Economic assessment of wood residue produced in sawmilling : (a case study)
Loading...
Date
1998-02-14
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Measurements of residue generated at the main machine centres in 3 sawmills in Kumasi were made and the bandmills converted 24.7% of their input volumes into residues whilst the edgers and trimmers converted 33.0 1% and 22.02% respectively.
At the 1% and 5% levels, the residues generated by the edgers were significantly higher than those generated by the bandmills or the trimmers. At the same levels, there were no significant difference between the residues generated by the bandmills and the trimmers. Sawdust volumes generated at the bandmills were however significantly greater than those generated at the edgers or the trimmers at the 1% and 5% levels of significance.
Costs of generating the residues were compared to aggregate benefits obtained from their use in cash flow tastes and negative not revenues were obtained.
It was therefore observed that the use of residues generated in sawmilling as fuelwood was not financially acceptable or an economically efficient use and that residue generation itself was negative to sawmill profitability unless optimum economic benefits were obtain from them.
It was recommended that mills invest in downstream processing equipment, preferably chipmills (pulp, paper, chipboard) for optimum and beneficial use of every wood fibre of the log raw material for sawmill profitability and sustainable forest management purposes. Uses of sawdust to prevent them from going waste were also recommended.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the Degree of Master of Science in Wood Technology and Management, 1998