipdryers at full load [32].




Emissions Measured values1) Abatement technology

Direct dryerr

Indirect dryer

Particles 2) 50 to 100 20 to t 60 Gravity separators

< 10 < 10 Filtering separators

5 to 20 5 to 203) Electric separators

30 to 50 < 30 Wet precipitatorsOrganic compounds, calculated as total C

< 104) to 1150

100 to 1050

Regenerative post-combustion

wet precipitators5)

Terpene < 10 to 1000 80 to 1000Formaldehyde 2 to 50 2 to 20Aromatics < 15 < 2Carbonic acids < 30 < 20Odorous Compounds (OU/m³)

1000 to 10000

1000 to 3000

OU : Odour Units1) with directly heated dryers, additionally CO, NOx, SO2, dioxines/furanes and ash, depending on the fuel2) wood dust and terpene aerosols, with directly heated dryers also ash in some cases3) no measured values available, values estimated4) the low measured values were only achieved with regenerative post-combustion5) Partial separation, depending on the polarity of the compounds, for odorous compounds roughly halving of the emissions.

Table 15: Emissions (mg/m³) from wood fibre dryers under full load [32]

Emissions Measured values (mg/m³) 1)

Particulates 2) < 10 to 50Organic compounds, calculated as total C3)

terpeneformaldehydeAromaticsCarbonic acidOdorous compounds (OU/m³)

< 20 to 550< 10 to 5002 to 20< 5< 10500 to 800

OU : Odour Units1) with directly heated dryers, additionally CO, NOx, SO2, dioxines/furanes and ash, depending on the fuel.2) wood dust and terpene aerosols, with directly heated dryers also ash in some cases3) no measured values available, values estimated4) the low measured values can only be achieved using reduction techniques

- Dust emissions




Many of the processes in panel manufacture have the potential to create dust:- in the log yard,- log handling, - log and recycled material chipping,- chip screening,- veneer trimming,- particulate and veneer drying,- laying out the particulate mat to be pressed,- cutting to length of continuously-pressed board,- end trimming, edge trimming,- cutting to size,- sanding,- etc.

Also [19, USA] mentions specific particulate matter (PM10) emission factors from the particleboard, MDF and plywood manufacturing (see Table 25, Table 26 and Table 27 in Annex 2). From these data it can be concluded that PM10 emissions are lower when indirect dryers are used in MDF production3. In the production of plywood firing with natural gas, installing a wet electrostatic precipitator or using radio frequency heating yields reduced PM emissions.

In general direct heaters yield less dust emissions than direct dryers, when gravity separators or wet precipitators are installed. This difference is eliminated when filtering or electric separators are applied.

- Estimation of dust emissions based on [13] (see also Annex 7)

Based on the first assumption in [13] (see Annex 7), the dust emissions generated by the EU wood-based panel industry may be estimated. Since the production in 2005 amounted 57 million m³, the wood-based panel sector in EU-25 would emit between 1 300 – 6 700 tonnes of dust. The PM10-emission originating from the sawmilling sector in EU-25 can be estimated to range between 60 – 2 700 tonnes of PM10.

The second assumption in [13] estimates the emission factor for the dust emissions from the wood-based panel industry, which is approximately 0,8 g/m³ of wood. According to this assumption the sector would emit only 50 tonnes of dust and between 10 and 20 tonnes of PM10. This will be an underestimation of the actual figure, since according to [13] veneer factories would have a higher emission factor (about 15 g/m³). The number of veneer produced across the EU is not known, but it may be assumed that it will be very low in comparison to the production of particleboard, MDF and OSB.

Moreover both approaches in [13] disregard the dust emissions from combustion and drying installations used in this sub-sector, whereas the impact of these installations on the dust emission is very important. Because of a lack of reliable information in the literature these emissions are estimated further using emission data from the companies in one MS.

- Estimation of dust emissions based on emission data from one MS (see also Annex 8)

3 The same probably holds for the manufacture of particleboard.




In Annex 8 the dust emission from the EU-25 particleboard and OSB production is estimated based on emission data from companies in one MS. Assuming that in general the installations in EU-25 have similar combustion and abatement installations as the companies in this MS, the particleboard production in EU-25 would emit approximately 5 700 – 18 000 tonnes dust per year4. The lowest emission figure only includes the dust emissions from the combustion installation (based on direct dryer and multicyclones) and the highest figure also includes the dust emission from chipping.

Assuming that in general the OSB installations in EU-25 have similar combustion and abatement installations as the installation on wich the calculatons were based, and also mainly use fresh wood the OSB production in EU-25 would emit approximately 190 tonnes dust per year 5. This includes only the dust emissions from the combustion installation.

If we assume that MDF-production is very similar to particleboard production and dust emissions are comparable and originate mainly from the dryers, then we could use the same emission factors. This assumption results in the emission between 1 900 and 6 000 tonnes dust per year from the EU-25 MDF production6.

Conclusion:

The result of the estimation based on [13] is much lower than the estimations based on effective emission data from the companies in one MS. In [13] the emission from the dryers are disregarded. In the approach based on data form the MS the emissions not related to the drying process are not or only partly included. Since the emissions from the dryers are much larger than the other emissions, one can assume that the latter approach will be the most reliable. The total dust emissions of the particleboard, MDF and OSB production in EU-25 can be estimated under the assumption that the emission data from companies in this MS are representative for the installations in EU. This is a hypothesis which is not validated and which may lead to anomalous results. The dust emission would then be situated in a range between 7 800 and 24 200 tonnes per year.

It may be supposed that the emission factor would be lower if (wet) electrostatic precipitators or similar abatement technologies are used with a cyclone as pre-separator. Also the use of natural gas as fuel can reduce the dust emission.

The WESP technology is already installed in some companies in the MS and also in Austria this technology is widely used. According to [18, At] application of a WESP would lead to dust emission levels of 5 – 10 mg/Nm³, i.e. approximately 4 times lower than the plants used in the calculation. But it is not known to which extent this technology is already applied throughout the rest of Europe.

4 The production capacity of particleboard in EU-25 for 2005 was 36 022 000 m³.5 The production capacity of OSB in EU-25 for 2005 was 3 679 000 m³6 The production capacity of MDF in EU-25 for 2005 was 11 924 000 m³




If the PM10 emission is calculated by weighing the total dust emission with the minimum (15%) and maximum (40 %) fine dust concentration according to [33], than the total PM10 emission from particleboard, MDF and OSB production in EU-25 ranges between 1 200 and 9 900 tonnes per year.

Besides these calculated emissions also fugitive emissions will occur which were not estimated.

- VOC emissions

The emission of VOC in the wood based panel industry is relevant from 3 perspectives, which are the formation of ozone, emission of hazardous substances (formaldehyde, isocyanates) and odour nuisance.

VOC emissions can be caused by the following processes:- emissions from wood dryers,- pressing boards when formaldehyde based resins and glues are used,- board cooling,- combustion processes.

Air emissions from dryers contain not only combustion gases, moisture and particulate matter, but also VOCs evaporated from the wood. When drying wood, inevitably some aldehydes and terpenes are emitted (in addition to dust), especially when the wood is heated above 100°C.

The organic portion of the emissions includes the listed substances:- methanol;- acetic acid;- formic acid;- ethanol; - phenol;- acetone;- formaldehyde and others.

(see also Annex 3)

Some values for emissions of VOC to air from a chip dryer and a wood fibre dryer at full load are given in Table 14 and Table 15 respectively [31, 32]. The emissions occuring during drying depend not only of the type of dryer and the process control but also on the age and species of the wood used [32].

The waste gases produced in directly heated dryers have a complex composition [18, At]. They consist of water vapour (150 to 350 g/m³), wood dust, fly ash, combustion gases such as CO, SO2, NOx, NH3, HCl and PCDD/F, secondary wood constitutes (e.g. distilled oils), condensable hydrocarbons, aerosols, PM10, and, at higher tempeartures, of wood decomposition products, whereby the total C emission increases with increasing drying temperature.

The waste gases from indirectly heated dryers consist predominantly of water vapour (200 to 450 g/m³), particulates and volatile secondary wood compounds.

These waste gases generally have an intense odour, they frequently contain aerosols and respirable dusts. The expression “blue haze” is also used for this condition.




In Annex 3 some uncontrolled emission factors for organic compounds from dryers in the production of particleboard and MDF are given [19, USA]. From these data it can be concluded that the emitted quantities are dependent on the wood species used, the dryer temperature, the fuel used and the kind of emission control equipment installed. Because of lack of information on these issues and since the emission factor rating is rather below average and poor, it is difficult to estimate the VOC-emissions originating from the drying processes in the panel industry in the EU. Nevertheless in Annex 8 the estimation is performed based on emission data from 3 companies in one MS.

VOC emissions from pressing are: - dust, - organic carbon, - methanol,- formaldehyde, - organic acids (formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid),- isocyanate and- phenoldepending on the use of binding agents. Emissions during pressing are presented in Table 16.

Table 16: Emissions during pressing [32]

Substance/substance group

Emissions for various binding agents in g/m³ of produced particleboardAminoplastics Phenol resin PMDI

Organic compoundscalculated as total C

FormaldehydePhenolic compoundsPMDI

40 to 120

50 to 100< 5-

40 to 100

10 to 20< 10-

40 to 100

< 10< 5< 1

PMDI : Diphenylmethane – diisocyanate

Wood-based panel producers may use large volumes of binding agents in the manufacturing process, especially in the production of particleboard and MDF. Binding agents are e.g. urea-formaldehyde resin, melamine-formaldehyde resin, phenol-formaldehyde resin, as well as compound products (polyurethane or tannin resins). In addition to organic binding agents, inorganic binding agents (portland cement, magnesia cement, gypsum) can be used for the production of particleboards [18, At].

When pressing the board material at high temperature, emissions to air from the organic binding agent may occur. The quantity of these emissions is related to the type of binding agent, the press temperature and the press time [16, 17, 21 and 22]. In the production of particleboard and MDF the use of a binding agent is standard. But in other subsectors, air emissions originating from the adhesive are not always as relevant as in the particleboard industry and MDF:

- in the production of soft board and hard board, lignin from the wood particles can serve as binding agent, in some cases small amounts of adhesive agents (UF or PF) are used;




- in the production of plywood the adhesive can be applied to the layers of veneer wood by rolling instead of spraying and therefore the volatile substances react before they are not airborne and emissions are low;

- in the production of OSB less resin is used and sometimes natural resins from coniferous wood is used.

Moreover, currently aldehyde-poor or aldehyde-free binding agents are used in the production of wood-based panel.

In Annex 3 some emission factors from the presses and coolers for the production of particleboard and MDF are given [19, USA]. The emitted quantities depend on the binding agents used, the press temperature and the kind of emission control equipment that is installed. Because of the lack of information on these issues and since the emission factor rating is rather below average and poor, it is not possible to estimate the VOC-emissions originating from the binding agents in the panel industry in the EU. It can be concluded that the VOC-emission from particleboard and MDF is in the same order of magnitude.

Annex 3 also mentions the emission factors for the VOCs and formaldehyde substances from the plywood manufacturing.

Estimation of the VOC emissions in general:

In Annex 8 the VOC emissions are estimated on the basis of emission data from 3 companies from the MS. Assuming that in general the installations in EU-25 have similar combustion installations and presses, operate these in the same way and use comparable adhesives, the particleboard production in EU-25 would emit approximately 2 100, 7 500 or 14 900 tonnes VOC per year7. The 2 lowest emission figures only includes the VOC emissions from the dryer installations and the highest figure also includes VOC emissions from the presses and some fugitive emissions. In the situation with the lowest emission the flue gas from dryers and presses is recirculated to the combustion installation, where it is used as combustion air.

Assuming that in general the OSB installations in EU-25 have similar combustion installations and presses, operate these in these same way the companies in the MS do and use mainly fresh wood, the OSB production in EU-25 would emit approximately 10 400 tonnes VOC per year 8. Industry has informed us that het emission factor for the OSB-production would be much lower, and would rather be situated around 800 g/m³ in stead of 2 824 g/m³. This would reduce the emissions from OSB production in EU-25 to 3 000 tonnes VOC per year.

If we assume that MDF-production is very similar to particleboard production and VOC emissions are comparable and originate mainly from the dryers, then we could use the 7 The production capacity of particleboard in EU-25 for 2005 was 36 022 000 m³.

8 The production capacity of OSB in EU-25 for 2005 was 3 679 000 m³




same emission factors. This assumption results in the emission of 700, 2 500 or 4 900 tonnes VOC per year from the EU-25 MDF production9.

In general it can be concluded that the VOC emissions in the manufacture of particleboard, MDF, OSB and plywood are very much dependent on the drying and press temperature, the type of wood (recycled or fresh), the type of heating system (direct or indirect, natural gas or wood fired, radio frequency), the use and type of binding agent and the kind of emission control equipment that is installed. These parameters have a higher impact on the VOC emissions than the type of wood panel that is produced.

- Combustion gases

Specific combustion gases are generated when heating processes for drying or space heating are involved (see section on energy). Wood dryers are typically directly or indirectly heated by hot gases arising from a wood-products and/or fossil fuel fired hot gas generators and give rise to air emissions. Typical emissions are SO x, NOx, CO, particulate matter, condensable hydrocarbons. NOx-emissions may be important due to the incineration of wood dust from the panel material, which may contain high concentrations of nitrogen (originating from N-based binding agents).

In Annex 4 some emission factors for combustion gases from the production of particleboard, MDF and plywood are given [19, USA].

In Annex 8 the NOx-emissions are estimated based on the emission data of 2 particleboard producers from one MS and the emission factors in [19, USA]. Using the three proposed emission factors, the particleboard production in EU-25 is estimated to be between 3 600, 10 800 and 21 600 tonnes NOx per year10. The emission figures only include the NOx-emissions from the combustion installation that generates hot air/heath for drying the chips. Other (indirect) NOx-emissions from (electricity use or) the use of other boiler or combustion installations for other purposes are not included.

If we assume that MDF and OSB -production are very similar to particleboard production and approximately the same amount of heat per m³ of panel is needed, then we could use the same emission factors. This assumption results in the emission of 1 200, 3 600 and 7 200 tonnes NOx per year from the EU-25 MDF production and 370, 1 100 and 2 200 tonnes NOx per year from the EU-25 OSB production.

In Annex 8 the SOx emissions are estimated based on emission data of 2 particleboard producers from one MS. Assuming that in general the installations in EU-25 have similar combustion installations, also use mainly wood as a fuel, then the particleboard production in EU-25 would emit approximately 430 – 650 tonnes SOx per year11. 9 The production capacity of MDF in EU-25 for 2005 was 11 924 000 m³10 The production capacity of particleboard in EU-25 for 2005 was 36 022 000 m³.

11 The production capacity of particleboard in EU-25 for 2005 was 36 022 000 m³.




If we assume that MDF and OSB -production are very similar to particleboard production and approximately the same amount of heat per m³ of panel is needed, then we could use the same emission factors. This assumption results in the emission of 140 – 210 tonnes SOx per year from the EU-25 MDF production and 44 – 66 tonnes SOx per year from the EU-25 OSB production.

In Annex 8 the CO emissions are estimated based on emission data of 2 particleboard producers from one MS. One of these also produces OSB panels. Assuming that in general the installations in EU-25 have similar combustion installations and operate these in the same way the particleboard production in EU-25 would emit approximately 940 – 3 170 tonnes CO per year12.

If we assume that MDF-production is very similar to particleboard production, that the combustion installations are operated in the same way and that approximately the same amount of heat per m³ of panel is needed, then we could use the same emission factors. These assumptions result in the emission of 310 – 1 050 tonnes CO per year from the EU-25 MDF production.

Assuming that in general the OSB installations in EU-25 have similar combustion installations, operate these in these same way the company in the MS does, and use mainly fresh wood, the OSB production in EU-25 would emit approximately 1 310 tonnes CO per year 13.

These emission figures only include the CO, NOx- and SOx-emissions from the combustion installations that generate hot air/heat for drying the wood chips. Other (indirect) CO-, NOx- and SOx-emissions from (electricity use or) the use of other boiler or combustion installations for other purposes are not included.

Waste

Production of wood-based panels results in the generation of wood residues, waste originating from maintenance operations (waste oil, sanding bands, used equipment, cleaning products, …) and waste from combustion processes (fly ashes, bottom ash).The main waste streams produced by the sector are presented in Table 17.






Table 17: Waste streams generated in wood-based panel productionWaste stream Origin

Process Sub-sector

wood residue: massive wood pieces, shavings, saw dust,

general processing of wood,dust filtering

all sub-sectors

sludge wood pulping, pressing of panel wet fibreboard processwaste from adhesives and binders

application of binding agents particleboard, MDF, OSB

sanding bands, used equipment…

sanding woodwork, use of equipment

all sub-sectors

packaging waste storage, transport all sub-sectorswaste solvents, oil, cleaning products, ...

maintenance operations all sub-sectors

fly ashes, bottom ash combustion processes all sub-sectors

Opportunities for recycling of wood waste exist through the use of residues as inputs for secondary products in other industries (paper and board or wood-based panels) or as a source of fuel for heat and power generation.

According to [31] IFC Word Bank Group, the industrial benchmark for conversion efficiencies expressed in m³ product/ m³ wood of the different board materials are the following:

- for plywood 55 % efficiency, i.e. 2 700 000 m³ wood residues;- for MDF 90 % efficiency, i.e. 1 325 000 m³ wood residues;- for other 95 % efficiency, i.e. 2 200 000 m³ wood residues.

Consequently the total amount of wood residues can be estimated to be 6 225 000 m³. Most of this waste stream can be recycled in a production process (wood industry or paper and board) or incinerated with recovery of heat.

Water consumption and wastewater effluents

Board and particle based product mills may include water-intensive operations, including wet veneer peeling in plywood production, chip washing, chip steaming and softening in fibreboard production and water use within the WESP [31] IFC Word Bank Group,.

Various boards are distinguished according to the production process. The production processes can be divided into wet and dry processes.

- Particleboard, MDF and OSB:These materials are produced in a dry process [4, 5, 18]. Therefore there is no process-related wastewater. Internally generated wastewater is sometimes purified. Some plants use it for producing adhesives (glue); in some cases, the residual wastewater is very limited and fed into a public sewer [18, At].

- Plywood:In the plywood production the soaking of logs in warm water or steaming of the logs before peeling consumes water and may yield wastewater. Toxic chemicals contained in wood (such as tannins, phenols, resins and fatty acids) will leach from wood. The leachate typically has high BOD (150 – 5000 mg/l) and COD (750 – 7500 mg/l).




Due to the high temperature of the steaming wells, water evaporates from the process leaving sludge at the bottom of the well. This sludge contains the leachate from the wood and results in a waste stream. The process consumes water, due to evaporation and water absorbed in the wood and gives only limited wastewater, because a closed water circuit is used. The same leaching chemicals are also prone to leach from round wood and wood chip storage areas. Such areas are exposed to rain water and may be irrigated to control dust. [31] IFC Word Bank Group.

- Fibreboard:For fibreboard production, wet processes are applied which lead to wastewater. In the manufacturing of wood chips the following processes yield wastewater:- wood chips may be washed before downstream processing, primarily to remove soil

residues that cause premature wear of machining equipment. This wash water may contain high quantities of sediments and leachate from wood chips and should be treated;

- chip steaming and softening [31] IFC Word Bank Group.In the further processing of the fibreboard, the water issue is also very relevant. It includes the production of wood pulp and the formation of a wood mat. In the next step, the mat is pressed and waste water is generated. The process water is to be treated in two stages. In the first stage, the fibres are filtered and the fibre sludge is internally recycled. In the second stage, the water is treated and/or recycled. According to [28] the fibreboard manufacturers have all invested in waste water installations and have much better waste water conditions than before [28].

- Other processes:Also the following processes involve the generation of waste water: the drying of wood with a dehumidifier generates a small amount of process water; cleaning the equipment for the application of water based adhesives generates waste

water (e.g. particleboard production); if a combustion process is equipped with a wet scrubbing system or WESP for the

combustion gases this gives rise to a waste water stream, but the water is recycled in a closed circuit.

run-off water from storage areas from round wood, wood chips etc.

