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Software predicts timber kiln performance

A BHR Group product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 29, 2004

TimberTherm is a software-based method of predicting optimum heating conditions for kilns and their loads when treating timber products for export to ensure the eradication of pests and pathogens.

The economic effects of the spread of such devastating pests as Dutch Elm disease can be massive.

Therefore, new international legislation has been enacted concerning the requirement for heat treatment of timber products for export to ensure the eradication of pests and pathogens.

This has the potential to add an extra financial burden to the industry as many timber heat treatment kilns use more energy than necessary because the heat transfer properties of individual loads are ignored.

BHR Group and Forestry Research are developing TimberTherm, a software based method of predicting optimum heating conditions for kilns and their loads.

Based on a thorough understanding of the thermal diffusivities of various timbers (a function of tree species, dimensions, moisture content, densities, initial timber temperatures etc) gained from extensive laboratory and industrial experiments the system will calculate the rate of heat transfer through timbers of different sizes.

The result will be a tool to optimise the operation of industrial kilns in real time which has been validated by trials on industrial kilns.

Once installed, timber exporters will be provided with the means to undertake innovative energy efficient kiln-based treatments, without which energy use (and CO2 emissions) in the industry would increase - or, even worse, the market would have switched to cheaper, yet more energy intensive, alternatives such as plastics.

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