Energy related aspects of timber drying

Timber, while being a low energy intensive material, requires a relatively high energy input in its processing operations, particularly drying. The schedules used for drying timber have largely been developed empirically by various government laboratories, trade organizations and sawmill operators. The schedules are generally low temperature and conservative which can mean unnecessary energy consumption and needlessly long residence times in the kiln. Thus processing costs are high due to recurrent energy costs and a relatively low return on capital investment in physical plant. This paper considers the energy related aspects of timber in general and the results of an empirical study in particular which indicate that the inherent energy advantages of using timber can be improved by the use of High Temperature Drying (HTD) techniques.