The following assumptions were made (starting from information in [31] IFC Word Bank Group complemented with technical evidence from [18, At]):

- water consumption in fibreboard production amounts to 300 m³ water/ m³ product;

- water consumption in plywood production amounts to 100 m³ water/ m³ product;- no water consumption in particleboard, OSB and MDF production.

The total water use of the wood-based panel sub-sector can be estimated to be 1 160 million m³ water per year. The uncertainty concerning this figure however remains very high.

Energy

The main energy consuming operations in this industry are the mechanical processes for material breakdown, grading and transport and the high heat demand particularly in fibre and veneer drying and pressing. Within the sub-sector of the wood based panels the MDF-process is the most energy consuming, due to the pulping process (see Table 18).




Often waste wood is used as a fuel in the combustion process needed for generating the heat. As a consequence, combustion gases are generated. When drying chips, strands or other wooden particles this can be performed in a direct or indirect drying process. Due to their design, the throughput of these dryers is lower, due to their indirect heating, however, the specific emissions (per tonne of dry chips) and waste gas volumes occuring at the dryer are lower than for directly heated dryers. The energy need for indirect heating systems is higher [18, At]. Hybrid dryers, i.e. a combination of indirectly and directly heated dryers, or staggered drying may also be used.

Table 18: Energy consumption in wood-based panel production [31] IFC Word Bank Group.

Industry benchmark Total energy use in EUElectricity use

MDFPlywoodOther

260 kWh/m³280 kWh/m³150 kWh/m³

3,1 106 MWh0,9 106 MWh6,4 106 MWh

Total 10,4 106 MWh of37,4 106 GJ

Heat useMDFPlywoodOther

1000 MJ/m³not determined

630 MJ/m³

11,9 106 GJ2,1 106 GJ*26,8 106 GJ

Total 40,8 106 GJ*estimated heat use: 630 MJ/m³

The total energy consumption of the wood-based panel industry in the EU is assumed to be approximately 78,2 PJ.

Contamination of the soil

The use of adhesives includes the risk of soil contamination, but this can be reduced to a minimum by good housekeeping measures, that are in use in most installations.

Noise

Some continuously run mechanical processes may cause noise nuisance primarily from debarking drums, chipping machinery (which produce the most noise), mechanical breakdown processes, sanding and cutting machinery. They are to be operated indoors and equipped with protective hoods. Machines and cyclones that are situated outside can produce additional nuisance.

Use of specific and potentially toxic agents

The following substances are used as accessory agents and additives:- hydrofobing agents for water protection, such as hardenable resins, paraffin or waxes

are applied in particleboard, MDF and OSB panels;




- curing agents can be applied to accelerate the curing of the adhesive agent during the pressing of the board, in order to increase the production rate. When UF-adhesive is used, ammonium nitrate, ammonium chloride or ammonium sulphate is applied;

- accelerators: potassium carbonate, amines;- formaldehyde trapping substances;- flame retarding components such as salts (ammonium phosphate);- mineral binders (portland and magnesium cement) can also be added. In plywood

some layers can be treated with flame retardant agents [5];- preservation agents (pesticides and fungicides) can be used in the production of

wood-based panels, except for the plywood production where veneer layer can be dipped in preservative agents. These chemicals represent a potential hazard if spilled and also can represent an occupational health and safety hazard if not handled appropriately [31] IFC Word Bank Group.

c. Scale of magnitude

To illustrate the magnitude of the environmental impacts of the sawmilling and wood-based panel sub-sectors, the impact on key environmental indicators is calculated and presented in Table 19.

Table 19: Overview of environmental impact of sawmilling and wood-based panel sub-sectors.

Sawmilling Wood based panels Totalproduction capacity (m³) 91 million 58 million 149 millionemissions to air (tonnes/year) (tonnes/year) (tonnes/year)- dust a

- PM10 a

according to [13] excl.combustion*

2 100 – 10 700 320

90– 4 30050 - 130

1 300 – 6 700 50

60 – 2 70010 - 20

3 400 – 17 400 370

150 – 7 00060 - 150

- dust b particleboard, MDF OSB

total PB, MDF and OSB:

- PM10 from PB, MDF and OSB b:based on emission data from one MS, incl. combustion

5 700 – 18 0001 900 - 6 000

2007 800 - 24 200

1 200 – 9 700

- VOC:particleboard, MDF OSB

total PB, MDF and OSB:

not known2 100, 7 500 or 14 900

700, 2 500 or 4 9003 000-10 400

5 800 – 30 200




- NOx: d

particleboard, MDF OSB

total PB, MDF and OSB

not known3 600, 10 800,

21 6001 200, 3 600, 7 200370, 1 100, 2 200

5 170, 15 500, 31 000- SOx:



not known430 – 650

140 – 21044 – 66

610 – 930- CO:



not known940-3 170

310 – 1 0501 310

2 560 – 5 530waste wood (in m³) 6,2 million 39 - 136 million 45 – 142

millionwater consumption (in m³) c (26 million) (1 160 million) (1 188 million)energy consumption (in GJ) not known 78,2 PJ not knowna for dust and PM10 two approaches according to [13] were made. Here the dust emission from combustion and drying installations were not included.b for dust and PM10 emissions were estimated based on emission data from one MS. Here the dust emissions from the combustion and drying installations were included, but other emissions were not completely included.c figures for water consumption are highly uncertaind values given as minimum, average, maximum.

When comparing the dust emission figures based on [13] disregarding the combustion installation, the contribution of the sawmilling industry is estimated to be more substantial than the dust emission originating from the wood based panel production. Taking into account the dust emissions from the dryer/combustion installations in the wood based panel sector and disregarding the drying facilities in the sawmilling sub-sector, the conclusion is reversed. The effect of the additional dust emissions from combustion, increase the dust emissions from the wood based panel sector and lift it to a level of twice the amount of dust emissions from the sawmilling sector.

Sawmills can apply condensation or vacuum drying or superheated steam in order to dry the sawn wood, but also combustion gases may be used for this purpose. In sawmills the drying step is less critical than in the wood based panel sector and lower temperatures can be applied. Moreover when using direct dryers, the combustion air flows over/between the sawn timber, which generates less dust emissions than passing the gases through chips, flakes or fibres. Furtheron, the emission data for the sawmills is overestimated because the capacity figures that are used also include the preservation activities. Consequently, when the drying step of the sawmills would be included, the dust emissions would still be lower than the dust emissions the wood based panel sub-sector.

In order to estimate the order of magnitude the PM10 emissions from sawmills and wood-based panel production represent in Europe, the annual PM10 emission from other sectors is provided in Table 20. The estimated total dust emission from the sawmilling, the




wood-based panel sector and the total primary wood working is compared to the total EU 25 emission estimation from [EEA, 2002] and the total industrial emissions from [EPER 2004], in which the emissions from the primary wood sector are not yet included. It is expressed as a quantity (in ktonnes) and as a relative percentage (i.e. amount of dust from this sector relative to amount of dust from other sectors).




Table 20: Comparison of the potential PM10 emissions caused by the sawmilling and wood based panel sub-sectors to some relevant sectors in the EU25

Sectors

Annual PM10 emission

Quantity (tonnes)Share sawmilling (% of other sectors)

Share of wood-based panel (% of other sectors)

primary wood working (total) (% of other sectors)

sawmilling (excl. combustion installation) first assumption [13]second assumption [13]

90–430050-130

wood based panel (PB, MDF and OSB) only combustion installation:first assumption [13] (excl. combustion installation)second assumption [13] ] (excl. combustion installation)

60-270010–20

1200-9700

primary wood working (total)first assumption [13] (excl. combustion installation)second assumption [13] (excl. combustion installation)incl. combustion from PB, MDF and OSB (worst case)

150-700060-150

1350-12400

Total EU-25 [EEA 2002] 2 161 000 0,004–0,20,002–0,006

0,003-0,120,0005-0,00090,06-0,5

0,007-0,320,003-0,0070,06-0,6

Total Industrial emissions [EPER 2004] 291 000 0,03–1,50,02-0,04

0,02-0,90,003-0,0070,4—3,3

0,05-2,40,02-0,050,5-4,3




As shown in Table 20, the emissions of PM10 arrising from the sawmilling and the wood based-panel production, are rather small compared to total amounts of dust emissions that arise in the EU-25. As shown in this table, sawmilling emits only 0,02 to 1,5 % of the total industrial dust emissions reported by EPER. The PM10 emissions from the wood-based panel sector amount 0,003 to 3,3 % of the total industrial dust emissions reported by EPER. This estimation therefore shows that the last sub-sector could be a relevant source of PM10 emissions. However it has to be kept in mind that the estimated emissions for this sub-sector were very uncertian. The last figure was calculated from only 2 companies and the result showed a very large span.

The emission of combustion gases arising from sawmilling is most probably lower than that from the wood-based panel industry, although this sub-sector is smaller. In a sawmill the wood may also be air-dried naturally, by condensation or vacuum drying without a combustion installation, contrary to the wood-based panel production where the drying of the chips always takes place in a drying kiln. As a consequence the amount of combustion gases (and VOC emissions from drying) caused by the production of wood-based panels is higher than the amount caused by the sawmilling, although the sawmilling industry has a higher production.

Although VOC emissions are not calculated for the sawmilling sector a qualitative comparison between both sub-sectors can be made, leading to the conclusion that the wood-based panel sector is responsible for higher emissions. The emitted quantities from the drying of wood are dependent on the wood species used, the dryer temperature, the fuel used and the kind of emission control equipment installed. The temperatures in the chip dryers are generally higher than in the sawmills, where wood may also be air-dried or dryed by condensation or vacuum, without any heating or with condensation of the VOC. Consequently the panel industry gives rise to higher emissions. Moreover in the production of particleboard, MDF and OSB binding agents are used which may also cause VOC-emissions during the preparation and application of the agent and during the hot-pressing of the boards. On the other hand these installations may be better equipped for treating the VOC emissions and have a smaller production capacity.

To illustrate the magnitude of the environmental impacts of the production of particleboard, MDF and OSB, the impact on key environmental indicators are calculated and presented in Table 21 (see Annex II of Part II (draft) final report). As these indicators use different measurement units, a comparison has been made with European per capita contribution to a specific impact in order to attribute relative importance to these indicators. The idea is to assess for each impact the number of European citizens who generate an impact equivalent to the manufacture of particleboard, MDF and OSB. The impacts generated by one European citizen are used as reference data. This method allows attributing relative importance to the different environmental impact indicators qualified.




Table 21: Estimates of the annual impact caused by the manufacture of particleboard, MDF and OSB.

Unit

Annual impact caused by PB, MDF and OSB

Average impacts of one European citizen

Number of EU citizen eq.PF, MDF and OSB

Impact of PF, MDF and OSB prod.

compared to EU-25 impact (%)

a b a/ba / (b x

458,973 Million inhabitants)

Photochemical oxidation t C2H4 eq 6 200-36 000 0,015 413 300-2 400 000 0,09-0,52

Acidification t SO2 eq 4 200-22 600 0,045 93 300-502 200 0,02-0,11Eutrophication t PO4 eq 700-4 000 0,007 87 000-515 900 0,02-0,11

This a comparison clearly shows that the major environmental issue (among those quantified above) generated by the production of particleboard, MDF and OSB is the photochemical oxidation (due to NOx, CO and VOC emissions). Acidification may be underestimated, because no emission data for HCl and HF were available.

Table 22: Comparison of impact of particleboard, MDF and OSB production with impact combustion installations and MSW treatment

Impact of PF, MDF and OSB prod. compared to

EU-25 impact (%)

Impacts of 0-50 MW combustion installations compared to EU-25 impacts (%)*

Impact of MSW treatment compared to EU-25 impacts (%)

a / (b x 458,973 Million

inhabitants)


inhabitants)


inhabitants)Photochemical oxidation 0,09-0,52 6,3 1,1

Acidification 0,02-0,11 5,5 0,6Eutrophication 0,02-0,11 1,7 0,3

In Table 22 a comparison is made with the impact of combustion installations (10 – 50 MW) and with the MSW treatment in EU 25. Actually, potential photochemical oxidation caused by the production of particleboard, MDF and OSB corresponds to about max. 0,52 % of the EU-25 activity contribution to photochemical oxidation. This is rather low compared to the impact of combustion installations on this indicator. It corresponds to half of the impact of MSW treatment on photochemical oxidation.




It should be noted that not all parameters involved in the acidification and eutrophication indicator were included in the calculations because of a lack of information. Therefore the results will rather be an underestimation of the actual situation. On the other hand the emission figures are based on the emission data of only a few companies in one MS, which are generalized. This may also induce anomalous results.

Summary of the key elements about the environmental impacts of the sector useful for this exercise

Because of the lack of precise emission data of the primary wood processing industry the estimates and calculations of the environmental impact are based on emission data from some companies in one MS producing particleboard and OSB. The corresponding emission factor is of the same order of magnitude as available emission factors from the USA. Unfortunately this information was not available for sawmills, MDF, plywood or fibreboard production.

The environmental effect from the sawmilling is quantitatively estimated for emissions of dust, amount of waste and water consumption. The lack of quantitative emission data for the wood-based panel production has urged to make estimations based on emission data from only a few panel companies in one MS concerning emissions of dust, total VOC and combustion gases. The assumption was made that the situation in this MS could be generalized, which is an hypothesis that was not validated and may lead to anomalous results. For the wood-based panel production quantative estimations are made for dust, VOC, NOx and SOx emissions, amount of waste, water consumption and energy.

The contribution of the sawmilling industry to the emission to air is estimated to be lower than the emissions originating from the wood based panel production. This is mainly due to the dryers and combustion installations used in the particleboard, MDF and OSB industry. Estimations based on emission data from industry in one MS show that the ranges for emissions of dust, VOC and NOx are very broad.

This rough emission estimate shows that the wood-based panel sector has a higher overall environmental impact, covering more than 70 % of the emissions to air, 85 – 95 % of the waste (wood residue) generation and 97 % of the water consumption. The wood-based panel sector causes more VOC emissions and combustion gases than the sawmilling sector, although the sawmilling industry is larger in production figures. Within the wood-based panel sector the emissions to air are strongly influenced by the process parameters such as the drying temperature, type of drying (direct versus indirect or radio frequency), temperature of the press, the fuel that is used (N- and S-content), the type of wood species (recycled wood, fresh wood, small or large particles), the temperature of the presses, the abatement techniques that are installed.

The PM10 emission of the wood based panel sector amounts up to 3,3 % of the total industrial dust emissions reported by EPER. For the total primary wood sector this percentage reaches about 4,3 %. This estimation therefore shows that the wood panel sub-sector could be a relevant source of dust and PM10 emissions. However it has to be kept in mind that the estimated emissions for this sub-sector were rather uncertian. It is estimated that the potential photochemical oxidation caused by the production of particleboard, MDF and OSB corresponds to about max. 0,52 % of the EU-25 activity contribution to photochemical oxidation.




From the estimation of the annual impact caused by the manufacture of particleboard, MDF and OSB, it may be concluded that the photochemical oxidation and emission of PM10 are the major environmental issues in this sub-sector.

The consumption of water in these sub-sectors mainly arises from the production of fibreboard and plywood (veneer production). The sawmilling and the manufacture of particleboard, MDF and OSB do not use water in the production process.

2.3 Techniques for prevention or reduction of environmental impacts

The environmental impact of the wood processing can be limited by several preventive, in process and end-of-pipe techniques. In Annex 5 some of these techniques are listed [see also 5, 14, 15, 18, 23, 26, 27].

The techniques that can be used in the sawmilling industry are [14]: - control of air emissions from combustion of wood residue in sawmills;- reduction of VOC emissions during kiln drying in sawmills;- reduction of dust emissions in sawmills;- prevention, minimization and control of effluents from stored timber;- waste water treatment;- recycling of wood residues in sawmilling industry;- opportunities to minimize energy consumption in sawmilling industry;- measures to reduce noise in sawmilling industry.

The techniques that can be used in the wood-based panel industry are: - Measures to reduce emissions from combustion plants in wood-based panel industry

[18, 23]: dust, NOx, SOx, HCl and HF-emissions, organic carbon, PCDD/F;- Reduction of emissions from presses in wood-based panel industry [15, 18, 23];- Reduction of dust emissions in wood-based panel industry [15, 18];- waste water treatment in wood-based panel industry [15, 18];- prevent and control leaching in wood-based panel industry [31] IFC Word Bank

Group;- disposal of the residues from wood-based panel industry [31] IFC Word Bank Group;- opportunities to minimize energy consumption in wood-based panel industry [18, At];- measures to reduce noise in wood-based panel industry [31] IFC Word Bank Group.

Besides these measures good housekeeping practices will also help to reduce the environmental effect of the wood processing activities.

It should be noticed that the mentioned techniques were not subject to a BAT-evaluation and therefore are not yet assigned to be BAT.

2.4 Current Legislation

According to [10] there is little sector-specific EU regulation, the main part being phytosanitary directives for the import of round wood and the import and export of wooden packaging. The most important environmental legislation for the woodworking industry is related to the use of organic solvents and the exploitation of combustion installations.




a. EU legislation

- Current coverage in the IPPC Directive

The IPPC Directive is not directly covering the sawmilling industry or the wood-based panel industry, but it does regulate wood-based panel manufacturers which operate a large combustion plant (> 50 MWth) on site or store large volumes of chemicals. Furthermore, IPPC regulates the larger waste incinerators and plants performing surface treatments using solvents.

According to [18, At] the environmental impacts of the production of particle, MDF and fibreboard are comparable to other activities listed in Annex I of the IPPC Directive. The dimensions of particleboard produced by production plants can be compared to those of paper production plants (estimated installed power about 20-50 MW), with the annual operating time being very long for both industries (in general > 7000 – 8000 hours/year).

Large combustion plants (category 1 in Annex I):

The Reference Document on Best Available Techniques for the Large Combustion Plants was finalised in 2005. It covers woodworking plants that operate a combustion installation with a rated thermal input exceeding 50 MW. Currently the EC has commissioned a study concerning the effects to lower the threshold to 20 MW.

The furnaces used in the Austrian particleboard, fibreboard and MDF production have a rated thermal input of about 10 to 50 MW. They are grate firings and fluidised bed combustion installations as well as convective passes operated with biomass, natural gas, wood and sub-sieve powder as well as internally and externally generated waste [18, At]. Some combustion installations in the wood based panel sub-sector may as well exceed 50 MW (e.g. Flemish company has a 70 MW installation).

If EC decides to lower the threshold of the large combustion plants from 50 MW to 20 MW in the Annex I of the IPPC Directive, then probably much more combustion installations in the wood based panel industry will be subject to this Directive. Nevertheless the dust, PM10 and VOC emissions and the combustion of wood residues are very characteristic issues in this sector and may not be dealt with in the LCP BREF to be written.

Surface treatment using organic solvents (category 6.7. in Annex I of IPPCD):

The Reference Document on Best Available Techniques on Surface Treatment using Organic Solvents was finalised in January 2007. This BREF covers the wood finishing activities for installations with a consumption capacity of more than 150 kg solvent per hour or more than 200 tonnes per year. The surface treatments that are covered are painting, adhesive application, further coating processes, impregnation, waterproofing, printing and surface cleaning. Notice that VOCs taking part in the chemical process of hardening of paints and lacquers (and likewise adhesives) are excluded from the definition of solvent. This is important when it comes to definitions regarding formaldehyde or other compounds used in adhesives for the production of wood-based panels.




Processes such as the manufacturing of particleboard, MDF, fibreboard, the lamination of particle and fibreboard with impregnated phenolic paper and other industries applying adhesives are not addressed in the BREF Surface Treatment using Organic Solvents. Nevertheless wood processing companies with a solvent consumption capacity of more than 150 kg per hour or more than 200 tonnes per year are covered by IPPC. Some wood-based panel manufacturers who use a solvent containing binding agent may exceed this threshold value.

Note that, according to the guidance issued by the Commission, where a capacity threshold is specified for the installation as a whole or for a particular activity in determining the capacity of an installation it is appropriate to consider all process steps which could limit the throughput of a process. It is appropriate that technical restrictions are taken into account in determining the capacity of an installation [29].

