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background    feedstocks    processes    products

The manufacture of solid wood products begins in the forest, where trees are harvested as logs. Harvesting leaves forest residues behind, including small-diameter wood, stumps and immature trees.

At the mill, logs are washed and then debarked, creating debarking waste. The logs are then sawed, edged and trimmed to get them into usable sizes as lumber. These steps all create wood waste that is commonly chipped to create wood chips. Sawdust is also created throughout the process.

Lumber is then put in kilns to remove moisture. Once dried, the lumber is planed and trimmed to ensure geometric uniformity. The non-sawdust residues from this process are considered waste wood chips.

Wood chips are often processed to make composite wood products such as fiberboard, hardboard and plywood. Other wood wastes like sawdust are sometimes included as well. The chips are softened, typically in a digester, and pulped into fibers. These fibers are sometimes mixed with resin or wax before being formed into mats and dried or otherwise heat treated.

• Debarking waste
• Forest residues
• Sawdust
• Waste wood chips
• Wood chips

• Aerobic digestion/composting
• Biomass gasification
• Combustion
• Fast pyrolysis
• Fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass
• Fiber composites manufacturing
• Lipid extraction
• Thermochemical liquefaction

• 1,3-Propanediol (PDO)
• 3-Hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP)
• Acetic (ethanoic) acid
• Anaerobic digestion effluent
• Biobased fuel gas & syngas
• Bio-derived liquefaction oil
• Butanol
• Char
• Durable building materials
• Ethanol
• Fertilizer
• Itaconic acid
• Lactic acid
• PHA (Polyhydroxyalkanoate) polymers
• Pyrolytic bio-oil
• Specialty chemicals
• Succinic acid
• Volatile gases (energy)

Brown, Harry L., et al. 1996. Energy Analysis of 108 Industrial Processes. The Fairmont Press, Lilburn, GA.