Above left: Boiler being installed at Holz Schilliger’s Lignatherm plant in Switzerland Above right: Novopan energy system installation at Quito
a previous customer of Dieffenbacher in supplying wood-based panels production technology, but not for energy systems and Bertsch Energy had not been active in North America. Weyerhaeuser’s US$500m investment is for a new TimberStrand (laminated strand lumber – LSL) facility near Monticello and Warren, Arkansas, effectively doubling its LSL capacity. The facility will have an annual production capacity of approximately 10 million ft3
(283,000m3 ), which is comparable
to the company’s existing TimberStrand facility in Kenora, Ontario. Completion is planned for 2027.
Dieffenbacher Energy’s order includes a biomass-fuelled co-generation system with turbine. The power plant will produce steam to heat the thermal oil for the press, and a steam turbine will generate electricity to supply 100% of the plant’s electrical needs. Dieffenbacher in Eppingen is supplying the press and forming lines for the plant. “Together with the existing and well established Dieffenbacher organisation in North America, we will provide the servicing and support the customer over the whole lifecycle of the plant,” added Mr Lashofer. The existing Dieffenbacher global organisation will be very useful for the energy business’s expansion plans elsewhere, servicing existing Dieffenbacher power plants and also former Bertsch Energy customers.
“There is the possibility to also service other installations, which we’re currently evaluating. But we are already quite busy now with installed capacities of former Bertsch Energy and Dieffenbacher plants. We need to grow in line with our capacities.” The business unit is reporting some
interesting orders in Europe and Asia for servicing, as well as for capital investment projects. Fletcher Building Ltd of New Zealand ordered an energy plant for its new OSB mill project in Taupo, which will replace an older
particleboard line. Start-up is scheduled for spring 2026 and Dieffenbacher Energy has delivered a biomass-fuelled power plant based on grate firing technology (30 MWt) in order to provide the energy for the OSB / Fine OSB production process.
Another project is Lignatherm, the new
wood fibre insulation plant project for Schilliger Holz near Küssnacht am Rigi, Switzerland. A wood-fired grate heating plant is currently being erected, with the entire factory project scheduled for commissioning in 2026. The 82-ton water pipe boiler was delivered in four prefabricated components and then assembled into a single component on the construction site. The boiler is 9m long, 4.5m wide and 17m high, with 11,000m of pipes inside. The company also installed an energy
system at Swiss Krono in Europe at the end of 2024 – the 58 MW biomass furnace with grate technology supplies thermal oil consumers with hot thermal oil (approx 21 MW) and a Dieffenbacher dryer with hot gas (approx 34 MW). Another feature is a shot cleaning system for cleaning the thermal oil registers.
In South America, a 30MW energy plant that uses reciprocating grate technology to combust waste wood has been supplied to Novopan in Quito, Ecuador. The order also included a Maier Big Crusher and Maier Rechipper to process waste wood and eucalyptus bark.
“This new energy plant moves us away from burning oil and toward biomass, further accelerating our sustainability efforts,” said Ignacio Bustamante, CEO of Novopan del Ecuador after the contract signing in 2024. “We were impressed by Dieffenbacher’s expertise in combining the drum dryer and hot gas generator and their grate design tailored to waste wood,” he added. The project included connecting the new energy plant to an existing vertical
combustion chamber, replacing the heavy oil burner.
Dieffenbacher has a strong relationship with Novopan, its most significant achievement being the installation and commissioning of the company’s second continuous particleboard line in 2019. In Egypt, a new MDF plant for the National
Service Projects Organisation (NSPO) is also utilising a Dieffenbacher Energy plant. The contract included a 29MW energy system consisting of a solid fuel fired steam boiler and a thermal oil heater. This represented the first time the Dieffenbacher Group had integrated a Dieffenbacher Energy solution into one of its Wood business unit projects, with the Austrian and German energy experts from Bludenz and Eppingen working closely together to provide NSPO with a customised solution to the special requirements of burning palm waste. Date palm fronds are the locally available
raw material for board production. The collaboration also involved German
sub-contractor WESER Industrie- und Anlagentechnik GmbH. The facility is being built in the Toshka region and is scheduled to produce its first board in the autumn of 2025, with around 125,000m³ of MDF/HDF output per year.
ENERGY SYSTEMS MARKET DYNAMICS This year Dieffenbacher Energy plans to generate €80-€100m turnover, with the majority of this in large systems outside the wood-based panels industries. In fact, the share of orders from the panels industry will be small in 2025. This is because projects take two to three years to realise and 2023 was a year when most orders were booked outside of the sector. “It is always changing, but the majority of the business in 2024 was in the wood-based panels industry and now this year it looks like the majority is again outside the panels industry, impacted by the economic situation
www.wbpionline.com | August/September 2025 | WBPI
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