Waste incineration (category 5.1 and 5.2 in Annex I of IPPCD):

The Reference Document on Best Available Techniques for Waste Incineration was finalised in August 2006. The document deals only with the dedicated incineration of waste and not with other situations where waste is thermally treated, e.g. co-incineration processes such as cement kilns and large combustion plants. This BREF consequently does not cover the combustion installations in the wood processing industries.

Waste treatments industries (category 5.4 in Annex I of IPPCD):

The Reference Document on Best Available Techniques on Waste Treatment industries was finalised in August 2006. This BREF does not cover the treatment of wood residues.

- Solvent Emission Directive (SED)

Council Directive 1999/13/EC of March 11, 1999 focuses on the limitation of emissions of volatile organic compounds due to the use of organic solvents in certain activities and installations. The Directive establishes emission limit values for VOCs in waste gases and maximum levels for fugitive emissions (expressed as percentage of solvent input) for solvent using operators.

This directive applies to the following activities (threshold values) in the woodworking industry:

- coating of wooden surfaces (solvent consumption of 15 t/year or more),- impregnation of wood (solvent consumption of 25 t/year or more),- wood lamination (solvent consumption of 5 t/year of more),- adhesive coating14 (solvent consumption of 5 t/year or more).

Notice that for the SED VOCs taking part in the chemical process of hardening of paints and lacquers (and likewise adhesives) are excluded from the definition of a solvent. This is important for the formaldehyde or other compounds used as adhesive compounds for the production of wood-based panels. Most of the adhesives used in the wood-based panel

14 Adhesive coating is any activity in which an adhesive is applied to a surface. In the plywood industry the adhesive is applied to the surface. In the other board materials the adhesive is sprayed among the wood chips or fibres in a mat.




industry include VOC that take part in the bonding reaction, consequently these are not subject to the SED.

- Present legislation concerning combustion plants and incineration of biomass

Directive 2001/80/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2001 on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants into the air from large combustion plants (LCP Directive).

Directive 2002/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 December 2002 amending Directive 97/68/EC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to measures against the emission of gaseous and particulate pollutants from internal combustion engines to be installed in non-road mobile machinery.

Directive 2000/76/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 December 2000 on the incineration of waste (WID).

- Present legislation concerning noise

Directive 2000/14/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 May 2000 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the noise emission in the environment by equipment for use outdoors.

- Further requirements

The sector’s performance is also influenced by other horizontal requirements, affecting the forest-based industries as a whole. For wood, the most important are [10]: - forest resources and raw materials: FLEGT, Strategy on Bio-diversity, Natura 2000; - renewable energy: national RES implementation, including EU and national Biomass

Action Plans and the EU Bio-fuels Strategy; land use planning; - production processes: climate change – emissions trading, linking directive and post

2012 targets, thematic strategies – recycling; sustainable use of resources, soils, waste issues; IPPC e.g. surface treatments BREF, discharges to air and water; SED Directive; dangerous substances;

- Products and use: Eco-labels, Integrated Product Policy, directive on packaging and packaging waste.

b. National legislation

Member States often have general emission limits which apply to all industrial sectors among which also the wood sub-sectors assessed here. Combustion installations using solid, liquid, gaseous and fuels or wood waste generally have specific requirements (e.g. Belgium). These may also apply to the wood and chips dryers in the wood processing industry. These specific regulations on combustion installations are not included in this survey, as only the specific wood processing activities are.

Some member states (e.g. the UK, Germany and Belgium) have introduced specific emission limit requirements for the wood sector and for the wood-based panel




installations specifically. Other member states regulate the primary wood processing installations using general emission limits (e.g. the Netherlands). It would be interesting to have a overview of the environmental approach of the most important MS in the wood based panel sub-sector.

In several countries the wood based panel companies are permitted in accordance with BAT (UK, Germany, Italy and France) according to CEI-Bois.

- Austria

The Austrian particleboard, MDF and fibreboard industry is subject to a specific Waste Water Emissions Ordinance (Federal Legal Gazette II No. 264/2003), laying down Emission limit values and accompanying rules (e.g. monitoring requirements) based on BAT for direct (into a water body) and indirect (into a sewer) waster water discharges.

For air emissions no sector-specific regulation exists (e.g. emissions from dryers or presses). However some installations for the production of particleboard, MDF and fibreboard can fall under the scope of more general air emissions regulations such as the Ordinance (Federal Legal Gazette II No. 55/2005) for the implementation of the Emissions Protection Act for Steam Boilers, the Waste Incineration Ordinance (Federal Legal Gazette II No. 389/2002) or the Combustion Installations Ordinance (Federal Legal Gazette II No. 331/1997). These ordinances contain emission limit values based on BAT (often differentiated with regard to the fuels used).

An example for emission limit values, as laid down in single permits, and measured values in the directly heated dryer of a particleboard installation in Austria are indicated in Table 37 in Annex 6. The fuel used is wood dust and gas and the flue gas treatment installation includes a scrubber and a wet electro filter. The NOx-emissions can be, subject to the conditions in the individual permit, controlled by using SNCR-technology (injection of urea).

In Austria the emission limit for NOx is imposed in the individual permits of the companies. From some examples it can be noticed that secondary measures are to taken in order to attain the emission limit (e.g. 140 mg/Nm³ at 17% O2). SNCR are frequently applied in Austria.

- Belgium (Flanders)

The installations in the wood processing sector in Flanders are subject to sector specific emission values to air and discharge limits to water (see Table 38 in Annex 6). Moreover installations for the production of particleboard and fibreboard must not emit more than 0.12 kg vapour or gaseous organic compounds in the flue gas from the presses per m² of board produced.

When liquid or solid fuels are used in chip dryers, the sulphur mass content in the fuel shall not exceed 1 %, as related to a lower calorific value of 29.3 MJ/kg for solid fuels, unless an equivalent emission standard for sulphur oxides is achieved by means of a waste gas purification facility




The discharge limits to water originating from particleboard production (and all other board materials, mainly based on wood and manufactured according to a wet process) are indicated in Table 39. The emission limits apply to a specific reference volume of the effluent of 18 m³ per ton product manufactured.

Apart from the general and sectoral requirements most of the permits for the wood based panel installations have different and additional requirements.

The emission limit values applicable in Flanders are included in Table 23.

For the NOx emissions the present emission limit is 400 mg/Nm³ at 11% O2. If the operator can provide evidence that the emissions are generated by the drying process and BAT is applied, then this emission limit can be increased to a maximum of 875 mg/Nm³ at 11 % O2.

- France

France has no specific environmental legislation for the wood processing sector. The general emission limit values for dust emission are:

- 100 mg/m³ if the flow is ≤ 1 kg/h- 40 mg/m³ if the flow is > 1 kg/h.

The emision limit for VOC (excl. methane) is:- 110 mg/m³ if the flow is > 2 kg/h, but- if the consumption of solvents for the production of wood based panels is

> 5 tonnes/year, the ELV is 30 g/m².The emission limit values can be reduced in individual permits depending on the local environmental circumstances.

In France apparently 6 of the 18 companies producing wood based panels are already subject to IPPCD.

- Germany

In Germany TA-Luft [25] sets the regulation for facilities for the production of particleboards, wood fibre slabs or wood fibre mats. For the application of BAT aspects reference is given to VDI-Directive 3462 [32].

- total dust

When industrial scrap wood may create dust in a dry state (e.g. milling chips, wood shavings, sawdust), or when the separable fraction of timber with a maximum mesh size of 5 mm during sifting exceeds the value of 5.0 g/kg (as related to the dry mass), operational and technical measures shall be used to ensure that unloading takes place exclusively in closed material delivery stations and the silo works; waste gases shall be collected and fed into a de-dusting system.

For total dust, including the content of carcinogenic, mutagenic or reproduction toxic substances the following dust emission limits are set. Dust emissions in waste gas shall not exceed the following maximum mass concentrations:a) for grinders 5 mg/m³,b) for indirectly fired chip dryers 10 mg/m³,c) for other dryers 15 mg/m³.




- fuels

When liquid or solid fuels are used in chip dryers or fibre dryers, the sulphur mass content in the fuel shall not exceed 1 %, as related to a lower calorific value of 29.3 MJ/kg for solid fuels, unless an equivalent emission standard for sulphur oxides is achieved by means of a waste gas purification facility. When coals are used, only coals which do not cause higher sulphur oxides emissions than hard coal with a sulphur mass content of less than 1 per cent, as related to a lower calorific value of 29.3 MJ/kg, shall be used.

- organic substancesFor dryers, emissions of organic substances in waste gas, to be indicated as total carbon, shall not exceed a mass concentration of 300 mg/m3. For fibre dryers in air-circulating mode, emissions of Class I organic substances under 5.2.5 shall not exceed a mass concentration defined in 5.2.5 if the mass flow per hour is less than or equal to that which would be reached without circulating air in compliance with a mass concentration defined in 5.2.5.For presses, emissions of Class I organic substances under 5.2.5 in waste gas shall not exceed a mass concentration of 0.06 kg per cubic metre of slabs produced. The best available primary techniques to further reduce emissions of organic substances, e.g. by using low-emission binding agents, particularly low formaldehyde or formaldehyde-free binding agents, or other techniques shall be applied.

- NOx

In TA Luft the emission limit value for NOx emissions is 350 mg/Nm³ at 17 % O 2 or 857 mg/Nm³ at 11 % O2. This means that in the TA luft (october 2002) secondary abatement systems to reduce NOx are not considered to be BAT. All primary measures should be applied, in order to attain the NOx emission limit.

The emission limit values applicable in Germany are included in Table 23.

- discharge to waterAccording to the (promulgation of the new version of the) Ordinance on Requirements for the Discharge of Waste Water into Waters (Waste Water Ordinance - AbwV) of 17 June 2004 the requirements given in Annex 6 apply to the waste water at the point of discharge into the water body.

In the case of hard fibreboard (with a density in excess of 900 kg/m3) which is produced using the wet-processing method and which has a fibre moisture level of more than 20 % at the mat forming stage, a COD level of 2 kg/t shall apply.

Prior to blending with other waste water, a requirement of 0.3 g/t of absorbable organic halogens (AOX) shall apply to the waste water. This requirement refers to the production capacity of fibreboards (completely dry) in 0.5 or 2 hours on which the water discharge license is based. The contaminant load is determined from the concentration levels of the random sample and from the volumetric flow of waste water corresponding to sampling.

- Ireland




In Ireland the emission of the particleboard producers is regulated in the “Integrated Pollution Control Licensing, BATNEED Guidance for Board Manufacture”. The following abatement technologies for the emissions to air are proposed (no priority is atributed to the technologies):

- cyclones- bag filters- wet electrostatic precipitators- wapour incineration- wet scrubbers- biofilters as final air treatment.

Emission limits for NOx are 400 and 500 mgNm³ (at 17 % O2).

The emission limit values are included in Table 23.

- Netherlands

For the wood processing, the production of fibreboard and particleboard and the sawmilling, a specific emission limit value for dust is indicated in the legislation, apart from the general requirement which apply as well. Dust emissions originating from grinding, chipping and sawing are limited to 10 mg/mo³ [24].

Concerning the emissions of VOC from the chip dryer it is only mentioned that these should be reduced as much as possible, among others by a good temperature control.

- Spain

In Spain the industrial activities that are not under IPPC, have to comply with sectoral environmental legislation and GBR regarding ELV (e.g. water legislation, etc.). This legislation exists both at national and regional level, and in some cases at local level. The competent authority in applying and controlling the compliances of the environmental legislation are the Environmental Authorities of Autonomous Communities (regional governments). The environmental legislation at regional level is usually more stringent than the national one, since local/regional environmental conditions are taken into consideration.

- UK

- Manufacture of timber and wood-based productsThe Secretary of State’s Guidance for the Manufacture of Timber and Wood-Based Products [26] applies to the manufacture of products wholly or mainly of wood at any works if the process involves the sawing, drilling, sanding, shaping, turning of wood and the throughput of the works in any 12 months period is likely to exceed 10 000 m³ in the case of works at which wood is mainly sawn but not subjected to any other relevant process or 1000 m³ in any other case. The processes covered by [26] range from sawmills cutting sawn logs to the manufacture of furniture where, for example, MDF is worked.

The emission limit values and provisions described in Table 40 in Annex 6 are achievable using the best available techniques described in [26].

Visible emissions should be limited and monitored.




- Manufacture of particleboard, OSB and dry process fibreboardAccording to the Secretary of State’s Guidance for A2 particleboard, Oriented Strand Board and Dry Process Fibreboard Sector [27], the emission limits, mass release rates and other requirements are judged for the generality of the activities within the sector to represent BAT. The note covers installations for manufacturing wood particleboard, oriented strand board, wood fibreboard, plywood, cement-bonded particleboard or any other composite wood based board.

In Table 23 and Table 41 in Annex 6 the concentration limits for emissions to air are presented. They are only applicable to contained emissions exhausted to external atmosphere.

Note that Gas oil as defined in the Sulphur Content of Liquid Fuels Directive (1999/32/EC). Additional emission limits, in particular for heavy metals and dioxins and furans, are being considered.

- discharge to waterThe limit values for water discharges are specified in individual cases taking into account of the receiving environment. Wastewater treatment systems can maximise the removal of pollutants using precipitation, sedimentation and possibly filtration. It is also practicable in many cases to reuse treated water. Table 42 in Annex 6 provides information regarding achievable levels associated with the use of wastewater treatment systems for discharges to surface water.

- Comparison

The environmental legislation concerning the primary wood processing industry differs very much in the different countries (see Table 23). This is illustrated by the following table in which the different emission limit values for PM, VOC and CO to air in some MS are presented. It is also important to mention that the emission limit values in combustion gases are often given at different reference oxygen levels (see Annex 10). This adds to the major deviations in the ELV setting, especially for the NOx and dust limits in the direct dryers.




Table 23: Comparison of the different emission limit values for the wood based panel industry (in mg/m³).

Austria Belgium (Fl)* Netherlands Germany UK IrelandPM wood dryer

10 (17 % O2) 50 (for direct dryers, 17 % O2)

(17 % O2)15 (direct)10 (indirect)Combustion inst.≥ 5 MW: 20 < 5 MW: 50 < 2,5 MW: 100

20 (at 17 % O2) 20 (dryers and MDF, 17 % O2)

PMother (grinding)

10 10 5 50 20 (MDF production)

50 (others than above)

VOCdryer

(note that there are general ELVs for individual VOCs, e.g. formaldehyde, methanol, …)

(TOC)300 10 (after combustion 11% O2)

130 (condensable VOC)

130 (condensable VOC)

CO 75 (17 % O2) 250 (11 % O2) 150 (11 % O2, after combustion)

determined at time of licensing

HCl 30

HF 3NOx individual permits,

e.g.210 (7 % O2) 15

332,5 (7 % O2)16

140 (17 % O2)

direct dryer (11% O2)400 for < 30 MW200 for >30 MWexceptionaly: 875

350 (17 % O2) 400 (pulverised fuel > 20 MW or grate fired plant) at 17 % O2

500 (others) at 17 % O2

15 half day average.16 half hour average.




Austria Belgium (Fl)* Netherlands Germany UK Ireland200 (13 % O2)250 (17 % O2)350 (17 % O2)

PCDD/F(ng TEQ/Nm³)

0.1 ng TEQ/Nm³

Formaldehyde 5 (excl. wood dryers)20 (wood dryers)

5 (excl. wood dryers)20 (wood dryers)

Tot. aldehyde (wood dryer)

20 (as C) 20 (as C)

Ammonia 70Isocyanates (presses and dryers)

0.1 (as NCO group) 0.1 (as NCO group)

Phenol (presses and dryers)

5 20

Odour minimize no offensive odour beyond site boundary

no offensive odour beyond site boundary

Benzene 1

* Apart from the general and sectoral requirements metioned also additional requirements may be added in the permit.




Summary of the key elements about the legislation of the sector useful for this exercise

Some primary wood processing installations are subjected to one or more of the following European Directives: IPPCD, SED, LCP, WID, etc. Some installations have an IPPC-permit because their combustion installation exceeds the threshold for the category large combustion installations of the IPPC activity. None of the above mentioned Directives focuses on the sawmilling or wood-based panel sector specifically.

The environmental legislation in the different MSs is very diverse. Some MS (e.g. the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium) have a national/regional legislation for the specific production processes. They introduced specific emission limit requirements for the wood sector and for the wood-based panel installations in particular. Other member states regulate the primary wood processing installations according to general emission limits and individual permit requirements (e.g. the Netherlands, France). A comparison of the requirements shows that there is a wide variety in emission limit values (e.g. for NOx and dust) between the MSs. Furthermore, a diversity in the evaluation of BAT for this sector exists between MSs (e.g. NOx abatement).

2.5 Factors to be taken into account when considering options

In view of the discussion of the preceding sections, the following factors were identified which may affect the pros and cons of different options.

Economic capacity of the (sub)sectors: the most important sectors with larger companies are the sawmilling and planing, the particleboard, MDF and OSB production. Plywood and fibreboard production only represent 0.5 % and 0.3 % respectively of the total woodworking industry and consist mainly of SME's;

When using capacities in m³ per day, the issue remains where to put the threshold. This can be dealt with using the information on the number and size of the companies in the wood-based industry (see 2.1.d) and the data in Table 7 and Table 11: Production figures for different wood-based panel materials. The threshold for the primary wood industry should logically be fixed somewhere between 500 and 1000 m³/day. It is important to mention that this capacity includes the total production capacity on a specific site, thus sometimes more activities are to be added.The effect of the threshold value on the quantity of emissions that are to be abated when the sector is included in Annex I of IPPCD, is illustrated in Table 24.

Table 24: Effect of the threshold value on the number of production sites, on capacity involved and on the quantity of emissions to be abated when the sector is include in Annex I of IPPCD.




Threshold 500 m³/day

850 m³/day

1000 m³/day

Number of sites

PB/MDF/OSB 118 91 76fibre board 4 1 1plywood max 3 max 3 max 3

Capacity (%) PB/MBF/OSB 91,86 82,14 74,01Estimated emissions in the worst case scenario (tonnes/y)*

dust

PM10

22 200

8 900

19 900

8 000

17 900

7 200VOC 27 700 24 800 22 350NOx 28 500 25 500 22 900SOx 850 760 690CO 5 100 4 500 4 100

waste wood (m³)

124 900

111 700

100 700

energy consumption (GJ)

71,8 64,2 57,9

* for PB, MDF and OSB only: the actual figure will be slightly higher in case the fibre board and plywood would be included.

The threshold of 850 m³/day would include nearly 54 % of the particleboard, MDF and OSB companies in the EU and also more than 82 % of the total production capacity. This figure can also be seen as a good cut-off to distinguish particle board, MDF and OSB from other primary wood products. As only 1 fibreboard company and maximum 3 plywood companies17 are above this threshold. If the threshold of 500 m³/day is applied, then 90% of the production capacity for particle board, MDF and OSB are covered. 4 fibreboard companies would be involved and also maximum 3 plywood companies. The environmental benefit of including the fibreboard and plywood companies would be limited. The industrial federations suggest a threshold of 1000 m³/day.

Specific environmental issues of the different sub-sectors: the sawmilling and planing of wood only represents a small fraction of the total environmental impact. The main environmental issue of the primary wood industry are the emissions of dust, NOx and VOC to air. The waste that is generated is easily reused, recycled or incinerated with heat recovery. The production of fibreboard consumes water and has a relevant amount of process water, whereas in the rest of the wood-based panel sector water consumption and wastewater do not raise important environmental effects.

17 For plywood detailed information on the 3 largest companies is lacking. Therefore the specific number of companies involved is unknown.




3. Options

In this section, the 3 options under consideration are defined and a preliminary list of pros and cons is given. They will be further analysed in section 4.

1. Business as usual (i.e. no addition to the list of covered activities);2. Addition of primary wood processing to the list of covered activities, with a

production capacity exceeding 20 tonnes per day (i.e. approximately 33 m³/day);3. Addition of primary wood processing to the list of covered activities, with a

production capacity threshold expressed in m³ per day;4. Addition of production of wood based panels to the list of covered activities

with a production capacity threshold expressed in m³ per day.

