Achieving the 2030 climate targets with the help of wood energy

Tietjen is a member of the Forum for Sustainable Wood Energy

At Tietjen, we have been working for decades with a wide variety of sources of wood and waste wood, which are used to produce pellets for domestic and industrial use. At the same time, we are aware of our social and societal responsibility. Therefore, we are pleased to also be a member of the Sustainable Wood Energy Forum since June 2021. The Forum actively advocates for the coal phase-out and sustainable alternative and wood-based solutions. The members of the forum represent the entire value chain of the sustainable energy industry. Sawmills, machine builders, suppliers and also power plant operators are united. With the help of the forum, political and technical dialog is opened up and solution approaches for the use of sustainable wood energy can develop.

Power plant conversion with the help of wood on the rise

Together with a partner from combustion technology and power plant construction, we are currently implementing a conversion project "from coal to wood pellets". Sustainable wood energy on a power plant scale enables a reliable energy supply and leads to a diversified, locally available energy mix. As a result, considerable amounts of CO2 can be saved, especially with cogeneration. To realize the full CO2 savings potential, we reject co-firing with fossil fuels in power plants. Wood alone should be used for energy production. It should be emphasized that wood from sustainable cultivation or waste wood is used for this purpose. Due to its recyclability, the latter is not waste, but in the right category a valuable raw material for the processing industry and a raw material for energy production. Waste wood is divided into different classes, which we have broken down in our article on waste wood as a substitute fuel and alternative to coal.

Using wood pellets to generate energy and heat in former coal-fired power plants can preserve jobs and facilities at existing and suitable sites. When coal-fired power plants are converted, the existing technical equipment can often continue to be used unchanged or only slightly modified. In particular, retrofits also do not incur additional costs for connection to electricity and/or gas infrastructures. Essentially, there are changes to the grinding systems and the change in fuel logistics is often accompanied by fire and explosion protection measures.

Tietjen solutions for wood milling

Tietjen offers a variety of solutions for the size reduction of wood in order to produce qualitative wood pellets and to advance sustainable energy production. With our wide wide chamber mill type W, soft as well as hard wood can be reduced to a pelletizable final fineness. It has been successfully used in Croatia, for example: Project in Croatia

Other Tietjen mills are suitable for grinding wood: VDK, GD and the GDL.

Coal-fired power plants generally place very high demands on the substitute fuel. How waste wood can also be used as a substitute fuel and alternative to coal, we have highlighted in our continuing article on the subject. Wood energy can make a significant and rapid contribution to achieving Germany's climate goals. At Tietjen, we make wood usable as an energy source through our fine grinding process and thus help to achieve this goal.