Energy Systems: INTEC | 35
Kronospan.”
One of the most recent projects for Kronospan was for the company’s Sanem plant in Luxembourg.
Other global projects for the wood
industry include biomass plants in South America, with INTEC actively seeking to develop new markets. It has many biomass plant reference projects in Asia, though Mr Daniel said this particular region could sometimes be a “battlefield market” with independent suppliers vying with large groups for business. Previous Asia customers include the
likes of HeveaBoard, Geruco MDF, Segamat MDF and Green Panel, while in Europe Kastamonu Entegre has also purchased INTEC equipment. He said INTEC’s expertise – many of its
staff have been working at the company for multiple decades – and product offering allowed it to still have a powerful reach as an independent supplier, with projects to provide heating systems for panel presses sometimes still being contracted independently outside of the main contractor’s scope of supply.
ENERGY TRENDS INTEC sees that most wood industry manufacturers have some form of biomass combustion systems, even if it is just to burn their waste wood for heat. “Biomass is a very hot topic and the business is going nicely,” said Mr Daniel. “For us the focus is shifting to the power generation side, like a waste to energy plant or standard power/co-generation systems.
“This is one of the things customers may
eventually do in the wood industry. If they currently have a gas turbine, they may think about having an additional biomass power plant to be independent of the gas supply.
You have more independence from the grid and price increases.” This interest in a more complete power plant can be delivered in a number of ways, including steam turbines and Organic Ranking Cycle (ORC) systems. Intec has noticed that some smaller sites have started to diversify.
“If they only had gas burners, they are thinking of going for fuel systems to be more independent from one fuel alone. That allows them to react better to the individual energy pricing developments, whether for gas, light fuel oil and so on. “For other customers in other industries, discussions are coming up to have a burner to burn hydrogen if possible. We already have some of these units in operation, but this is more of a future development.” RDF (refuse derived fuel) – fuel produced from municipal solid waste, industrial waste or commercial waste – is currently seldom used by the timber sector, Mr Daniel explained. “If you have to burn plastics and other things you could have big issues, because you get pollutants in the hot gas and the hot gas goes to the dryer and then you could get these pollutants in the board. You have to include sophisticated flue gas cleaning equipment, which is costly. “RDF can be used as an additional,
alternative fuel, but we have not seen much demand in the last year. The demand has been more towards recycled wood use for board production and some as waste to be burned.”
The importance of fuel/energy diversity was demonstrated on Mr Daniel’s recent trip to South America where a number of hydro power plants have seen their energy production limited because there is not enough rain. In terms of technical developments, INTEC
thermal heaters have achieved a level of high efficiency where up to 94% of the fuel can be used.
“The important thing for the wood
industry is that the products are very durable and the accessibility is good for service reasons,” said Mr Daniel. “If customers have downtime, the question is not often what is wrong but how many shifts do I have to stop. Accessibility is designed so we can run for about 4,000 hours without stopping for major maintenance. This is a major request.”
THE FUTURE So how does INTEC see the future energy market situation? “It is difficult to say, as the impact from
the Covid era and war in Ukraine is still there and has a big impact on the pricing of the equipment,” explained Mr Daniel. “It is a difficult time for investment. It
could be that customers will wait longer to commit [to projects], and for a further normalising of supplies.” Companies like INTEC obviously look at all market areas to ascertain prospective machinery investment levels. That includes keeping track of consumer and wider market factors. “We have to see what the development will be with the consumers because they have the same issues with inflation and higher costs for living. We had a feeling that the consumption is getting a bit quieter in this area. “What is booming is the food industry,
but consumer goods are not developing very strongly. Maybe it’s not critical for consumers to invest in furniture currently and they feel they can wait before investing in it.”
Mr Daniel, who has himself worked for
INTEC since 2001, said the company had a big focus on technical development, with many reliable solutions and different approaches for the customers. He acknowledged that European subsidies for businesses to generate their own electricity were not as available these days, though subsidies for industrial development projects on greenfield sites could be. Finally, the topic of sustainability is worthy of a mention, as it’s a definite focus of the company. INTEC not only aims to boost sustainability
for customers with its energy-generation solutions, but it practises what it preaches by having an array of solar panels and heat pumps at the Bruchsal site, with company cars charged with its own generated electric power.
In 2013 it scored a first – building the
world’s first hybrid solar/biomass heat and electrical power plant on a commercial scale, near Barcelona, Spain. ●
www.wbpionline.com | December 2023/January 2024 | WBPI
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