Option 1: Business as usual i.e. non-action

Pros:- No additional burden from additional legislative requirements;- Leaves each MS/region free to determine optimal control requirements for these

activities;- No additional costs of BAT implementation that could possibly affect consumer

prices and competition;- No additional costs for authorities, notably for permits, inspections and enforcement.

Cons:- Missed opportunity to reduce environmental impacts, mainly the (fine) dust and VOC

emissions as well as combustion gases;- Possible inconsistency of approaches between MS/regions, leading to impacts on

competition among European producers;- No guidance on pollution abatement options and on achievable releases for these

plants except in the Member States that have sector specific environmental legislation that applies to these installations;

- Most plants are not regulated by the LCP, SE, WI or IPPC Directives.

Option 2: Addition of primary wood processing to the list of covered activities, with a production capacity exceeding 20 tonnes per day (i.e. approximately 33 m³/day).

Pros:

- Applying BAT-based permit conditions helps to reduce the environmental impacts. - Greater consistency of regulation among the MS eliminating the effect of local

regulations on the competition among European producers.

Cons:

- “tonnes per day” is not a unit that is used in the wood processing industry to express the capacity of a facility, 20 tonnes per day is approximately 33 m³ per day, which is a very low capacity in this sector.

- By using this threshold nearly all installations in the primary woodworking sector are included, i.e. sawmilling, planing of wood and production of wood-based panels.




- High costs for authorities – permits, inspections and enforcement due to the very low threshold production values.

- Costs of BAT definition and BREFs production for all stakeholders involved.- Additional costs of BAT implementation could potentially pass through to affect

consumer prices and competition.

Option 3: Addition of primary wood processing to the list of covered activities, with a production capacity threshold expressed in m³ per day.Pros:- “m³ per day” is the unit that is used in the wood processing industry to express the

capacity of a facility.- It concerns all activities of primary woodworking, i.e. sawmilling, planing of wood

and production of wood-based panels. A threshold needs to be set on basis of the production data, such as to include the large scale installations in the sector.

- Applying BAT-based permit conditions helps to reduce environmental impacts, including (fine) dust and VOC emissions as well as combustion gases.

- Greater consistency of regulation among the MS eliminating the effect of local regulations on the competition among European producers.

- Reduced costs for authorities compared to Option 2 – permits, inspections and enforcement due to increasing the threshold production values.

- Lower costs, with less risk of low cost-effectiveness for smaller facilities.

Cons:- Costs of BAT definition and BREFs production for all stakeholders involved.- The threshold is higher than in Option 2 and the effective number of companies

involved is relatively lower, consequently the environmental benefit is reduced. The objective is to define a threshold only including the large scale installations of the sector. A threshold in the proposed units should logically be fixed somewhere between 500 m³/d and 1000 m³/day.

- Additional costs of BAT implementation (compared to Option 1) could potentially pass through to affect consumer prices and competition.

Option 4: Addition of production of wood based panels to the list of covered activities with a production capacity threshold expressed in m³ per day.Pros:- “m³ per day” is the unit that is used in the wood processing industry to express the

capacity of a facility.- A threshold needs to be set on basis of the production data, such as to include the

large scale installations in the sector.- It concerns these activities of primary woodworking with the largest environmental

impact.- Greater consistency of regulation among the MS eliminating the effect of local

regulations on the competition among European producers.- Limited costs for authorities – permits, inspections and enforcement due to the

reduced scope and the inclusion of threshold production values.- Lower costs compared to Option 2 and 3, with less risk of low cost-effectiveness for

smaller facilities.- No extra effort is required for the sawmilling and planing sub-sector, since the

environmental gain would be marginal.

Cons:- Costs of BAT definition and BREF's production for stakeholders involved.




- The threshold is higher than in Option 2 and the sawmilling sub-sector is excluded, so the total environmental benefits reduced. The objective is to define a threshold only including the large scale installations of the sector. A threshold in the proposed units should logically be fixed somewhere between 500 m³/d and 1000 m³/day.

- Additional costs of BAT implementation could potentially pass through to affect consumer prices and competition.

- Additional costs for authorities, notably for permits, inspections and enforcement.




4. Analysis of options

A qualitative approach is adopted for the analysis of the options proposed in section 3.

For each of the issue, the relative advantages and disadvantages of the options are evaluated. The impact assessment matrix shown below, the summary of the results of the analysis and the through process behind the rating is explained in the following sub-sections.

In each cell a qualitative score of Y/N or ‘+’, ‘0’ or ‘-‘ has been given. A ‘+’ signifies beneficial impact with respect to the criterion in question; ‘-‘ a negative impact; and ‘0’ no impact. Increased magnitude of the impacts will be indicated using the notation ‘++’ or ‘—‘. In some cases, when there are other external influencing factors, a range is used, for example ‘0 to –‘ or even ‘+ to –‘.

Option 1: Business as usual (i.e. no addition to the list of covered activities)

Option 2: Addition of primary wood processing to the list of covered activities, with a production capacity exceeding 20 tonnes per day

Option 3: Addition of primary wood processing to the list of covered activities, with a production capacity threshold expressed in m³ per day.

Option 4: Addition of production of wood based panels to the list of covered activities with a production capacity threshold expressed in m³ per day.

Option 1: business-as-

usual

Option 2: primary

wood20 t/d

Option 3: primary

wood(XX m³/d).

Option 4: wood-based

panels(XX m³/d).

General IssuesProblems addressed18 - Y Y YLegislative changes 0 -- -- -Environmental IssuesAir emissions 0 +++ ++ ++Discharge to water 0 ++ + +Economic IssuesImpact on firms: cost 0 0 to --- 0 to -- 0 to -Impact on firms: competitiveness 0 -- to + + +

Impact on public authorities 0 0 to --- 0 to -- 0 to -

Social IssuesImpact on consumers (availability/price) 0 -- - 0 to -

Confidence of public 0 + + +18 This question looks at whether the design of the option actually addresses the

real problem – in the sense of focus rather than effectiveness. Effectiveness issues come after. Hence it is the intention and targeting of the option that is assessed here and not its effect.




on environmental control and pollutionNumber and quality of jobs – public authorities

0 ++ ++ 0 to +

Number and quality of jobs – in wood sector

0 -- to + - to + 0 to +

Other issuesPracticability: is it practical to implement?

n/a Y Y Y

Clarity and consistency (e.g. with other legislation)?

n/a Y Y Y

Is it enforceable? n/a Y Y Y‘+++’: very beneficial effect; ‘++’: substantial beneficial effect; ‘+’: slight beneficial effect; ‘-‘: negative effect, ‘--‘: substantial negative effect; ‘---‘: very negative effect; ‘0’ no effect; n/a: Not applicable.

All the proposed options (except the Business as usual) are intended to impact most of the aspects. However, the magnitude of this impact may vary from one option to another.

The options for this amendment are difficult to calculate in figures, because:

- the lack of data concerning individual plants: actual capacities, production process and reduction technologies in use per company per MS;

- lack of a clear understanding of the current national legislation in the different MS, except for Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.

A first impact assessment is made merely on a qualitative basis founded on rough estimates.

General issues

Problem addressed

The aim of this amendment is to assess the impact of the extension of the current scope of the IPPC Directive with the production of primary wood products with a production capacity exceeding 20 tonnes per day. This would be consistent with the scope of E-PRTR, which mentions the same threshold capacity.

In all options but the first one, the production of primary wood products is included in Annex I of the IPPC Directive and so the problem is addressed. Option 2 most closely reflects the initial purpose of the amendment. Option 3 puts forward a higher threshold capacity, by which most of the plywood and fibreboard installations are excluded. Option 4 reduces the scope further by also excluding the sawmills

The aim is to include the primary woodworking in the IPPC Directive in order to restrict the environmental impact of this sector. Therefore a well balanced threshold should be determined, but this is not yet accomplished.




Industry suggests a threshold of 1000 m³/day, representing 74 % of the production capacity and 44 % of the companies. The other option is to consider Table 11:Production figures for different wood-based panel materials and Table 24 as a guidance and propose a lower threshold.

Legislative changes

The three last options suggested will lead to changes to the legislation in the MS and hence the impact of the options will be negative on this aspect. Option 2 will affect the permit of nearly all of the companies in the sector, while Option 3 will only influence the larger ones. In Option 4 even less permits will be concerned, because here the sawmilling sub-sector is not covered.

On the other hand a survey of the legislation of some West-European MS shows that the wood based panel manufacturers have to meet very divers requirements depending on the MS in which they are located. E.g. the NOx emission limits imposed vary very strongly, which implicates that in some MS the companies have to install secondary measures (such as SNCR), while in other countries this is not required and primary measures are sufficient. Therefore, including the wood-based panel industry in the IPPC Directive would lead to more legislative consistency between MS.

The inclusion of the primary wood processing in the IPPC Directive according to options 2 to 4 is consistent with the scope of the E-PRTR, except for the thresholds in options 3 and 4. On the other hand the Aarhus convention does not cover these activities at all.

Environmental issues

The environmental effect from the sawmilling is quantitatively estimated for emisions of dust, amount of waste and water consumption. For the wood-based panel production quantative estimations are made for dust, VOC, NOx and SOx emissions, amount of waste, water consumption and energy. The lack of quantitative emission data has urged to make estimations based on emission data from only a few panel companies in one MS concerning emissions of dust, total VOC and combustion gases. The assumption was made that the situation in this MS could be generalized, which is an hypothesis that was not validated.

The PM10 emission of the wood based panel sector amounts up to 3,3 % of the total industrial dust emissions reported by EPER. For the total primary wood sector this percentage reaches about 4,3 %. This estimation therefore shows that the wood panel sub-sector could be a relevant source of dust and PM10 emissions. However it has to be kept in mind that the estimated emissions for this sub-sector were rather uncertian.

The contribution of the sawmilling industry to the total dust emission, generation of waste and water consumption of the primary wood processing industry is small compared to the other wood-based panel sub-sector. It is also expected that the wood-based panel sector causes substantially more VOC emissions and combustion gases than the sawmilling sector, although the sawmilling industry is larger in production figures. Potential photochemical oxidation caused by the production of particleboard, MDF and OSB




corresponds to about max. 0,52 % of the EU-25 activity contribution to photochemical oxidation. The scores attributed in the evaluation of the different options reflect this conclusion.

The water consumption is only an issue in the fibreboard production. According to Feropa the wet process fibreboard producers have all invested in waste water treatment installations and have much better waste water conditions than before. The sawmilling industry and the other wood-based panel manufacturers do not use water and create only run-off water. Fibreboard production is only covered in Option 2 where the threshold is set very low.

Economic issues

Two targets of economic impacts are possible; the impacts on the firms and the impact on the regulatory authorities. The impact on the firms can be in terms of costs and competitiveness, however they are interlinked as additional regulatory costs may affect the companies and the prices of the products.

The expenses that companies have to bear when their (sub-) sector is included in the IPPCD are very much dependent on the environmental performance of each company and on the efforts they have made already. In Option 4 only the larger wood-based panel producers are included. These may be already regulated according to a local environmental permit and additional costs may be limited. Option 2 however covers nearly every company of the primary woodworking industry, also the smaller ones. The smaller companies may be confronted with much higher investment and working costs to meet the requirements of the IPPCD. This also applies for the sawmilling sub-sector where the current environmental regulation may be weak compared to the requirements that the IPPCD would require.

The harmonization of the environmental legislation for the primary wood processing industry on a European level may act as a level playing field within Europe on the competitiveness of the companies within each sub-sector. This would improve the existing situation. Some of the smaller companies covered in Option 2 however may not suffer that much from the differences in environmental legislation between MS. According to EOS especially the small and medium-sized sawmills, many of which experience already economic difficulties, will put their competitiveness and future viability at risk [34].

For the regulatory authorities, option 2 and 3 may result in substantially additional workload and related impacts. However, it will not be uniform across Europe as some MS already have national legislation for the production of particleboard, OSB, MDF or other wood-based panel.

Social issues

The additional costs for implementing BAT could potentially pass through to affect consumer prices and competition. The prices of sawn goods are mainly determined by the bigger companies in the sector, with smaller companies following the (international) developments [34]. The smaller companies may however have more expenses to meet the IPPCD requirements than the larger manufacturers.




More harmonization and better interpretation of environmental legislation will lead to a more uniform approach on a European level. This may effect also the public confidence in regulatory measures such as IPPC. Although this will also depend on the net environmental effect.

For the public authorities, this may result in additional jobs to ensure an effective implementation of IPPC at the national level, especially in option 2. However as we see that in some MS some of the wood-based panel sub-sectors are already covered by national environmental legislation, the additional workload in the wood-based panel sub-sector could be moderate and might not require additional personnel.

The impacts on employment in the sector can range from positive to negative. The positive effect may come from the fact that the companies need additional manpower for environmental management of the sites and for regulatory purposes. However, bringing more SMEs under IPPC can have an additional administrative burden which may influence their performance and survival. The small companies in Option 2 may not be in a position to hire additional manpower to deal with the environmental management [34]. Some SME and large companies however, may not experience a change in jobs, as some MS already have environmental legislation concerning the production of particleboard, OSB, MDF or other panel material.

Other issues

In terms of practicability, all options are applicable, but Option 2 would involve a large effort from both industry and authorities to implement IPPC to nearly each company of the sector.

Since the BAT for the sector is not yet defined, it is possible to make it consistent with existing EU legislation.

Comment

The European organisation of the sawmilling industry, sector member body of CEI-Bois, considers that the IPPC Directive should not be extended to cover practically all sawmilling operations, as would be the case when applying Option 2 and or Option 3 (if the threshold would be set at 850 m³/year).

5. Remaining questions/issues- The number of wood-based panel installations that are already

covered by IPPC, under the large combustion plants (> 50 MW) is not known.

- The present estimation of the environmental impact of the sector is not accurate enough. Information on the type of wood processing installations and combustion plants and the way they are operated in the different MS is not available. Nevertheless this information is a prerequisite to calculate the present environmental impact of the industry in EU27. E.g. the type of filter system in the sawmilling sector, type of dryer (temperature, residence time), the type of abatement system, the extraction system, the type of resins and more specific data on each installation is not known at present. This information is essential in order to make an accurate estimate of the




present emissions and the possible improvement BAT can bring. The same holds for the VOC-emissions from the mixing of resins and additives (type of adhesives used), the drying (temperature, time), the mat forming and the cooling operations. If these processes gases are extracted and treated in a combustion or abatement installation, then emissions are substantially reduced. Unfortunately it was not possible to assess the degree of implementation of these measures in EU-27.




6. SummaryThe present work intends to assess the impact of the extension of the current activity definition covering the production of paper and board with a production capacity exceeding 20 tonnes per day, to cover other primary wood products (such as chipboard, fibreboard and plywood) with the same capacity.

In the woodworking industry the vast majority of companies are SMEs, with only a few large groups, typically in the sawmill, panel and parquet sub-sectors. The two sub-sectors that are covered in this potential amendment on primary wood products are the sawn wood sector and the wood-based panels sector.

The sawmilling and planing sub-sector is an important activity within the wood industry, representing 12 % of the overall EU 25 woodworking industry. But this sub-sector has only a limited environmental impact mainly focused on dust emissions to air and run-off water. Dust emissions are already controlled in most of the companies by extracting and filtering systems and on the basis of the workers health regulations. Other impacts are relatively small.

The wood-based panel industry is another important sub-sector of the woodworking industry, accounting for 9% of total wood industry. The wood-based panel industry is divided into different sub-sectors, of which the particleboard, the MDF and the OSB production have the largest capacities and common environmental impacts. They cause emissions to air (dust, VOCs and combustion gases), they consume energy and use binders and additives. Plywood and fibreboard are much smaller sub-sectors but fibreboard production causes additional environmental effects, e.g. water consumption and wastewater generation. Especially some (older) wet processes to produce fibreboard may cause water pollution.

Estimates and calculations of the environmental impact are based on emission data from some companies in one MS producing particleboard and OSB. These have been checked against emission factors from USA. Unfortunately this information was not available for sawmills, MDF, plywood and fibreboard production. The emission estimate shows that the wood-based panel sector has a higher overall environmental impact, covering more than 70 % of the emissions to air, 85 – 95 % of the waste (wood residue) generation and 97 % of the water consumption of the total primary wood sector.

The PM10 emissions from both sub-sectors amounts up to 4,3 % of the total industrial dust emissions reported by EPER. The wood-based panel sub-sector covers 3,3 %. From the estimation of the annual impact caused by the manufacture of particleboard, MDF and OSB, it may be concluded that the photochemical oxidation and PM10 emissions are the major environmental issues in this sub-sector. Plywood and fibreboard are much smaller sub-sectors, but cause particular environmental effects, e.g. water consumption and wastewater generation. The sawmilling and the manufacture of particleboard, MDF and OSB do not use water in the production process.

Some primary wood processing installations may be subjected to some EU Directives: IPPCD, SED, LCP, WID, etc. Some installations may have to apply for an IPPC permit because their combustion installation exceeds the threshold for the category ‘large combustion installations’ of the IPPC Directive. If a wood-based panel company uses a solvent-based adhesive or coating and exceeds the threshold for SED, then it has to meet




the SED requirements. But none of the above mentioned Directives focus on the sawmilling or wood-based panel sector specifically.

The environmental legislation in the different MSs is very diverse. Some MS (e.g. UK, Germany and Belgium) have a national/regional legislation for the specific production processes. They introduced specific emission limit requirements for the wood sector and for the wood-based panel installations in particular. Other member states regulate the primary wood processing installations according to general emission limits and individual permit requirements (e.g. the Netherlands, France). A comparison of the requirement shows that there is a wide variety in emission limit values. Furthermore, a diversity in the evaluation of BAT for this sector exists between MSs.

Four different options are defined, the first being a business as usual scenario and the second extending the current activity definition to cover also other primary wood products according to the description in this amendment. It is assumed that nearly each installation in the primary wood processing sector exceeds the threshold value of 20 tonnes/day (i.e. approximately 33 m³/day), except for the smallest installations for the production of plywood. Therefore Option 3 suggests to include a higher threshold is. In setting the threshold, the size distribution of the sector should be considered. The threshold for the primary wood industry should logically be fixed somewhere between 500 and 1000 m³/day. 850 m³/day distinguished particle board, MDF and OSB from the other panel materials. The sector suggested 1000m³/day, which would represent 75% of the production capacity. If the threshold of 500 m³/day is applied, then 90% of the production capacity for particle board, MDF and OSB is covered, corresponding to 120 installations. 4 fibreboard companies would be involved and also maximum 3 plywood companies. The environmental benefit of including the fibreboard and plywood companies would be limited. The last option is based on Option 3, but the sawmilling sub-sector is excluded from the scope because the environmental impact of the sawmills is limited.

Finally the impact assessment for the four different options is drafted on the basis of the available information. Some conclusions from the analysis can be drawn:- In the first option the different approaches of MS and inconsistencies will remain. The

sawmilling sub-sector has no environmental issues of high relevance, apart from the (fine) dust emissions. Dust, PM10, VOC and combustion gases emitted by the wood-based panel sub-sector and the emissions to water, are not dealt with in this approach.

- In the second option the suggested threshold is so low that nearly every sawmilling company and wood-based panel manufacturer is included, which will lead to high costs for the sector and for the public authorities.

- In the third option the threshold is increased, excluding the smaller companies and the major part of the plywood and fibreboard sub-sectors. This lowers the costs for both the sector and the public authorities, but it also decreases the environmental benefit of the amendment. Depending on how the threshold is set, less dust emissions will be abated and the water issue of the fibreboard production is not addressed.

- In the fourth option the sawmilling sub-sector is also excluded. Consequently some of the dust emissions remain unabated, but sawmilling has only limited environmental effects. The main environmental impact originates from the wood-based panel production. Moreover the costs for industry and public authorities are further reduced.




7. Main references

[1] CEI-Bois, “The woodworking industry in the European Union in 2003”, 2004.

[2] CEI-Bois, “European Wood Factsheets, 2. The woodworking Industry”, 2004.

[3] B. Claeys, “Zwevend stof”, Arbeid en milieu, nr. 3, 2001.

[4] A. Jacobs, R. Dijkmans, “BBT-studie voor de spaanplaten”, Academia Press, 1998.

[5] A. Jacobs, B. Gielen, I. Van Tomme, Ch. De Roock en R. Dijkmans, “BBT voor de houtverwerkende nijverheid”, Academia Press, 2003.

