Introduction of the first commercial MASSAHAKE-Plant

Conference · Wed Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:115264

Ahonen, M A ^[1]

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1. VTT Energy, Jyvaskyla (Finland)

MASSAHAKE-method is based on integrated harvesting and multi-phased treatment of whole tree chips. The method has been under R&D-work in VTT Energy in Jyvaskyla, Finland since 1987. Main products from this method are high quality raw material for pulp industry and fuel for energy production. One important advantage in using integrated harvesting methods is that they make it possible to carry through silviculturally important first thinnings economically. Also, simultaneously a significant amount of environmentally sound wood fuels become available when using these methods. The MASSAHAKE-method consists mostly of commercially available machines, though some alternations in the original hardware have been done in order to achieve better performance with the method. The main components of the system are chipper, grinder, various sieves and finally an optical sorter. After running the whole tree chips through the process the bark content of raw material fraction is <1% with both birch and pine whole tree chips. The pulp chip yield is >60%, calculated from the chips fed to the process. The remaining 40% of the whole tree chips is considered as fuel fraction, which is suitable for most furnaces as such-no further treatment is needed. Until last year the research has mainly been done in pilot scale and active work was done in order to demonstrate the method in commercial size. Finally the investment decision of the first commercial plant was made and the construction of this plant was completed during the spring of 1995. During normal commercial functions a major research work is done in the plant. The research results will be available for existing and future plants and also the possible inadequancy of the process will be fixed and some further machine development will be done during the two year research project. In this presentation the first experience from the commercial plant and the research results achieved until the end of May 1995 will be presented.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)
• OSTI ID: 115264
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP--200-8098; CONF-9508104--; ON: DE95009230
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
BIOMASS
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
FINLAND
HARVESTING
HARVESTING EQUIPMENT
SILVICULTURE
TREES
WOOD FUELS