BEST-PRACTICE TECHNOLOGY

The remarkable Solarola kiln technology for which EFS has exclusive licensing rights in Victoria and NSW has been developed exclusively by Australian Choice Timber Supplies Pty Ltd. (ACTS). A leading Australian wood scientist has written in a recent Australian Research Grant application for a collaborative project between University of Sydney and ACTS next year that the highly developed technology has global implications and ACTS will be world leader in solar drying technology for materials including timber, food, fruit and other goods.

Apart from producing its own heating energy using inexpensive plastic outer covers, the technology enjoys lower capital cost and produces higher than normal quality-value outcomes from timber stock. Alone, these are effective competitive advantages that add considerable positive impact to profitability that will further increase as energy costs continue to grow out of control of others.

An additional major advantage of this technology is the fact that it does not rely on heavy infrastructure in wood fired boilers, major gas supplies or alternative heating sources. A large kiln basically needs a thin concrete slab foundation and a low power electrical supply. A very large kiln can be disassembled by two men in half a day, packed onto a single small truck and re-assembled to resume operation at another site close to the timber source within two days. All parts are readily re-useable. To understand the vital importance and revolution this factor will cause, readers need to understand the following:

The sawlog raw material used to manufacture timber often contains as much as 50-60% water.
After allowing for sawdust and other waste products from the log, the saleable timber component is often as little as 25% of the initial log mass.
Sawlogs are often road transported hundreds of kilometres to typically centralised milling and drying sites.
The cost of diesel fuel to transport logs and to maintain roads capable of carrying the massive loads of log trucks is enormous in developed countries.
The cost of road transport and infrastructure, reflected in the cost and price structure of modern timber operations is often the equivalent of multiple times their profit per unit of sales.

The historic concept of centralising sawmills was once very practical for several reasons:

Logs were carried over short distances because mills were small and available forest resource was then not fragmented by parks and reserves.
Diesel fuel was cheap and market competition was such that small trucks could carry logs on poor quality, low-cost roads.
o Cost-effective B-Doubles and large trucks now require major road infrastructure that costs taxpayers, environment and our balance of payments in many negative ways.
The electrical energy costs to run a boiler and wood burner system were minimal, so that the cost of using wood waste to produce steam was better than burning gas or oil for kiln heating.
Environmental compliance costs of running a wood fired boiler were non-existent.
Markets were generally local so that the diverse range of structural products could be sawn, sorted and traded in markets close to the mill and raw material.
The best known way to dry timber was to stack it into a large box and constantly increase temperature through the process until it is dry.

Even without carbon tax implications, historic change has created to a lot of modern-day dinosaur operations within the Australian Hardwood Industry. The numbers will increase for those who still lack the vision and are building wood fired boilers to produce heat for drying instead of electricity for milling the logs.

Revolution

Using our unique drying technology and in some special cases portable sawmilling equipment, our method overcomes ALL of the industry challenges faced by the world’s dinosaur mills.

By drying close to the source, we remove half the mass before it adds cost to the end product
By milling close to the source, we remove the low value sawdust waste product and leave it to fertilise the forest. In a short space of time, this is likely to have value for ethanol or energy production.
By using solar energy for heating, we vastly reduce cost of drying and production costs overall. At the same time we produce NO ASSOCIATED CARBON OR GREENHOUSE GASES.
By deployment of a low capital cost drying technology, we overcome the high costs of slowly air-drying timber. Historically vast stocks, high funds employed and poor return on investment are now totally avoidable.
By deployment of world-best drying practise technology, naturally cycling temperature in daily solar cycles we can dry as fast as the dinosaurs, at markedly lower cost to our operations and the environment AND achieve better quality-value outcomes.
By a policy of leaving sawn timber in larger sections in semi-finished form until point of sale, we leave the timber in its most valuable form for the end-client to attain best value. As such, we don’t need comprehensive re-sawing and secondary processing equipment that the dinosaurs are burdened with.
By leaving the woodchip component on the timber sections for shipping, we reduce the cost of transporting water, ADD VALUE to the woodchips AND retain them in solid form instead of shipping them in bulky, wet chipped form.

Some mills are currently converting from gas and other kiln heating mediums to wood waste fuelled boiler heaters. The big flaw in this is that they remain obliged to transport saw-log waste products over long distances, adding to their cost. Additionally short-sighted, these imprudent milling operations blindly accept that their massive electricity cost inputs to mill and to chip the log waste products are insurmountable. It will not be long before they report to their shareholders that they made a GRAVE MISTAKE. Large increases in electricity costs, especially in Australia will soon make it more practical than already is the case to use mill waste products to produce ethanol or electricity. A combination of heat by-products and solar heating already provide a clear-cut best practice option. Combined with this fact, rising road fuel prices will add to their already enormous cost burden. Their massive investment in low pressure boilers and infrastructure will be useless for alternative energy production and the large number of dinosaur conventional kiln technologies that are fast increasing.

Soon, a massive number of high-cost inferior quality producing conventional kilns will stand idle with their high cost waste-fired boilers. By then, EFS will enjoy a large slice of the Australian Timber market and ACTS will have out-bid the current market leaders for their resource while establishing its leadership in world markets.

The approximate competitive cost-value advantage that EFS will enjoy by using soalrola technology to process the very small volumes used for its 3 year profit projections is approximately $2.5 million. Because we are able to avoid massive air seasoning stocks and turn over stock more quickly, we are able to produce quality timber with substantially less funds employed. High returns on investment are assured. These combined factors create conditions where the company and the technology stand to enjoy competitive advantages that are insurmountable for its competitors. In effect, the dinosaur mentality and history of the Australian large timber producers remains our biggest asset. “EFS” has few real competitors, and those that are able to offer a challenge will fall further behind us with rising energy costs in future.

For more info on Solar Kilns »