[6] J. Kimmel, “Diffuse emissies van fijn stof door (semi-) industriële activiteiten”, Haskoning i.o.v. VROM, 2000.

[7] European Commission, “Guidance Document for the implementation of the European PRTR”, BIPRO, draft 7 April 2006.

[8] Annual Report 2005 – 2006, European Panel Federation, June 2006.

[9] Annual Report 2005 – 2006, European Federation of the Plywood Industry, June 2006.

[10] European Industry: A Sectoral Overview, Technical Update – 2006, Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General, European Commission, August 2006.

[11] European Forest Sector Outlook Study, 1960 – 2000 – 2020, United Nations, 2005.

[12] European Wood factsheets, Factsheet 2: The woodworking industry, CEI, www.cei-bois.org, 2006.

[13] PM10 Emissions caused by the woodworking industry in Switzerland, A. Fischer, K. Richter, L. Emmenegger and T. Künniger, Holz als Roh- und Werkstoff, 63: 245 – 250, 2005.

[14] Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines for Sawmilling & Manufactured Wood Products, International Finance Corporation, Draft Document, www.ifc.org, November 2006.

[15] Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines for Board and Particle-Based Products, International Finance Corporation, Draft Document, www.ifc.org, November 2006.

[16] Volatile organic compound emissions during hot-pressing of southern pine particleboard, W. Wang, D. Gardner and M. Baumann, Forest Products Journal, Vol 62, No 4., p. 24 – 30, April 2002.

[17] Factors affecting volatile organic compound emissions during hot-pressing of southern pine particleboard, W. Wang, D. Gardner and M. Baumann, Forest Products Journal, Vol 53, No 3., p. 65 – 72, March 2003.


http://www.ifc.org/





[18] Stand der Technik zur Span- und Faserplattenherstellung, Beschreibung von Anlagen in Osterreich und Luxemburg, U. Kutschera and B. Winter, Umweltbundesamt, Wien, 2006.

[19] Emission estimation technique manual for timber and wood product manufacturing, National Pollutant Inventory, Environment Australia, version 1.1. January 2002.

[20] Henkel M., Jentsch K., “Holzstaub messen – aber wie?”, Holz- Zentralblatt, 127 (96): 1200-1201, 2001.

[21] W. Wang, D. Gardner, M. Baumann, “Volatile organic compound emissions during hot-pressing of southern pine particleboard: panel size effects and trade-off between press time and temperature”, Forest Products Journal, Vol 62, No. 4, April 2002.

[22] W. Wang, D. Gardner, M. Baumann, “Factors affecting volatile organic compound emissions during hot-pressing of southern pine particleboard”, Forest Products Journal, Vol 53, No. 3, March 2003.

[23] European Commission, “Reference document on BAT for large combustion plants”, July 2006.

[24] Netherlands Emission Guidelines for Air, InfoMil, 2004.

[25] TA Luft, Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control – TA Luft, Dated 24th July 2002.

[26] Process Guidance Note 6/2 (04), Secretary of State’s Guidance for the Manufacture of Timber and Wood-Based Products, , Defra (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs), 2004.

[27] Sector Guidance Note IPPC SG 1 Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC), Secretary of State’s Guidance for A2 Particleboard, Oriented Strand Board and Dry Process Fibreboard Sector, Defra (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs), September 2006.

[28] Private communication, Mr. L. Omdahl, Feropa.

[29] “Guidance on Interpretation of "Installation" and "Operator" for the Purposes of the IPPC Directive” and “Guidance on Interpretation and Determination of Capacity under the IPPC Directive”, in “Guidance on Interpretation and Implementation of the IPPC Directive”, DG ENV-website, April 2007, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ippc/general_guidance.htm.

[30] European Commission, “Reference document on BAT in the Cement and Lime manufacturing Industries”, December 2001.

[31] P. Vanderstraeten, N. Devriendt, “Evaluatie van het voorstel van Febelhout voor aanpassing van de Vlarem II wetgeving met betrekking tot de emissiereglementering voor direct gestookte, indirect gestookte en hybride drogers”, VITO by order of Febelhout, April 2005.




[32] VDI Directive, Emission Control Wood Machining and Processing, Production of Wood-based Panels, VDI 3462, October 1995.

[33] Kauppinen T., Lindroos L., Makinen R., Concentrations of wood dust measured in the workroom ier at sawmils and plywood factories, Staub Reinhaltung, Der Luft 44 (7-8): 322-324, 1984.

[34] Comment from European Organisation of Sawmill Industry, July 2007.

8. Contacts/Acknowledgements

Ms. M. Gafo Gomez Zamalloa, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission.Mr. J. Wall, Principal Administrator, Forest-based and Related Industries, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission.Mr. Ch. Van Rieg, Environmental Adviser, European Panel Federation.Mr. F. De Jaeger, Secretary General CEI-Bois.Mr. F. Lauwaert, Legal Adviser, CEI-Bois.Mr. K. Wijnendaele, Secretary General, European Panel Federation en European Plywood Federation.Ms. V. Truyen, Director Environmental Department, Fedustria.Mr. J. Martens, Environmental Adviser, Fedustria.Mr. L. Omdahl, Feropa.Mr. G. Grassl, Department of Environment and Energy Policy, Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.




ANNEX 1: EXTRA SOCIO-ECONOMICAL DATA

Employment in the wood processing industry

Out of total EU manufacturing the wood sector contributes to 3.49 % of jobs through 131 000 enterprises. Labour productivity has been rising, largely through increased use of automation and information technology, both for processing and control (see Figure 9). This, together with the recruitment problems related to vocational education and poor image, has caused a steady decline in employment Figure 8. [10]

Figure 8: EU Employment Index [10].

Figure 9: EU 25 Labour Productivity Index (per person) [10].

Competition in the wood processing industry

Among the EU’s competitive strengths are the strong technology, know-how and skill bases and the proximity and access to one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated markets. Competitive weaknesses relate to the EU’s high factor costs set against globally-




set product prices, causing low profitability. This is compounded by over-capacity in some cases and, more generally, the lack of a “wood culture”. The industries’ main opportunities lie in expanding the use of wood by promoting it as a lifestyle material, since the main internal threat is the increasing substitution by other materials, partly due to a failure to properly market wood’s “green” properties. Other advantages may be obtained from: increasing resources for research and innovation; geographic clustering; synergies between sub-sectors and basing production on supply from cost-competitive regions [10].

The main external competition comes from China, Russia, south-east Asia and Latin America, based on established and low-cost resources. China is now the world’s fastest growing producer and consumer of wooden products. In addition to the low labour, energy and wood costs available to many Chinese manufacturers, market prices may be influenced by government intervention to promote exports. Together, these easily compensate for the long and often double haulage costs (e.g. EU or African wood exported to China, processed there and shipped back as manufactured product) [10].

Trends in production and consumption in the wood processing industry

Figure 10 shows the trends in softwood sawn wood production and consumption in Europe over the last 40 years [11]. One of the most important features in this figure is that Europe has changed from a situation of approximate balance in production and consumption over the period 1960 to 1990 to a situation of net exports from the region to the rest of the world over the last ten years. In 1990, European consumption exceeded production slightly and Europe was a net importing region. By 2000 European production exceeded consumption by just over 10 million m³. Furthermore the level of net exports from Europe has continued to increase to around 15 million m³ in 2002.




Figure 10: Trends in the production and consumption of softwood sawn wood from 1961 to 2000 [11].19

Figure 11 shows the trends in hardwood sawn wood production and consumption in Europe over the last 40 years [11]. The most important feature in the hardwood sawn wood market is that Europe has always been a net importer of hardwood sawn wood and that the level of net imports has increased in recent years. This is mostly due to net imports of non-coniferous sawn wood to Western Europe.

19 Western Europe: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom (18 countries).Eastern Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (TFYR Macedonia) and Turkey (16 countries)CIS sub-region: Belarus, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation and Ukraine (4 countries)EFSOS: European Forest Sector Outlook Study region: total of Western Europe, Eastern Europe and CIS sub-region.




Figure 11: Trends in the production and consumption of hardwood sawn wood from 1961 to 2000 [11]

Figure 12 shows the evolution in the production and consumption of particleboard the last 40 years. In Western Europe the market for particleboard has grown persistently and with a relatively high growth rate.

Figure 12: Trends in production and consumption of particleboard from 1961 to 2000 [11].




Figure 13 shows the evolution in the production and consumption of fibreboard the last 40 years. The production and consumption has been concentrated in Western Europe over much of the period, although the shares of all three sub-regions were quite even in the mid 1970s and 1980s. In the last decade, the fibreboard market in Western Europe has increased dramatically and the market in the CIS20 sub-region has declined.

One of the important reasons behind the recent changes in the trends in Western Europe has been the development of MDF. Large-scale production of MDF started in the mid-1980s in North America and Europe and this has developed to become one of the fastest growing wood products sectors in recent years. Most of the growth in the fibreboard sector has come from this category (see Figure 13).

Figure 13: Trends in production and consumption of fibreboard (incl. MDF), from 1961 to 2000 [11].

20 CIS sub-region: Belarus, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation and Ukraine.




Figure 14: Changes in the composition of fibreboard production from 1995 to 2002 [11].

The plywood and veneer sheet consumption in the EU exceeds production by a considerable amount and net imports have grown over the last 40 years (see Figure 15).

Figure 15: Trends in production and consumption of plywood and veneer sheets from 1961 to 2000 [11].




ANNEX 2: PARTICULATE MATTER EMISSION FACTORS FROM WOOD BASED PANEL PRODUCTION

[19, USA] mentions specific emission factors for the dryers, presses and board coolers in the particleboard, MDF and plywood manufacturing (see Table 25, Table 26 and Table27).

Since it is not known which type of dryer (direct or indirect) and which abatement technology the installations use, and because the emission factor rating is rather below average and poor21, it is estimated that is it not appropriate to calculate the total PM10

emissions for the wood based panel sub-sector on the basis of these emission factors.

Table 25: Particulate matter (PM10) Emission Factors from Particleboard Manufacturing

SourceParticulate Matter ≤ 10 µm (PM10)

Emission Factor

Emission Factor

Emission Factor Rating

Rotary dryer, direct unspecified pinec-fired:

No emission controlElectrified filter bed

0.350.32

--

DE

Batch hot presse, UF resind - 4.16 * 10-3 D

Board coolere, UF resind - 8.84 * 10-4 E

USEPA, A.P.-42 Section 10.6.2, 1998. ND – no data. NA – not applicable.a Units are kilograms of substance emitted per oven-dried tonne of wood material out of the dryer (kg/tonne).b Units are kilograms of substance emitted per cubic meter of panel produced (kg/m³).c Unspecified pines = mixed pine species or the specific pine species processed were not reported.

21 Every emission factor has an associated emission factor rating (EFR) code. The rating system is based on rating systems developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and by the European Environment Agency (EEA). An A or B rating indicates a greater degree of certainty than a D or E rating. The less certainty, the more likely that a given emission factor for a specific source or category is not representative of the source type. These ratings notwithstanding, the main criterion affecting the uncertainty of an emission factor remains the degree of similarity between the equipment/process selected in applying the factor, and the target equipment/process from which the factor was derived. The EFR system is as follows: A - ExcellentB - Above AverageC - AverageD - Below AverageE - PoorU - Unrated




d UF resin = urea-formaldehyde resins.e Factors represent uncontrolled emissions.

Table 26: Uncontrolled Emission Factors for Particulate Matter (PM10) from MDF Manufacturing

SourceParticulate Matter (PM10)

Emission Factor

Emission Factor


Tube dryer, direct wood-fired, unspecified pinesc 0.8 - D

Tube dryer, indirect heat, mixed speciesd 0.14 - E

Batch hot press, UF resine - 1.95 * 10-2 E

MDF board cooler, UF resine - 9.88 * 10-4 E

USEPA, A.P.-42 Section 10.6.3, 1998. ND – no data. NA – not applicable.a Units are kilograms of substance emitted per oven-dried tonne of wood material out of the dryer (kg/tonne).b Units are kilograms of substance emitted per cubic meter of panel produced (kg/m³).c Unspecified pines = mixed pine species or the specific pine species processed were not reported.d Mixed species = 50 percent hardwood and 50 percent softwood.e UF resin = urea-formaldehyde resin

Table 27: Emission Factors for Particulate Matter from Plywood Manufacturinga

SourceParticulate Matterb

Emission Factor


Plywood veneer dryer, direct natural gas-fired, unspecified pinesc 3.95 * 10-2 E

Plywood veneer dryer, indirect heat, unspecified pinesc 0.175 D

Plywood veneer dryer, indirect heat, unspecified firsd, wet electrostatic precipitator

0.017 E

Plywood veneer dryer, radio frequency heated, unspecified pinesc 2.5 * 10-3 E




Plywood press, phenol-formaldehyde resin 0.06 D

USEPA, A.P.-42 Section 10.6.3, 1998. ND – no data. NA – not applicable.a Units are kilograms of substance emitted per cubic meter of veneer or panel

produced (kg/m³). Factors uncontrolled unless otherwise specified.b Factors represent total particulate emissions and will over-estimate emissions

from the 10 microns or less (PM10) size fraction. To determine PM10 emissions, facilities should conduct a size characterisation analysis of particulate matter from their site.

c Based on data on the drying of mixed pine species or the drying of veneers which are identified only as pines.

d Based on data on the drying of mixed fir species or the drying of veneers which are identified only as firs.




ANNEX 3: UNCONTROLLED EMISSION FACTORS FOR ORGANIC COMPOUNDS FROM WOOD BASED PANEL PRODUCTION

- Uncontrolled Emission Factors for Organic Compounds from Dryers

In Table 28 and Table 29 some uncontrolled emission factors for organic compounds from dryers in the production of particleboard and MDF are given [19, USA]. The emitted quantities are dependent on the wood species used, the dryer temperature, the fuel used [19, USA] and the kind of emission control equipment installed. Because of lack of information on these issues and since the emission factor rating is rather below average and poor, it is not possible to estimate the VOC-emissions originating from the drying processes in the panel industry in the EU.

Table 28: Uncontrolled Emission Factors for Organic Compounds from Particleboard Dryersa

Substance

Rotary dryer, direct wood

fired, unspecified

Rotary dryer, direct

wood-fired, hardwood

Rotary dryer, direct

natural gas-fired,

Emission Factor Ratingb

<388°Cinlet air

(kg/tonne)

>482°Cinlet air

(kg/tonne)Volatile organic compounds

0.475 4.1 0.175d 0.45 DMethyl isobutyl ketone

4.05 * 10-5 ND ND ND E

Acetaldehyde 0.005 0.36 ND ND E

Acetone 3.95 * 10-3 0.08 ND ND E

Acrylonitrile 4.45 * 10-3 ND ND ND E

Benzene 1.1 * 10-4 ND ND ND E

Biphenyl 1.95 * 10-5 ND ND ND EDi-(2-Ethylhexyl)Phthalate

1.6 * 10-4 ND ND ND E

Carbon disulfide 1.8 * 10-5 ND ND ND E

Chloroform ND 5 * 10-5 ND ND E

Cumene 3.45 * 10-5 0.001 ND ND E

Dibutyl phthalate 1.15 * 10-5 ND ND ND E

Ethyl benzene 1.9 * 10-6 ND ND ND E

Formaldehyde 0.015 0.085 ND ND E

m.p-Xylene 5.5 * 10-5 0.0038 ND ND E

o-Xylene 7 * 10-6 2.25 * 10-4 ND ND E




Methyl ethyl ketone 6.5 * 10-4 0.0046 ND ND E

n-Hexane 1.3 * 10-5 ND ND ND E

Styrene 6 * 10-5 1.8 * 10-4 ND ND E

Toluene 8.5 * 10-4 0.0105 ND ND EUSEPA, AP-42 Section 10.6.2, 1998. ND – no data. NA – not applicablea Units are kilograms of substance emitted per tonne of oven-dried wood material out of the dryer (kg/tonne).b Volatile organic compound emissions as propane with emission factor rating D.c Unspecified pines = mixed pine species or the specific pine species processed were not reportedd Formaldehyde has not been added, but is suspected to be present, which would increase the VOC value given.

Table 29: Uncontrolled Emission Factors for Organic Compounds from Medium Density Fibreboard Dryersa

Substance

Tube dyer, direct wood fired (kg/tonne)

Tube dryer, indirect heat (kg/tonne) Emission

Factor RatingbUnspecified

pinec Hardwoods Hardwoods Mixed speciesd

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)e

3.3 3.25b 2.35b 1.1 D/E

Acetaldehyde ND ND 6.5 * 10-3 6.5 * 10-3 E

Acetone ND ND ND 1.25 * 10-3 EDi-(2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)

ND ND ND 1.35 * 10-4 E

Dibutyl phthalate ND ND ND 9 * 10-5 E

Formaldehyde ND 0.43 0.1 0.7 EMethyl ethyl ketone ND ND ND 3.15 * 10-3 E

n-Hexane ND ND ND 7 * 10-4 E

Phenol ND ND ND 1 * 10-4 EUSEPA, AP-42 Section 10.6.3, 1998. ND – no data. NA- not applicablea Units are kilograms of substance emitted per tonne of oven-dried wood material out of the dryer (kg/tonne).b EMISSION FACTOR RATING: D where specified by this footnote.c Unspecified pines = mixed pine species or the specific pine species processed were not reported. For VOC emission factor, formaldehyde has not been added, but is suspected to be present, which would increase the VOC value given.d Mixed species = 50 percent hardwood and 50 percent softwood.




e Volatile organic compounds as propane.

- Uncontrolled emission factors for organic compounds from the presses and coolers for the production of particleboard and MDF

In Table 30 and Table 31 some emission factors from the presses and coolers for the production of particleboard and MDF are given [19, USA]. The emitted quantities are dependent on the binding agents used, the press temperature and the kind of emission control equipment that is installed. Because of the lack of information on these issues and since the emission factor rating is rather below average and poor, it is not possible to estimate the VOC-emissions originating from the binding agents in the panel industry in the EU.

Table 30: Uncontrolled Emission Factors for Organic Compounds from Particleboard Presses and Board Coolersa

Substance

Batch hot press,

UF resinc (kg/m³)

Veneer hot press,

UF resinc (kg/m³)

Board cooler,UF resinc

(kg/m³)


Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)b

0.244d ND 0.0702d D

Acetaldehyde 3.64 * 10-3 2.57 * 10-5 3.38 * 10-4 E

Acetone 3.38 * 10-3 ND 5.2 * 10-4 E

Formaldehyde 0.0676d 1.61 * 10-3 7.02 * 10-3d D/E

Methyl ethyl ketone 3.64 * 10-4 7.28 * 10-5 2.86 * 10-5 E

Toluene 1.22 * 10-4 ND ND E

USEPA, AP-42 Section 10.6.2, 1998. ND – no data. NA – not applicablea Units are kilograms of substance emitted per cubic metre of panel produced (kg/m³).b Volatile organic compound on a propane basisc UF = urea-formaldehyde resind Emission factor rating D

Table 31: Emission Factors for Organic Compounds from Medium Density Fibreboard Presses and Board Coolersa

Substance Batch Hot Press, UF

Resind

Continuous hot press, UF resind

MDF Board

Cooler, UF

Emission Factor RatingbUncontrolled Controlled




(kg/m³) (kg/m³) (kg/m³) Resind

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)c

0.179b 0.364 8.32 * 10-3 0.052 D/E

Acetaldehyde 1.33 * 10-3 ND ND 2.6 * 10-4 EAcetone 8.06 * 10-4 ND ND 5.46 * 10-4 EFormaldehyde 0.078b 0.286 2.37 * 10-3 0.029 EMethyl ethyl ketone

1.53 * 10-4 ND ND 2.86 * 10-5 E

USEPA, AP-42 Section 10.6.3, 1998. ND – no data. NA- not applicablea Units are kilograms of substance emitted per cubic metre of panel produced (kg/m³).b EMISSION FACTOR RATING: D where specified by this footnote.c Volatile organic compounds as propane. For total VOCs, add the appropriate formaldehyde emission factors.d UF resin = urea-formaldehyde resins

- Emission factors for VOC and formaldehyde substances from plywood manufacturing

Table 32 mentions the emission factors for the VOCs and formaldehyde substances from the plywood manufacturing.

