TY - JOUR
T1 - On-site energy consumption at softwood sawmills in Montana
AU - Loeffler, Dan
AU - Anderson, Nathaniel
AU - Morgan, Todd A.
AU - Sorenson, Colin B.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Forest Products Society 2016.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Total on-site energy requirements for wood product manufacturing are generally not well understood or publicly available, particularly at subregional scales, such as the state level. This article uses a mail survey of softwood sawmills in Montana to develop a profile of all on-site energy consumption. Energy use is delineated by fuel type on a production basis for both renewable and nonrenewable sources for production year 2009. Survey respondents represented 92 percent of total Montana softwood lumber production of 449 million board feet, which is 4 percent of western US production and 2 percent of national production. Total annual on-site sawmill energy required was 1.6 trillion British thermal units. Seventy-seven percent was derived from wood and bark, primarily for process heat and steam for lumber drying; 16 percent was from electricity; 5 percent was from diesel used for on-site rolling stock; and the remainder was from gasoline, propane, and natural gas. Energy produced from renewable sources accounted for 86 percent of total on-site energy consumption. In addition to providing an energy profile of Montana sawmills for policymakers, aggregated results may be useful to individual firms in characterizing their energy requirements relative to the state average and in identifying potential opportunities for bioenergy expansion.
AB - Total on-site energy requirements for wood product manufacturing are generally not well understood or publicly available, particularly at subregional scales, such as the state level. This article uses a mail survey of softwood sawmills in Montana to develop a profile of all on-site energy consumption. Energy use is delineated by fuel type on a production basis for both renewable and nonrenewable sources for production year 2009. Survey respondents represented 92 percent of total Montana softwood lumber production of 449 million board feet, which is 4 percent of western US production and 2 percent of national production. Total annual on-site sawmill energy required was 1.6 trillion British thermal units. Seventy-seven percent was derived from wood and bark, primarily for process heat and steam for lumber drying; 16 percent was from electricity; 5 percent was from diesel used for on-site rolling stock; and the remainder was from gasoline, propane, and natural gas. Energy produced from renewable sources accounted for 86 percent of total on-site energy consumption. In addition to providing an energy profile of Montana sawmills for policymakers, aggregated results may be useful to individual firms in characterizing their energy requirements relative to the state average and in identifying potential opportunities for bioenergy expansion.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84976871843&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.13073/FPJ-D-14-00108
DO - 10.13073/FPJ-D-14-00108
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84976871843
SN - 0015-7473
VL - 66
SP - 155
EP - 163
JO - Forest Products Journal
JF - Forest Products Journal
IS - 3-4
ER -