Abstract
The secondary wood products industry is a suitable candidate for energy recovery from waste. As a whole, the industry consumes about 150 × 10
9 Btu of purchased fuels and electricity. The wood scrap generated by this industry is sufficient to displace the purchased fuels and electricity if its energy were recovered. The major hurdle inhibiting widespread application of energy recovery technology is the extremely high share of small firms within the industry. The best choice for a smaller manufacturer is direct combustion in a boiler for process and space heat. A straightforward procedure is developed to provide an assessment of the economic feasibility of such boilers for individual firms within the industry. The procedure is used to estimate the amount of wood waste required and the quantity of heat produced in order to achieve rapid payback. These are compared with actual conditions to provide a first estimate of economic feasibility.