Table 32: Emission Factors for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Formaldehyde Substances from Plywood Manufacturinga

Source

VOCd FormaldehydeEmission

Factor (kg/m³)


Emission Factor(kg/m³)


Plywood veneer dryers, direct wood-fired:

unspecified pinesb

unspecified firse, ionising wet scrubber controlled

1.65e

0.305eEE

NDND

NANA

Plywood veneer dryers, direct natural gas-fired, unspecified pinesb 1.05e E ND NA

Plywood veneer dryers, indirect heated, unspecified pinesb 1.35e D ND NA

Plywood veneer dryers, radio-frequency heated, unspecified pinesb 0.11e E ND NA

Plywood press, phenol-formaldehyde resin 0.165e D ND NA

Plywood press, urea-formaldehyde resin 1.26 * 10-3 E 2.1 * 10-3 E




Plywood press, urea-formaldehyde resin 1.03 * 10-3 E 1.25 * 10-3 E

USEPA, AP-42 Section 10.6.2, 1998. ND – no data. NA- not applicablea Units are kilograms of substance emitted per cubic metre of veneer or panel produced (kg/m³). Emission factors uncontrolled unless otherwise specified.b Based on data on the drying of mixed pine species or on the drying of veneers which are identified only as pines.c Based on data on the drying of mixed fir species or on the drying of veneers which are identified only as firs.d Volatile organic compounds as propane.




ANNEX 4: EMISSION FACTORS FOR COMBUSTION GASES FROM THE PRODUCTION OF PARTICLEBOARD, MDF AND PLYWOOD

In Table 33, Table 34 and Table 35 some emission factors for combustion gases from the production of particleboard, MDF and plywood are given [19, USA]. The emitted quantities are dependent on the type of dryer, the fuel used and the kind of emission control equipment that is installed. Because of the lack of information on these issues and since the emission factor rating is rather below average, it is not possible to estimate the emissions originating from the combustion gases in the panel industry in the EU.

Table 33: Emission Factors for Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) and Carbon Monoxide (CO) from Particleboard Manufacturinga

Source

Sulphur Dioxide Oxides of Nitrogen Carbon MonoxideEmission

Factor (kg/tonne)

RatingEmission

Factor (kg/tonne)

RatingEmission

Factor (kg/tonne)b

Rating

Rotary dryer, direct wood-fired 0.001 E 0.55 B 0.8 C

Rotary dryer, direct natural gas-fired

ND NA 0.155 D 0.06 D

Rotary predryer, direct wood-fired ND NA 1.05 D 0.47 D

Rotary final dryer, direct wood-fired

ND NA ND NA 0.375 D

Batch hot press, UF resinc

(kg/m³)bND NA ND NA 2.34 * 10-2 D

USEPA, AP-42 Section 10.6.2, 1998. ND – no data. NA- not applicablea Units are kilograms of substance emitted per oven dried tonne of wood material out of the dryer (kg/tonne).b Units for batch hot press are kilograms of substance emitted per cubic meter of panel produced (kg/m³).c UF resin = urea-formaldehyde resins

Table 34: Emission Factors for Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) and Carbon Monoxide (CO) from MDF Manufacturinga

Source

Oxides of Nitrogen Carbon Monoxide

EmissionFactor (kg/m³)

EmissionFactor Rating

EmissionFactor (kg/m³)

EmissionFactor Rating




Tube dryer, direct wood-firedb ND NA 2b D

Batch hot press, UF resine 7.8 * 10-3 E 8.84 * 10-3 E

Continuous hot press, UF resin, RTO controllede

0.1326 E 0.0221 E

USEPA, AP-42 Section 10.6.3, 1998. ND – no data. NA- not applicablea Units for batch press are kilograms of substance emitted per cubic meter of panel produced (kg/m³) except where otherwise specified.b Units are kilograms of substance emitted per oven-dried tonne of wood material out of the dryer (kg/tonne).c UF resin = urea-formaldehyde resins. RTO = regenerative thermal oxidisers.

Table 35: Uncontrolled Emission Factors for Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) and Carbon Monoxide (CO) from Plywood Veneer Dryersa

Source

Sulphur Dioxide Oxides of Nitrogen Carbon Monoxide

Emission Factor (kg/m³)

RatingEmission

Factor (kg/m³)

RatingEmission

Factor (kg/m³)

Rating

Direct wood-fired 0.029 D 0.12 D 2.55 D

Direct natural gas-fired ND NA 0.006 E 0.285 E

USEPA, AP-42 Section 10.6.2, 1998. ND – no data. NA- not applicablea Units are kilograms of substance emitted per cubic metre of veneer produced (kg/m³).




ANNEX 5: TECHNIQUES FOR PREVENTION OR REDUCTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

1. Reduction of emissions to air

- Techniques for sawmilling industry

- control of air emissions associated to combustion of wood residue in sawmills [14]Some measures can be taken in order to reduce air emissions:

- wood waste fuel should be of a constant moisture content- maintain an optimal air/fuel ratio appropriate for different fuel mixtures.- where fly ash re-injection is used to improve furnace efficiency, the incoming ash

stream should be pre-sorted using sand classifiers.- ash from incineration of wood should be stored in a contained, wind resistant area

until it has fully cooled.- use of cyclones, baghouse filters and/or electrostatic precipitators and/or

scrubbers to control particulate emissions to the site-specific requirements.

- reduction of VOC emissions during kiln drying in sawmills [14]VOCs should be removed from the air stream either by combustion or absorption onto carbon filters. Combustion can either be thermal or catalytic. Absorption by carbon filters is efficient but may not be feasible in areas where there is no system for recovering the solvents.

- reduction of dust emissions in sawmills [14]Wood dust and larger particulates are generated during sawing, machining and sanding operations. Local extraction systems should be provided where these particulates are formed, including saws, sanding, shaping and routing machines. Cyclones or bag filters are typically employed to remove particulates from the air stream before release. Filtered air may be returned to the workplace which reduces space heating requirements where applicable. Good housekeeping practices should also be employed to minimize dust generation.

Automisation of woodworking processes in sawmilling and planing may also induce an improvement concerning emission reduction. When processes are automated then these locations do not need an entrance for personnel and can be contained. Consequently the air in these areas is easier to extract and to filter.

- Techniques for wood-based panel industry

- Measures to reduce emissions from combustion plants in wood-based panel industry [18, 23]

General [5, 15, 18]: Table 36 indicates some reduction measures for individual or combined use, that reduce the environmental impact of the different processes in the particle-, MDF and fibreboard production [18, At].




Table 36: State of the art in the particle-, MDF and fibreboard production [18, At]

Process State of the art – emission values (mg/Nm), 13% O2

Reduction measures for individual or combined use to achieve these values

Combustion and boiler plants

dust 5-10 Fabric filter, ESP + scrubber, cyclone as pre-separator

NOx 100-200 SNCR (urea and/or NH3) + combustion technology measures

NH3 5-10 Optimal operation of SNCRSO2 50 Flue gas desulphurisation, lime sorbent

injection, spray absorptionCO 50-100 Combustion as complete as possibleorg. carbon < 10 after burning, primary measuresPCDD/F < 0,1

ng/Nm³after burning, active coke and/of sorbalit

HCHO 5-10 after burning,HF 0,7 effective precipitation of acid componentsHCl 10 effective precipitation of acid componentsHM1) Effective dust reduction

Direct heated dryer2)

(including energy supply)

dust 5-10 Scrubber + wet ESP, electrified filter bed, cyclone as pre-separator

NOx 100-200 SNCR + combustion technology measuresNH3 5-10 Optimal operation of SNCRSO2 50 Effective SO2 reductionCO 50-100 Combustion as complete as possibleorg. carbon 10-20 after burningPCDD/F <0,1

ng/Nm³Primary measures, after burning, active coke and/of sorbalit

HCHO 5-10 after burning, scrubberorg. acids 5-10 after burning, scrubberPhenol 1 after burning, scrubberHCl 10 No Cl-containing raw materials; eff.

precipitation of acid componentsIndirect heated dryer

dust 5-10 Fabric filter

SO2 3) 50 Effective SO2 reduction

Org. C 10-20 after burningHCHO 5-10 after burning, scrubberorg. acids 5-10 after burning, scrubberPhenol 1 after burning, scrubberHCl3) 10 No Cl-containing raw materials; eff.

precipitation of acid componentsPress dust 5-10 Scrubber + wet ESP

CO 50-100 Combustion as complete as possibleOrg. C 10-20 after burningHCHO 5 after burning, scrubberOrg. acids 5-10 after burning, scrubberPhenol 1 after burning, scrubberSO2

3) 50 Effective SO2 reduction




1) HM = heavy metals2) given an oxygen supply of 17%, the lower value is state of the art3) potentially, if chloride or sulphate-containing accessory agents and additives

(hardening agents) such as ammonium sulphate or ammonium chloride are used

Some plants use overall flue gas cleaning systems that reduce all pollutants from all units.

Control of emissions from the dryer kiln may be achieved by passing the dryer exhaust gases through a scrubber or a wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP). Cyclone separators, however are more widely used in MDF manufacturing. In the case of direct heated dryers dust reduction is achieved via scrubbers and wet electrostatic precipitators and/or electrified filter bed (EFB). After indirect heated dryers fabric filters are applied in most cases.

Monitoring [31] IFC Word Bank GroupContinuous measuring of the following emissions and operating parameters in the flue gas of combustion plants and dryers:

- temperature, - volume, - humidity content, - pressure, - oxygen content, - dust, - organic carbon, - SO2, NOx and CO.

Reduction of dust emissions:The use of electrostatic precipitators in combination with scrubbers, electrified filter bed or fabric filters. Cyclones can be used as pre-separators. Using only cyclones for reducing dust is not state of the art. Effective dust reduction can also reduce heavy metal dusts and particle-bound dioxins.

Reduction of NOx-emissions [5, 15, 18, 23]:For the reduction of NOx emissions from particle-, MDF- and fibreboard industries SNCR (selective non-catalytic reduction) is used in combination with primary measures; these are:

- installation of low NOx burners, - injection of part of the total air quantity above burner level,- flue gas recirculation,- ration of injected ammonia to nitrogen oxides must be optimally adjusted in order

to keep the ammonia slip as low as possible- see also [23].

Reduction of SOx, HCl and HF-emissions [18, 23]- use of fuels low in chlorides and fluorides- installation of devices for effective separation of the acid components of the flue

gas, - avoid the use of Cl-containing hardening agents (ammonium chloride),- SO2, HCl and HF are removed from the flue gas with scrubbers or a dry process

using lime, dolomite or sorbalite,




- apart from flue gas desulphurisation, lime sorbant injection and spray absorption are common,

- see also [23].

Reduction of emissions of organic carbon [18, 23]- reduction technologies thermal or catalytic after burning, sometimes regenerative,- milder drying conditions.

Reduction of emissions of PCDD/F [18, 23]Primary measures are:

- high combustion temperatures and residence time,- good mixing, - complete burnout,- control of excess air, …

Measures for reducing the emissions are:- separation of particle-bound PCDD/F in fabric filters or electrostatic precipitators,- separation of gaseous or particle-bound PCDD/F in scrubbers, during the flow

injection process or by spray absorbers,- thermal or catalytic destruction.

- Reduction of emissions from presses in wood-based panel industry [15, 18, 23]- board presses should be hooded,- air collected from around the presses, which will normally contain formaldehyde-

since this is a component of many of the resins used in panel formation - should be routed to the utility plant to be used as combustion air, thus destroying the formaldehyde, or to control devices such as dry or wet ESPs or wet scrubbers or by applying regenerative after burning,

- formaldehyde emissions should be reduced at source by limiting the press temperature to the minimum feasible level,

- applying primary measures such as the use of low-emission binding agents, in particular the use of binding agents low in, or free from formaldehyde,

- biological flue gas cleaning technologies should be adopted,- dust reduction is mainly achieved via scrubbers and electrostatic precipitators.

- Reduction of dust emissions in wood-based panel industry [15, 18]The recommended measures include:

- storage of dust-emitting goods (eg. chips) in closed silos or halls with dust-extraction equipment in case of open storage, covering or roofing,

- where outdoor stockpiles are unavoidable, measures such as windbreaks, spraying or binders should be used to minimize dust emissions.

- areas identified above, with high potential for dust generation (chip grading, mat layout and sawing and sanding areas) should have dust extraction equipment following individual production processes (eg. dryers, combustion plants, transport, processing of boards). Extraction systems should lead to bag filter or cyclone separator systems in order to meet site specific requirements and should be regularly inspected to identify and eliminate blockages preventing effective removal of dust,

- where possible, handling of chips and particles should be by pneumatic means rather than by open conveyor or by bulk transport, as far as possible in closed systems with dust-extraction equipment. Where conveyors are used they should be fully enclosed, especially at height changes,




- covered charging and discharging,- minimum discharging heights of conveyor belts,- transport in closed containers,- paved transport routes,- regular cleaning of transport routes, conveyor belts, etc.

2. Reduction of wastewater discharge

- Techniques for sawmilling industry

- prevention, minimization and control of effluents from stored timber [14]Recommendations are:

- Run-off from log yards should be properly contained with impervious surfaces, sealed joints and spill containment curbs to prevent leaching of contaminated waters into the soil and groundwater;

- log ponds also should be contained to prevent contaminants leaching into the soil and groundwater;

- irrigation water should be recycled to limit effluent releases to ground and surface waters.

- waste water treatment [14]Effluent water should be treated to reduce BOD and COD. Since the effluent should not typically contain pathogens, treatment can be achieved by passing the water through constructed wetlands or aerated treatment ponds with a retention time of approximately 14 days or until an acceptable BOD and COD level is achieved. Highly concentrated effluents (for example following evaporation) or effluents which may contain wood preservative chemicals will require an additional level of treatment, such as detoxification (using UV-oxidation) and precipitation or stabilization of heavy metals, depending on the nature of the contamination.

- Techniques for wood-based panel industry

- waste water treatment in wood-based panel industry [15, 18]- In fibreboard manufacture effluents arising from chip steaming and softening

before the refining stage can be reused in the process after treatment using membrane filtration systems.

- WESP cleaning water is typically cleaned in a decanting system before re-use in the WESP, the sludge arising during this process is incinerated internally;

- the quantity of effluent arising from chip washing, fibreboard manufacture and WESPs should be minimized by recycling techniques. Remaining effluent generation from panel processes is small, with water being carried from the wet processes with wood chips or fibres and ultimately leaving the site through evaporation in the dryer.

- effluent water should be treated to remove wood fines (dissolved air floatation DAF is effective in this application) and then to reduce BOD and COD. Since this water should not contain pathogens, treatment can be achieved in most cases by passing the water through constructed wetlands or aerated treatment ponds with a retention time of at least 14 days or until an acceptable BOD an COD is achieved.

- prevent en control leaching in wood-based panel industry [31] IFC Word Bank Group




- log soaking ponds used in plywood manufacture should be lined to prevent loss of leachate to ground water,

- log and chip storage areas should have impermeable surfaces, spill containment curbs and run-off from these areas should be directed to the waste water treatment facility,

- log yard irrigation water should be recycled.

3. Reduction of waste

- recycling of wood residues in sawmilling industry [14]Opportunities for recycling of wood residues may exist through use of waste as inputs for secondary products in other industries or as a source of fuel for heat and power generation. The optimal recycling options depend upon local market conditions and the size and dryness of the material.Examples are:

- use bark-free wood chips and other wood residues as a raw material input for the pulp and paper or board-making industries. Particleboard manufacturers may also accept sawdust and chips with bark;

- use of wood and bark chips as mulch for gardens, highway verges and agriculture. Use of sawdust and wood shavings for animal bedding;

- use of wood waste as fuel to generate heat/power for the facilities space heating and process needs and/or export;

- production of fuel briquettes- manufacture of charcoal.

If all other feasible, beneficial uses have been considered, wood waste should be disposed of through controlled incineration.

- disposal of the residues from wood-based panel industry [31] IFC Word Bank Group- ash should be stored in a contained wind resistant area until it has fully cooled.

Ash should be returned to the forest or to some other site for inclusion in the soil as a fertilizer and soil improver,

- Off-cuts should be minimized by control of the pressed-board dimensions and gradual minimization of trimming margins. Remaining off-cuts can be recycled as furnish in particleboard manufacture, used as the core of block board or burnt in the wood waste-burning utility system,

- solid wastes arising from water treatment processes, including the sludge capture by the WESP, should be burnt, providing appropriate air pollution control is adopted or disposed of as hazardous waste.

4. Reduction of energy consumption [31] IFC Word Bank Group

- opportunities to minimize energy consumption in sawmilling industry [14]- electricity use can be reduced at source by designing new plants to minimize

transfer distances between process stages. Specification of fans should be used in chip grading and transfer and by adjusting fan output through variable speed inverter drives rather than damper control when air flow rates need to be adjusted.

- Energy use in drying can be reduced through the use of relatively dry raw materials, including recycled wood matter in particleboard manufacturing, by maximizing the contact between drying air and particles in dryers through the use




of a three-pass dryer or partial recirculation of hot and dry dryer exhaust air and minimizing dryer temperature to the extent possible.

- Wood based panel plants have high heat and power demand and operate for extended periods, often without great variation in heat or power demand. These operating conditions can favour successful cogeneration (combined heat and power) projects. MDF manufacturing is particularly well suited to gas-turbine based cogeneration, with the turbine’s electrical output substantially meeting process demands if the turbine is sized such that its heat output satisfies the fibre drying load,

- all wood waste produced in the process should be burnt on site to meet process (and power) demands. Such waste includes bark, saw dust and sanding dust, while some sites buy wood waste for use as carbon –neutral fuel.

- opportunities to minimize energy consumption in wood-based panel industry [18, At].Flue gas from dryers, presses (and coating devices) should be fed back to the combustion unit. This increases energy efficiency while at the same time ensuring post–combustion of the organic components of the flue gas.

5. Reduction of noise

- measures to reduce noise in sawmilling industry [14]- enclose machines and equipment with elevated noise emissions (eg. in excess of

85 dB(A)) in noise reduction housings;- conduct regular maintenance, including water lubrication of machines and cutting

blades and resin build-up removal;- adjust circular saw parameters in relation to the timber being cut and machinery

used,- consider using low noise saw blades, in addition to other less noisy equipment, eg.

frame saws.

- measures to reduce noise in wood-based panel industry [31] IFC Word Bank Group- debarking and chipping should be carried out in enclosed buildings,- noise generating machinery should be regularly maintained according to

manufacturers’ specifications,- log handling facilities should be sited to minimize noise,- sound reducing earth banks or sound reflecting screens should be installed as

necessary.




ANNEX 6: NATIONAL LEGISLATION

- Austria

For the following example the emission limit values and measured values in the directly heated dryer of a particleboard installation in Austria are indicated in Table 37. The fuel used is wood dust and gas and the flue gas treatment installation includes a scrubber and a wet electro filter. The NOx-emissions are controlled by injection of urea.

Table 37: Example of emission limit values and measured values in the directly heated dryer of a particleboard installation in Austria (in standard conditions, dry gas, 17 % O2, for NH3 0% O2).

Parameter Emission limit value(mg/m³)

Measured value(mg/m³)

Dust 10 3 – 19SO2 15 6NOx 140 105Dioxin 0.1 ng/m³ Not determinedHCHO 5 5.5organic acids 10 4.6Phenol 1 < 0.2Organic C 25 150 35CO 75 102NH3 10 4.2

- Belgium

The installations in the wood processing sector in Flanders are subject to sector specific emission values to air and discharge limits to water (see Table 38).

Table 38: Emission limit values to air applicable to the wood sector expressed in mg/Nm³ (at 0°C, 101.3 kPa, dry gas)

parameter emission limit value

1° particulate matter at a total massflow of:

a) < 500 g/h 150,0 mg/Nm3;

b) > 500 g/h:

- in the flue gas from grinding machines 10,0 mg/Nm3;

- in the flue gas from dryer 50 mg/Nm3

(wet gas);

- in other flue gases 50,0 mg/Nm3;

2° total particulate matter from directly fired chip dryers with a capacity of:

a) < 50 MW: 50 mg/Nm3 (17 % O2);




b) 50 MW or more: 50 mg/Nm3 (17 % O2)

3° CO-concentration in directly fired chip dryers, irrespective of the capacity: 250 mg/Nm3 (11 % O2).

