38 | Energy Systems Part 2: Dieffenbacher Energy
with more people buying new furniture and recycling old furniture.
Dieffenbacher Energy sees upcoming opportunities for biomass energy in countries which do not currently have high levels of sustainable energy, such as in South America, Africa and Asia. “There is the opportunity to convert energy production based on gas or oil to sustainable energy, but it certainly always depends on the actual costs and the local circumstances. “I am really concerned that energy prices
Above: Wolfgang Lashofer, managing director of Dieffenbacher Energy
and the low investments in the panel industry this year,” said Mr Lashofer. Next year will probably reveal more projects being implemented in the panels sector. But Mr Lashofer pointed out that wood-based panel sector investments were generally slowing down, with customers often waiting or postponing projects. In the larger power plant business, the
provision of grants to replace gas or coal with biomass-fuelled systems is an important prerequisite, as is the current price of energy. Grants provision has slowed in some European countries, and the level of grant varies between countries. “Energy demand is growing by 2-3% a year annually and there are governments
and countries with targets to reduce CO2 emissions with new energy programmes, mainly in central Europe,” added Mr Lashofer.
“Some other countries are not so focused on that; they are more focused on energy costs but not on a reduction of CO2
emissions
and fossil fuels. “The wood-based panels industry already has an advantage, as they already have access to wood, bark, or sawdust. This existing supply chain could be used to supply biomass as fuel not only to produce energy for their own production. “Panel producers have already started to
invest in their own big power plants to also supply electrical energy to the grid and heat to central heating systems. These synergies make very much sense and generate additional opportunities for the panel industry.
“Board producers typically need to heat thermal oil for press operations, flue gas for the dryer, and in the cases of MDF lines, additional steam for operating the refiner. There is only one further step necessary to start operating a power plant with a steam turbine supplying electrical energy to the plant or to the grid.
“From 20MW up to 120MW, this is our current range for biomass fired power plants,” explained Mr Lashofer. “We can offer grate technology for solid fuel in the 20-80MW range. For small capacity, the grate technology has some advantages, mainly based on costs. If there is larger capacity and the energy demand is bigger, then the fluidised bed technology has significant advantages.
“There are a lot of possibilities to use biomass, firstly in the wood-based panels, furniture and building industries. The trends are to use the wood raw material first for making the product, then use the waste wood – sorting it, and the usable material producing particleboard and the unusable for energy production purposes. That is an excellent example for a sustainable circular economy.” Of course, there are wider questions about sourcing wood waste, collecting it and transporting material, as well as the price, for its widescale adoption. Supply tends to grow when economic development is strong,
in Europe will further increase. This concerns me as this would have a very negative impact on development in the industry. If electrical energy is more expensive, then the big industries will further transfer production units outside Europe to low-energy-cost countries. We see this already.” Mr Lashofer noted a move in Germany
towards replacing coal-fired power stations with gas-fired facilities, with a clear plan and target to use hydrogen as a potential replacement for gas in 10-15 years. Coal- fired community central heating systems in cities are also seeing a switch over to biomass boilers or gas power. Solar and wind power have proved a popular form of renewable energy, with some wood-based panel producers utilising solar panels on warehouse roofs. However, depending on the region, the contribution to actual demand may be small and insufficient for continuous production, meaning that efficient power plants will continue to be needed for the manufacture of wood-based panels in the future. “Global energy demand is growing, and
investment decisions in the industry are very heavily depending on the price of energy and on how to secure the supply of green and sustainable energy in the future,” Mr Lashofer concluded. “In Europe we have to ensure energy prices are competitive to support the industry.” ●
Above: Swiss Krono energy system installation by Dieffenbacher Energy WBPI | August/September 2025 |
www.wbpionline.com
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