"Probably the largest briquetting plant in the world"

Alluding perhaps to a famous Danish beer brand, fellow Danes from briquetting technology providers C.F Nielsen are supplying the press lines to the plant. The delivery also includes some newly developed technology as CEO Mogens Slot Knudsen explains.

The press photo shows an impressive line-up of new briquetting presses, twelve in total, under installation has been in circulation for a while but the location of the client had remained undisclosed.

Given the production scale of around 100.000 tons of briquettes per year and the fierce competition for sawmill residues inside much of Europe, one could reasonably assume a client outside Europe.

Not so. As Mogens Slot Knudsen, CEO for C.F. Nielsen, recently revealed the client is in fact a German wood processing company, HIT HoltzIndustrie Torgau OHG and that the plant once at full production will be "probably the largest briquetting plant in the world".

Integrated company

Based in Torgau, close to Leipzig in Northern Saxony, Germany the company operates an integrated sawmill and wood processing plant producing wood pallets along with packaging components and garden wood products such as fencing stakes. Part of the Hilmer- Lippmann Group, the Torgau site was acquired in 1998 and in recent years production capacity has been ramped up to process close to 1 million m3 small and medium diameter softwood logs.

The group also runs own harvesting and haulage crews, and has long-term harvesting contracts with forest owners in the region. The new briquetting plant will use residues from pallet production to produce consumer grade briquettes. Production is expected to begin within a few months. Apart from C.F Nielsen other well known technology suppliers Vecoplan, Stela and Transnova RUF are involved in the project.

Raw material optimization

The twelve BP6500 presses are of mechanical piston type specifically designed for consumer briquette production and each unit has a capacity range of 1 – 1.5 tons/hour.
However what is a significantly important feature is one of the latest developments by C.F. Nielsen, the BS 350 automatic briquette length sizing saw combined with the in-line weight checking system. This unique option allows manufacturers of consumer briquettes to optimise raw material utilization.

The unit checks the weight of each briquette, calculates the rolling average of the previous ten and automatically adjusts the briquette length based on this in order to keep a constant package weight of 10 kg.

Small numbers add up

According to Knudsen the weight accuracy for such a package is +/- 1% for five pieces of 2 kg Ø90 mm briquettes ing saw has an accuracy of +/- 2mm on the prescribed length.
“While these figures don’t sound much in themselves this improved raw material optimization means between 2 – 5% extra to your bottom line”, concluded Knudsen.