The discharge limits to water originating from fibreboard production (and all other board materials, mainly based on wood and manufactured according to a wet process) are indicted in Table 39.

Table 39: Discharge limits for the fibreboard production (and all other board materials, mainly based on wood and manufactured according to a wet process)

Discharge to surface water

lower pH 6,5 Sörensen

upper pH 9,0 Sörensen

temperature 30,0 °Celsius

floating particulates 100,0 mg/l

precipitating particulates 0,50 ml/l

CCl4 extractable components 5,0 mg/l

detergents 3,0 mg/l

oil and fat n.v.w.b.

BOD 50,0 mg/l

COD 400,0 mg/l

Kjeldahl-N 100,0 mg N/l

Discharge to sewage system

lower pH 6,0 Sörensen

upper pH 9,5 Sörensen

temperature 45,0 °Celsius

floating particulates 10,0 mm

precipitating particulates 1000,0 mg/l

petroleum extractable components 500,0 mg/l

Kjeldahl-N v.g.t.g. mg N/l

- Germany

In Germany according to the (promulgation of the new version of the) Ordinance on Requirements for the Discharge of Waste Water into Waters (Waste Water Ordinance - AbwV) of 17. June 2004 the following requirements apply to the waste water at the point of discharge into the water body:




Qualified random sample or 2-hour composite sample22

5-day BOD kg/t 0.2COD kg/t 1Phenol index after distillation and extraction

g/t 0.3

Toxicity in fish eggs (Teco) 2

- UK

In UK the emission limit values and provisions described in Table 40 are achievable using the best available techniques described in [26].

Table 40: Emission limits monitoring and other provisions [26]

Visible emissions should be limited and monitored.

22 The production-specific requirements (g/t; kg/t) refer to the production capacity of fibreboards (completely dry) in 0.5 or 2 hours on which the water discharge licence is based. The contaminant load is determined from the concentration levels of the qualified random sample or 2-hour composite sample and from the volumetric flow of waste water corresponding to sampling.




In Table 41 concentration limits for emissions to air are presented that are only applicable to contained emissions exhausted to external atmosphere.




Table 41: Contained emissions to air associated with the use of BAT [27].




It is also practicable in many cases to reuse treated water. Table 42 provides information regarding achievable levels associated with the use of wastewater treatment systems for discharges to surface water.




Table 42: Emissions to water associated with the use of BAT [27].




ANNEX 7: ESTIMATION OF DUST EMISSIONS BASED ON [13]

[13]is a study of the PM10 emissions of the woodworking industry in Switzerland. It is based on the use of several types of extrator systems which are used in this industry. It assumes that if the extractor systems are fully functional, 70 % of all extraction systems used in the woodworking industry do not release any dust emissions to the environment. They return the filtered air to the work area. Only 2 – 3 % of all companies do not use any kind of extractor system. This is a reflection of the present situation in Switzerland. It may be assumed that the same situation can be generalized to the European wood working installations.

According to the survey, approximately 90 % of the filter systems under consideration are equipped with a fibrous filter (surface filter), which guaranties maximum dust emissions of 0,2 mg/m³. Therefore, all calculations in this approach were based on the characteristic values for the fibrous filter.

In [13] the dust emissions in waste gases caused by the woodworking industry in Switzerland are estimated using two alternative extrapolation approaches.

- first extrapolation approach

In the first extrapolation the emission factor for the dust emissions originating from 4 investigated types of woodworking activities was calculated. The dust emission factors were extrapolated from the processed volume of wood in 4 sub-sector of the industry and their total yearly dust loads in “t/a”. The 4 surveyed sectors are carpentry/timber production, Industrieal furniture production, joinery/wood products and transport/pallets.

The dust emission factors range from 23 to 118 g/m³ of processed wood, depending on the the sub-sector. 118 g/m³ being the highest emission factor originates from the joinery and wood products sub-sector and 23 g/m³ is the lowest emission factor originating from the production of pallets. The sub-sectors sawmilling and wood-based panels were not included in this approach.

The PM10 emission is calculated by weighing the total dust emission with the minimum (15%) and maximum (40 %) fine dust concentration according to [33]. This resulted in emission factors of 3.5 mg/m³ of wood (15 % PM10) in the packaging industry to 47 mg/m³ of wood (40% PM10) in joineries.

- second extrapolation approach

In a second approach, the dust emissions were estimated on the basis of the mean volume flows of different company size categories, taking the specific type of extractor system into account but disregarding the type of sub-sector. In this second extrapolation approach, the dust emission factors for all sub-sectors (not only the 4 surveyed sub-sectors) were estimated on the basis of the mean volume flows determined for each company size categroy. This approach presupposes that volume flow and the extractor systems correlates with company size, a fact that is confirmed by available




data. This approach takes account of the company size and the filter technology and permits a rather more refined analysis as a result.

This approach resulted in lower emission factors. When these figures are recalculated for the different sub-sectors, than the wood based panel sub-sector has an estimated emission factor of 0,8 mg/m³ and the sawmilling one of 3,5 mg/m³. In this approach the larger installations, which have higher volume flows are supposed to use a better filter technology. Since the sawmilling and wood based panel sub-sectors rank among the higher volume flow category, the associated emission factor is lower than sub-sectors with smaller volume flows such as e.g. the joinery.

From these emission factors PM10 emission can be calculated by weighing the total dust emission with the minimum (15%) and maximum (40 %) fine dust concentration.

Remark:

The estimation of the dust emission in the wood working industry according to [13], seems to take only into account the emissions from the wood processing activity itself, disregarding the emissions that may be cause by combustion and drying installations. Therefore it may be assumed to be a (large) underestimation of the total dust emissions from these sub-sectors. Especially for the particleboard, MDF and OSB industries where large combustion plants are used to dry wood chips and flakes.




ANNEX 8: ESTIMATION OF THE EMISSIONS FROM PARTICLEBOARD AND OSB PRODUCTION

The following estimations are based on data from the installations in one MS. Here 5 companies produce particleboard and one of them also produces OSB. The individual emissions of dust, total VOC, NOx, and SOx of the companies in 2005 were mentioned in yearly environmental reports. From these data emission factors for the pollutants for the production of particleboard and OSB were derived.

- dust emissions

The quantity of dust-emissions from the dryer depends mainly on: - the type of dryer (direct or indirect) and - the type of abatement installations (multicyclone or wet

electrostatic precipitator)- the type of fuel.

The dust from other processes is influenced by other parameters, such as:

- the type of material (humid, dry, fine or coarse) and - type of process (chipping, sanding, grinding or planing).

E.g. the chipping of fresh (humid) wood generates less dust emissions than the chipping of recycled wood that is dry.

- dust emission factors in particleboard production

For 2 companies in the MS complete information on the dust emissions and production data was available, hence emission factors could be derived. One of the plants produces particleboard as well as OSB. The emission factors for dust were 159 and 500 g/m³ produced particleboard. Information about the particular situation of the particleboard plants is included in Table 43.

Table 43: Specifications of particleboard plants used for calculating the dust emission factors.

Installation with lowest dust emission factor

highest dust emission factor

dust emission factor

159 g/m³ produced particleboard


technology directly heated particle dryer + off gas from boiler for thermal oil for presses;

2 indirectly-heated hybrid pre-dryer + 3 indirect post-dryers, boilers with cyclones

abatement technology

multicyclones multicyclones




fuel wood dust, light oil, heavy oil wood dust, light oil, heavy oil, natural gas

type of wood input

? ?

dust measurements

62, 40, 37, 96 mg/Nm³ dry gas 408 (pre-dryer), 18, 12 (post-dryers coarse chips), 228 (post-dryers fine chips), 28 (chipping) mg/Nm³ dry gas

Remark only emissions from combustion/dryer are included in the emission figure.

dust emissions from combustion/dryer and from the chipping installation (equiped with a fabric filter) are included in the emission figure. This gives a more complete idea and a higher figure for the dust emissions, however the main dust emissions in this company (95 %) originate from the dryers.

Dust measurements in other particleboard companies in the MS23 (% O2 not known) are given in Table 44.

Table 44: Dust emission measurements in particleboard plants.

Dust measurement (mg/Nm³)

Characteristics

7 direct dryer, wet electrofilter, fuel is wood dust and natural gas

167 combustion installation, multicyclone, fuel is wood dust and light oil

89 boiler, fuel is light oil0 combustion installation on natural gas102, 60, 24, 98, 25, 100, 17, 27, 24, 24

indirect dryer with (multi)cyclones

Dust measurements in other MSError: Reference source not found [18, At] are illustrated in Table 45.

Table 45: Dust emission measurements in other MS [18, At].

Dust measurement (mg/Nm³)

Characteristics

3 – 19 direct dryer, fuel is waste wood and natural gas, wet electrofilter, 17 % O2

5 combustion installation, fabric filter1,78 in MDF production combination of gasturbine and combustion

installation with natural gas and wood dust and 23 No emission factors could be calculated for these companies, because the

essential parameters (e.g. production capacity, flow rate) were not available.




shredder material from wood panels, cyclone and wet electrofilter

8, 6 17 % O2, direct dryer, fuel is natural gas and wood dust from particleboard production, wet electrofilter

2 and < 1,5

20

direct dryer, cyclone and electrofilter and off gases from electrofilter are treated in a regenerative post-combustion³ from the press

< 1 mg/Nm³ in MDF production direct dryer, fuel is natural gas, with cyclone, venturi-scrubber and bioscrubber

Conclusion for dust emissions from particleboard production:

Assuming that in general the installations in EU-25 have similar combustion and abatement installations as in the production facilites in this MS, the particleboard production in EU-25 would emit approximately 5 700 – 18 000 tonnes dust per year24. The lowest emission figure only includes the dust emissions from the combustion installation (based on direct dryer and multicyclones) and the highest figure also includes dust emission from the chipping. Besides these calculated emissions also fugitive emissions will occur which were not estimated.

It may be supposed that the emission is lower (even lower than 159 mg/Nm³) if (wet) electrostatic precipitators or similar abatement technologies are used with a cyclone as pre-separator. Also the use of natural gas as fuel would reduce the dust emission. The WESP technology is already installed in other companies in the MS and also in Austria this technology is widely used. According to [18, At] application of a WESP would lead to dust emission levels of 5 – 10 mg/Nm³, thus approximately 4 times lower. But it is not known to which extent this technology is already applied throughout the rest of Europe.

- dust emission factor in OSB production

The plant that produces OSB emits 53 g/m³ produced OSB. Information about the particular situation of the OSB plant is included in the Table 46.

Table 46: Specifications of OSB plant used for calculating the dust emission factors.

Installation with

Dust emission factor

emission factor

53 g/m³ produced OSB





technology directly heated particle dryerabatement technology

WESP

fuel natural gastype of wood input

fresh wood

dust measurements

21 (dryer), 3 (boiler) mg/Nm³ dry gas

Remark Only emissions from combustion/dryer are included in the emission figure.

Here the WESP technology is applied, natural gas is used as a fuel and fresh wood is processed. These are more favourable circumstances to limit dust production. It is not known to which extent these conditions occur in other OSB production sites throughout the rest of Europe.

Conclusion for dust emissions from OSB production:

Assuming that in general the OSB installations in EU-25 have similar combustion and abatement installations as the OSB production in the plant of the MS, the total dust emission from OSB production in EU-25 would be approximately 190 tonnes dust per year 25. This includes only the dust emissions from the combustion installation. These dust emission figures do not take into account other wood processing activities or the fugitive emissions in these production plants.

- VOC emissions

The quantity of the VOC-emissions from the dryers depends on:- the type of wood that is to be dryed: freshly cut wood will emit

much more VOC, then recycled wood or wood residues;- the temperature of the dryer;- the type of fuel used in the combustion;- emission control equipement (after burner);- flue gas recirculation;

The quantity of the VOC-emissions from the presses depends on:- temperature from presses;- type of adhesive used; - press temperature and time,- emission control equipment (after burner, return off gas to

combustion installation, …).

- VOC emission factors in particleboard production





For 3 companies in the MS complete information on the VOC emissions was available. One of the plants produces particleboard as well as OSB. The emission factors for VOC are 58, 209 and 413 g/m³ produced particleboard. Information about the particular situation of the plants is included in the Table 47.

Table 47: Specification of the particleboard plants used for calculating the VOC emission factors.

Installation with

lowest VOC emission factor

medium VOC emission factor

highest VOC emission factor

emission factor




technology directly heated dryer + off gas from boiler for thermal oil for presses

direct heated dryer 2 indirectly hybride pre-dryer + 3 indirect post-dryers, boilers with cyclones


flue gas recirculation, i.e. use of the off gas from the dryers and presses as combustion air in the combustion installation

no specific abatement technology for VOC

no specific abatement technology for VOC

fuel wood dust, light oil, heavy oil

wood, natural gas, heavy fuel

wood dust, light oil, heavy oil, natural gas

type of wood input

? ? ?

VOC measurements

? ? 88 (pre-dryer), 122, 102 (post-dryers coarse chips),1 (post-dryers fine chips) mg/Nm³ dry gas

Remark only the VOC emissions from the combustion plant/dryer are included

only the VOC emissions from the combustion/dryer are included

emissions from the combustion/dryer and fugitive emissions from the press are included

The VOC emission factors mentioned in [19, USA] for a direct, wood fired, dryer in the particleboard production are approximately 288 g/m³ if dryed at 388°C and approximately 2 485 g/m³, if dryed at 482°C26. [19, USA] mentions an emission factor of 244 mg/m³ for the emission from the hot presses, with UF resin and 70 g/m³ from the board coolers with UF resin.

Conclusion for VOC emissions from particleboard production:

Assuming that in general the installations in EU-25 have similar combustion installations and presses, operate these in the same way and use comparable adhesives, the particleboard production

26 These values are based on the assumption that the density of the wood is 0,6 ton/m³.




in EU-25 would emit approximately 2 100, 7 500 or 14 900 tonnes VOC per year27. The 2 lowest emission figures only includes the VOC emissions from the dryers installation and the highest figure also includes VOC emissions from the presses and some fugitive emissions. In none of the companies special abatement technology is used.

The lowest emission factor is achieved when the flue gas is recirculated, but only the emissions from the combustion/dryer are included. It is not known to which extent flue gas recirculation is applied in other production plants in Europe.According to [18, At] after burning and primary measures could reduce the emissions of organic carbon to < 10 mg/Nm³. But it is not known to which extent this technology is applied in Europe.

- VOC emission factor in OSB production

The plant that produces OSB emits 2 824 g/m³ produced OSB. Information about the particular situation of the OSB plant is included in Table 48.

Table 48: Specifications of the OSB plant used for calculating the VOC emission factors.

Installation with VOC emission factoremission factor VOC

2 824 g/m³ produced OSB

technology directly heated particle dryerabatement technology

WESP

fuel natural gastype of wood input fresh woodVOC measurements

972 (dryer) mg/Nm³ dry gas

Remark Emissions from combustion/dryer, from the presses and fugitive emissions are included

Conclusion for VOC emissions from OSB production:

Assuming that in general the OSB installations in EU-25 have similar combustion installations and presses, operate these in these same way and use mainly fresh wood, the OSB production in EU-25 would emit approximately 10 400 tonnes VOC per year 28.

27 The production capacity of particleboard in EU-25 for 2005 was 36 022 000 m³.28 The production capacity of OSB in EU-25 for 2005 was 3 679 000 m³




For the OSB company the emissions from the dryer and from the press are included, as well as the fugitive emissions from the press. In this plant 75 % of the VOC emissions are caused by the dryer. In the OSB production exclusively fresh wood is used, which may explain the very high emission figure. It is not known if all OSB-plants in Europe use exclusively fresh wood. In this companies no special abatement technology is used. Industry has informed us that het emission factor for the OSB-production would be much lower, and would rather be situated around 800 g/m³. This would reduce the emissions from OSB production in EU-25 to 3 000 tonnes VOC per year.

- VOC emission factors in MDF production

For the production of MDF [19, USA] mentions emission factors of approximately 2 000 g/m³ and 1 970 g/m³ from a direct, wood fired, dryer using respectively uspecified pines and hardwoods, and 666 and 1 424 mg/m³ for an indirect dryer using hardwoods an mixed species respectivelyError: Reference source not found. For a batch hot press with UF resin [19, USA] mentions an emission factor of 179 g/m³ for MDF production, and for a continuous hot press with UF resin 364 g/m³ and 8,3 g/m³ in uncontrolled and controlled conditions respectively. The emission factor for a MDF board cooler with UF resin is 52 g/m³ according to [19, USA].

- CO emissions

The quantity of CO-emissions is related to the way the combustion process is operated and controled.

- CO emission factors in particleboard production

For 2 particleboard companies complete information on the CO-emissions was available. One of the plants produces particleboard as well as OSB. The emission factors for CO are 26 and 88 g/m³ produced particleboard. These plants use mainly wood as fuel in the combustion installation. Information about the particular situation of the particleboard plants is included in Table 49.

Table 49: Specifications of the particleboard plants used for calculating the CO emission factors.

Installation with

lowest CO emission factor

highest CO emission factor

emission factor CO



technology 2 indirectly-heated hybrid pre-dryer + 3 indirect post-dryers, boilers with cyclones

directly heated particle dryer + off gas from boiler for thermal oil for presses





multicyclones multicyclones

fuel wood dust, light oil, heavy oil, natural gas

wood dust, light oil, heavy oil

Conclusion for CO emissions from particleboard production:

Assuming that in general the installations in EU-25 have similar combustion installations and operate these in the same way the particleboard production in EU-25 would emit approximately 940 – 3 200 tonnes CO per year29.

These emission figures only include the CO-emissions from the combustion installation that generates hot air/heath for drying the chips. Other (indirect) CO-emissions from (electricity use or) the use of other boiler or combustion installations for other purposses are not included.

- CO emission factor in OSB production

The plant that produces OSB emits 356 g/m³ produced OSB. Information about the particular situation of the OSB plant is included in Table 50.

Table 50: Specification of the OSB plant used for calculating the CO emission factor.

Installation with CO emission factoremission factor CO 365 g/m³ produced OSBtechnology directly heated particle dryerabatement technology

WESP

fuel natural gastype of wood input fresh woodCO measurements 972 (dryer) mg/Nm³ dry gasRemark only emissions from

combustion/dryer are included in the emission figure.

Conclusion for CO emissions from OSB production:

Assuming that in general the OSB installations in EU-25 have similar combustion installations, operate these in these same way and use mainly fresh wood, the OSB production in EU-25 would emit approximately 1 310 tonnes CO per year 30.






These emission figures only include the CO-emissions from the combustion installation that generates hot air/heath for drying the chips. Other (indirect) CO-emissions from (electricity use or) the use of other boiler or combustion installations for other purposses are not included.

- NOx emissions

The quantity of NOx-emissions depends on:- the N-content of fuel that is used in the burner. Since wood

introduces more N-containing compounds in the combustion reaction than other fuels (e.g. natural gas), the incineration of wood gives rise to higher NOx-levels. Especially if wood dust or wood residues from the particleboard production are burned, the N-containing additives and adhesives increase the N-content of the fuel;

- the way the combustion process is operated and controled (inlet temperature, injection of air above burner level, low NOx-burners, flue gas recirculation, …);

- use of NOx-abatement techniques (NSCR, injection of additives for NOx removal in the flue gas).

- NOx emission factors in particleboard production

For 2 particleboard companies complete information on the NOx-emissions was available. One of the plants produces particleboard as well as OSB. The emission factors for NOx are 92 and 269 g/m³ produced particleboard. These plants use mainly wood as fuel in the combustion installation. No specific NOx-abatement technology is used. Information about the particular situation of the particleboard plants is included in Table 51.

Table 51: Specifications of the particleboard plants used for calculating the NOx emission factors.

Installation with

lowest NOx emission factor

highest NOx emission factor

emission factor NOx



technology direct heated dryer directly heated particle dryer + off gas from boiler for thermal oil for presses


WESP, flue gas recirculation, but no specific abatement technology for NOx

multicyclones, but no specific abatement technology for NOx

fuel wood, natural gas, heavy fuel wood dust, light oil, heavy oilNOx emission measurements

133, 270, 260 mg/Nm³ dry gas (11% O2 dry gas)

54, 45, 60, 210 mg/Nm³ dry gas (O2 content not known31




Remark Only the emissions from the combustion/dryer are included

only emissions from combustion/dryer are included

NOx measurements in other particle board companies in the MSError: Reference source not found (O2 content not known) are given in Table 52.

Table 52: NOx emissions measurements in other particleboard plants.

Measurement (mg/Nm³)

characteristics

796, 505, 427 indirect dryer, multicyclone, fuel is wood dust, light oil, heavy fuel, natural gas, wet gas conditions

687

216

indirect hybrid dryers, multicyclone, fuel is mainly wood dust, combustion installation, fuel is light oil

507

413678

direct dryer, wet electrofilter, fuel is wood dust and natural gascombustion installation, fuel is wood dustcombustion installation, fuel is heavy fuel

NOx measurements in other MSError: Reference source not found [18, At]are given in Table 53.

Table 53: NOx emission measurements in other MS.

Measurement (mg/Nm³)

characteristics

105 direct dryer, fuel is waste wood and natural gas, urea injection, 17 % O2

180 - 300 combustion installation, dry sorption, ammonium injection

300 in MDF production combination of gasturbine and combustion installation with natural gas and wood dust and shredder material from wood panels, cyclone and wet electrofilter

338 mg/Nm³246

full capacity, 8,4 O2 %normal production, 13 % O2, fuel is wood dust, bark, natural gas and wood panel residu, SNCR, off gas is returned to the combustion installation of the dryer

171 and 202 direct dryer, with cyclone and electrofilter and off gases from electrofilter are treated in a regenerative post-combustion

1 in MDF production direct dryer, fuel is natural gas, with cyclone, venturi-scrubber and bioscrubber

31 probably at 17 % O2, i.e. at 11% O2 135, 112, 150 and 525 mg/Nm³.




According to [19, USA] the emission factor for NOx from a direct dryer,fired with wood is 333 g/m³, for a direct dryer on natural gas this is 94 g/m³, for a direct predryer, fired with wood it is 636 g/m³.

Conclusion for NOx emissions from particleboard production:

From these data it is clear that the emission factor of 92 g/m³ (round up to 100 g/m³) represents installations with minimum emissions. The emission factor of 269 g/m³ is comparable to the emission factor 333 g/m³ given in [19, USA] and could be estimated to be the average situation (round off to 300 g/m³). But from the list of emission concentrations from other plants and the emission factor of 636 g/m³ in [19] USA it can be concluded that many installations have higher NOx emission concentrations than the 2 reference plants. Also the much higher emission limit values (e.g. 875 mg/Nm³ at 11 % O2) that are applied in some countries (e.g. Germany an Ireland), where SNCR is not considered to be BAT, indicate that in EU higher NOx emissions will occur. Therefore it is concluded to have also a highest emission factor that is the dubble of the average, e.i. 600 g/m³.

Using the three proposed emission factors (i.e. 100, 300 and 600 mg/m³ particleboard), the particleboard production in EU-25 is estimated to be between 3 600, 10 800 and 21 600 tonnes NOx per year32. The emission figures only includes the NOx-emissions from the combustion installation that generates hot air/heath for drying the chips. Other (indirect) NOx-emissions from (electricity use or) the use of other boiler or combustion installations for other purposses are not included.

- SOx emissions

The quantity of SOx-emissions depends on the S-content of fuel that is used in the burner

- SOx emissions in particleboard production

For 2 companies in the MS complete information on the SOx-emissions was available. The emission factors for SOx are 12 and 18 g/m³ produced particleboard. These plants use mainly wood as fuel in the combustion installation.

Information about the particular situation of the particleboard plants is included in Table 54.





Table 54: Specifications of the particleboard companies used for calculating the SOx emission factors.

Installation with lowest SOx emission factor

highest SOx emission factor

emission factor SOx



technology directly heated particle dryer + off gas from boiler for thermal oil for presses

2 indirectly hybride pre-dryer + 3 indirect post-dryers, boilers with cyclones


multicyclones, no specific abatement technology for SOx

multicyclones, no specific abatement technology for SOx

fuel wood dust, light oil, heavy oil

wood dust, light olie, heavy oil, natural gas

emission measurements

15, 9, 6, 9 mg/Nm³ dry gas

Conclusion for SOx emissions from particleboard production:

Assuming that in general the installations in EU-25 have similar combustion installations, also use mainly wood as a fuel, then the particleboard production in EU-25 would emit approximately 430 – 650 tonnes SOx per year33. This emission figure only includes the SOx-emissions from the combustion installation that generates hot air/heath for drying the chips. Other (indirect) SOx-emissions from (electricity use or) the use of other boiler or combustion installations for other purposses are not included.

According to [18, At] flue gas desulphurisation, lime sorbent injection and spray absorption can reduce the SOx emissions to 50 mg/Nm³. It is not known to which extend these techniques are applied in Europe.

Situation in Austria [18, At]:

The following reduction techniques are applied in the Austrian particle board, fibre board and MDF industries:

- sorbalit, dolomite sand and/or slaked lime injection for the precipitation of the acid components;

- SNCR via urea or aqueous ammonia to reduce NOx;- cyclone, electrostatic precipitators and/or fabric filters to

reduce dust emissions.

The following emission reduction combinations are used:- sorbalit (lime and coal), fabric filter





- cyclone, slaked lime, SNCR (urea), fabric filter- lime sorbent injection (dolomite sand), SNCR (ammonia in

aqueous solution), fabric filter- dry sorption, SNCR (urea), fabric filter- multi-cylcone, SNCR, flue gas via drier into overall flue gas

cleaning system (spray quenching, bioscrubber, wet electrostatic precipitator)

- electrostatic precipitator, SNCR, flue gas to fibre dryer- SNCR (urea), fabric filter;

The heat energy contained in the flue gas of combustion plants is as a rule used by feeding it into adapted heat exchangers. Air, water, steam and thermal oil are used as heat transfer media. The primary heat energy users are indirectly heated dryers, presses, and steam generators, sometimes energy is fed into a district heating network.

Conclusion:

It looks as if the situation in Austria is not representative for Europe. In this country the industry is probably better equipped to reduce the environmental impact of the production of wood based panels than in other European countries. But the actual environmental situation of this industry in Europe remains to be investigated.




ANNEX 9: DESCRIPTION OF PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES [27]

Generic steps in the manufacture of particleboard, MDF and OSB

Particleboard (PB), MDF and OSB are composed of wood which is combined with resins and other additives and formed into a mat, which is then pressed into a board. A generic process flow diagram is shown in Figure 16. The manufacturing processes and raw materials of these boards differ slightly and are described in more detail below.

Figure 16: Generic process flow diagram for PB, MDF and OSB [27]

The generic steps in the manufacture of PB, MDF and OSB are:- raw material selection- pre-treatment (de-barking, chipping, washing/steaming (MDF),

milling)- size classification- drying

VITO together with BIO, IEEP and IVM

add resin

114



- mixing with resin- forming the resinated material into a mat- hot pressing- cooling- finishing

The equipement common to this sector includes:- debarkers: used to remove bark from logs- woodchippers, hammermills, flakers, refiners: used to reduce

the size of wood to that suitable for the production process. - dryers: used to dry wood product. In the case of PB and PSB,

drying is before blending the resin. For MDF, drying may be carried out after the wood fibre is mixed with resin.

- resin mixer: used to mix the wood product with resin- presses: used to apply heat and pressure to the mat of wood

particles and resin- Wet Electrostatic Precipitator (WESP): used to abate gaseous

pollutants from the process (in Belgium and UK) [27]- Cylcones: used to recover wood dust for re-use in the process- Bag filters: used to abate particulate matter from the process.

Particleboard (PB) or chipboard

Figure 17 and Figure 18 show an example of a particleboard process diagram and a flow diagram.

The raw material for particleboard consist of wood particles:- recycled wood chips- wood chips- sawmill shavings and - saw dust.

This material may be transported to the facility or generated on site and stored until needed. This material is ground into particles of varying sizes using flakers, mechanical refiners, and hammermills. The material may be screened prior to refining.

The raw material is then dried to a low moisture content (from up to 50 or 100 % to 2 – 8 %). Dryer inlet temperatures may be as high as 871°C if the wood particles entering the dryer are wet. Where the




wood particles are dry the inlet temperature is generally no higher than 260°C.

In the blenders the particles are mixed with resin and any other additive that may be required to give the final board specific properties. The blender then discharges the resinated material into a plenum over a belt. The belt conveys the resinated material to the forming machine, which deposits the material as a continuous mat. Pressure and heat are then applied to the mixture to form the board. The boards are sanded and trimmed.

Particleboard is made up of larger pieces of wood than medium-density fibreboard and hardboard. The wooden particles have to be dried before they are sorted and treated with the binder.

Figure 17: Example of a particleboard process diagram [27]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardboard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-density_fibreboard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-density_fibreboard



Figure 18: Particleboard process flow diagram [27].

Main environmental impacts:Releases to air:- particulate matter emission from debarking, size reduction

operations and cyclones;- gaseous and particulate emissions from dryers and presses (see

Figure 18), including formaldehyde and other VOC;- combustion gases from boiler plant;- ammonia from the breakdown of the urea (where UF resin is

used);




- phenol (from PF) or isocyanate (from pMDI) depending on the resin used;

- water vapour from WESP and wet scrubbers.Releases to water:- waste water generated by the abatement techniques (WESP);- plant wash down water;- surface run-off.Waste:- range of solid wastes.Energy:- requires significant quantities of both heat and electricity. The

largest use of heat is for drying chips.Other:- noise from debarking and wood size reduction operations.

Medium Density Fibreboard MDF

Figure 19 and Figure 20 show an example of a MDF process diagram and a flow diagram.

MDF is a “dry” formed panel product manufactured form lignocellusloic fibres combined with a synthetic resin or other suitable binder (see also dry process fibreboard production).

Wood chips are either prepared onsite (by de-barking, sawing, chipping) or bought in from other facilities, for example sawmills. If required wood chips are washed/steamed to remove dirt and other debris. The wood chips are steamed or cooked to soften prior to refining. The refiners mechanically pulp the chips to obtain wood fibre. The fibre is then transported to the drying and blending areas. In the blender the fibre is mixed with resin and any other additive as required. Typically urea-formaldehyde (UF) resin is used, however, melamine resins, polymeric difphenylmethane di-isocyanate resin (pMDI) and phenolic resins may also be used.

The drying and blending sequence is dependent upon the method used to blend or mix the resin with the fibre. The following steps are very similar to the particleboard process.




Figure 19: Example of MDF process diagram [27].




Figure 20: MDF process flow diagram [27]

Main environmental impacts:Releases to air:




- particulate matter emission from debarking, size reduction operations and cyclones;

- gaseous and particulate emissions from dryers and presses (see Figure 20), including formaldehyde and other VOC;

- combustion gases from boiler plant;- ammonia from the breakdown of the urea (where UF resin is

used);- phenol (from PF) or isocyanate (from pMDI) depending on the

resin used;- water vapour from WESP and wet scrubbers.Releases to water:- waste water generated by the abatement techniques (WESP);- waste water from chip washing/ship steaming- plant wash down water;- surface run-off.Waste:- range of solid wastes.Energy:- requires significant quantities of both heat and electricity. The

largest use of heat is for drying fibre.Other:- noise from debarking and wood size reduction operations.

Oriented Strand Board (OSB)

Figure 21 and Figure 22 show an example of an OSB process diagram and a OSB process flow diagram.

Oriented strand board (OSB) panels are structural panels made from wood flakes specially produced from logs at the plant. Flakes are dried to a moisture content of between 4 – 10 %. Flakes are separated from the gas stream at a primary cyclone. The flakes are screened to remove fines and separated by surface area and




weight. The flakes are conveyed to the blender where they are mixed with resin, wax and other additives as required. Phenol-formaldeyde (PF) is most commonly (in UK) although pMDI and melamine urea formaldhyde (MUF) resins may be used as well.

The resinated flakes are metered out on a continuously moving screen. The flakes are oriented either by electrostatic forces or mechanically into a single direction as they fall to the screen below. The next layer of flakes is oriented perpendicular to the previous layer. The alternating orientation of the layers result in a structurally superior panel when compared to random orientation of flakes (waferboard). The continuously formed mat is cut to the required length then passed to the accumulation press loader and sent to the hot press. The following steps are very similar to the particleboard process.

Figure 21: Example of an OSB process diagram [27]




Figure 22: OSB process flow diagram [27].





operations and cyclones;- gaseous and particulate emissions from dryers and presses (see

Figure 22), including formaldehyde and other VOC;- combustion gases from boiler plant;- ammonia from the breakdown of the urea (where UF resin is

used);- phenol (from PF) or isocyanate (from pMDI) depending on the

resin used;- water vapour from WESP and wet scrubbers.Releases to water:- waste water generated by the abatement techniques (WESP);- waste water from chip washing/ship steaming- plant wash down water;- surface run-off.Waste:- range of solid wastes.Energy:- requires significant quantities of both heat and electricity. The

largest use of heat is for drying flakes.Other:- noise from debarking and wood size reduction operations.

Veneer and Plywood

- veneer

In veneer mills, thin veneers (< 5 mm) are produced from rough timber by chipless or chipping cleavage. The veneers are used for coating wood and wood materials and for producing veneered plywood and blockboard.

Sliced and peeled veneers are produced by chipless cleavage. To make the wood soft and supple for the slicing or peeling, it is steamed or treated in a water bath in advance. Steaming is taken to mean treating whole round timber sections, or round timber blocks already cut to size for slicing, in steam or hot water. Sliced and peeled veneers are always produced from moist timber, with dust development not occuring in this case.

Sawn veneers are produced by chip-forming cleavage using segmental saws (specially designed circular saws) or veneer frame saws. Sawn veneers, because of the high amount of sawdust produced, are only produced when the steaming of the round timber required for sliced or peeled veneers is to be avoided. The dust




development in the production of sawn veneers is comparable with that of sawmills.

The veneers are dried to a final moisture content between 3 and 10 % in special veneer dryers. The dryer exhaust gas composition corresponds in principle to that for drying sawn timber.

- plywood

Plywood or veneer panels consists of several layers of wood veneers glued toghether under pressure at temperatures of between 100°C and 150°C.

Figure 23 shows a plywood process flow diagram.

Figure 23: Plywood Process flow diagram

Veneer plywood is constructed from multiple layers of veneer. The veneer sheets are stacked together with the direction of each sheet’s grain differing from its neighbors by 90° (cross-banding). The veneer layers are bonded under heat and pressure with strong adhesives, usually phenol formaldehyde resin. The adhesive is applied to individual sheets of veneer that are assembled into plywood.


operations and cyclones;- gaseous and particulate emissions from dryers and presses,

including formaldehyde and other VOC;- combustion gases from boiler plant;- phenol (from PF) or isocyanate (from pMDI) depending on the

resin used;- water vapour from WESP and wet scrubbers.Releases to water:- waste water generated by the abatement techniques (WESP);- waste water from steaming;- plant wash down water;- surface run-off.Waste:- range of solid wastes.Energy:- requires both heat and electricity. Other:- noise from debarking and wood size reduction operations.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenol_formaldehyde_resin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhesive



Laminaboard and blockboard

Laminaboard and blockboard are formed of a core faced with a single veneer layer on the outside. The various layers are glued together with adhesives. Boards formation occurs in a press and depending on the glues used this may be either a hot press or more rarely a cold press.

Main environmental impacts: see plywood.

Fibreboards

Fibreboards are made of wood fibres pressed into a form. Fibreboards can be distinghuished according to their production process and their density. Most fibreboards are produced in a wet process: we differentiate between

- porous fibreboard, i.e. soft board (SB),- medium-hard fibreboard, i.e. medium board (MB) and - hard fibreboard, i.e. hard board (HB).

High density fibreboard (HDF) and MDF (medium density fibreboard) are produced in a dry process.

Raw material processing and fibre production in the wet and dry processes are very similar, frequently even identical. The wood used is predominantly roundwood, also partly debarked chips from sawmills or whole-tree chips. To remove foreign material and mineral components, chips are washed before further processing.

The aim of defibration is to break up the previously chopped raw material as carefully as possible into individual fibres and bundles of fibres. This is carried out thermomechanically. The lignin-rich middle lamellae that bind the fibres are first softened by heat and steam. The fibres are then separated by mechanical abrasion. The anatomical nature of the fibres and their state after defibration are important for forming the fibre mat and for the properties of the board. This applies particularly to the wet process in which the freeness (draining behavior) and the type of matting are very important.

Thermal treatment of the chips before and during defibration causes part of the hemicelluloses to go into solution. Increasing the temperature and the length of the treatment period leads to increased softening of the interfibre bonding. In the wet process, this improves the natural adhesion between fibres during board production. At the same time, the sugar content of the wastewater




and the energy consumption increase, so that a compromise between environmentally friendly and economic process design and board properties is usually aimed at.

A fibreboard production plant using the wet process is shown schematically in Figure 24.

Figure 24: Scheme of fibreboard production by the wet processa) Chopping machine; b) Silos; c) Chip sorting and disintegration; d) Chip washing; d) Defibrator; f ) Refiner; g) Pulp vat; h) Quantity regulator;

i) Screen; j) Wastewater vat; k) Pressure feed; l) Hot press; m) Press emptying; n) Thermal curing and climatization; o) Cutting on size

In the production of fibreboard by the wet process, the pressing activates the binding forces inherent in the wood. Then fibreboard is made without the aid of resins or adhesives and therefore consists of 99 % wood particles. For the dry process however, adhesives (phenol-formaldehyde) are necessary. The main purpose of additives is to improve the mechanical properties and water resistance of fibreboard. For hydrophobing, molten parafins or asphalt emulsion is added.

The first hardboard was produced, by the wet process from a thin aqueous fibre suspension. The fibre mat transported to the hot press contained so much water that sieves were necessary for draining. The imprint of the sieve remains on the underside of the finished hardboard. Hence, this type of board is also known as S1 S (smooth one side). The sieve imprint was undiserable for many applications and a board was developed that was smooth on both sides (S2S, smooth two sides). In this case a softboard is produced that is then compressed to hardboard between two smooth pressure plates.

Wet processes require enormous quantities of water. Pollutants, such as extractives, hemicelluloses, and lignin, are present in the wastewater. For environmental reasons the dry process was developed (see also MDF production). Here, the fibres are dried, glue-blended, and pressed as in particleboard production. This




process gives an S2S board. For reasons of surface quality, gluing is carried out before drying. The semidry process lies between the wet and dry processes. Because fibre moisture is still present, sieves must be used and S1S board is produced.

Main environmental impacts from wet processReleases to air:- particulate matter emission from debarking, size reduction

operations and cyclones;- combustion gases from boiler plant;- water vapour from wet scrubbers.Releases to water:- high amount of waste water from defibration and presses;- waste water generated by the abatement techniques;- plant wash down water;- surface run-off.Waste:- range of solid wastes.Energy:- requires both heat and electricity. Other:- noise from debarking and wood size reduction operations.

Main environmental impacts from dry process: see MDF process.




ANNEX 10: CONVERSION OF EMISSION CONCENTRATIONS AT DIFFERENT OXYGEN LEVELS

In the environmental legislation the emission limit values for a substance in the waste stream of a combustion are given at a specific reference level of oxygen in the waste gas stream. The MS often use different reference oxigen percentages, e.g. 17, 13, 11 or 7 %. This level plays an important role in the setting of the emission limit value since a minor deviation of the reference oxigen level, may result in a large difference in the emission limit concentration. In Table 55 this effect is illustrated. The formula below gives the relationship between the concentration of the substance and the oxygen level in the gas stream.

Emission conc = Measured conc. x

The humidity of the gas stream has also an influence on the measured emission concentration. The reference concentration is usually given in dry conditions.

Table 55: Conversion of the concentration of specific load of a substance in a dry gas stream at different oxygen levels.

Measured conc. at 17 % O2

Concentration at ref. O2 of 13 %



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