Sawdust is still seen as a waste product of the wood processing industry and many production facilities throw it away. But, domestic companies now use it to make products for export and earn millions of US dollars. Khai Nguyen Export Import Co., Ltd is one such company.
High return, low price
Vietnam now has some 3,000 woodworking companies, making it one of the largest woodwork exporters in the world. This robustly developing industry generates a huge volume of sawdust which is used as a conventional combustible or dumped into the environment. However, according to energy experts, if sawdust is compressed into pellets, it will generate much greater heat than conventional unprocessed sawdust. Therefore, with the current abundant sawdust supply, Vietnam is likely to earn a lot of money from sawdust export each year.
At present, Khai Nguyen Company is procuring sawdust to make pellets for export to foreign countries. According to technical analyses, sawdust pellets produce heat equal to 70 per cent of coal but prices equal only 45 percent. Compared with diesel oil (DO), sawdust generates an equivalent of 48 per cent heat but the price is less than 30 per cent. On average, two kilograms of sawdust pellets equal one kilogram of diesel oil. Thus, with the same amount of energy generated, the use of sawdust pellets will help save some 50 per cent of product cost.
Sawdust pellets cause less pollution than coal. For this season, this product is very popular in Europe and other advanced countries such as Denmark, Italy, Thailand, South Korea and Japan. According to some export companies, compressed sawdust has export value 2-3 times greater than unprocessed sawdust.
Friendly to environment
Because sawdust pellets do not contain sulphur impurities such as in coal, the amount of discharged carbon dioxide is very low. Wood pellets meet European air standards. For 1,000 kg of wood pellets burned, the remaining ash weighs 10-15 kg and is a kind of biomass used to fertilise crops. European people used sawdust pellets to heat and cook instead of gas, firewood and wood. The use of wood pellets not only brings in revenue but also helps deal with waste in production, environmental pollution, fire and explosion. In light industries, wood pellets are used for heating boilers, and for dryers in the garment and food industries.
At present, in Vietnam, many companies are using wood pellets for cooking, including Royal Hotel (Quang Ninh province) and Lightweight Brick and Concrete Company (Hanoi). Ms Nguyen Huynh Nguyen Thuy, Director of Khai Nguyen, said the company is trying to introducing wood pellets to domestic users after conquering the world because Vietnamese people should know and use good Vietnamese products.
In the coming time, Khai Nguyen will upgrade its production capacity. Currently, many businesses are purchasing and using sawdust as materials for combustible production. She said “Although these businesses have not realised the true value of wood pellets in comparison with sawdust, we expect that they will be our prospective customers. Wood pallets will not only be exported to foreign countries but are expected to fuel light industries in Vietnam in the future.”
Viet Hoang
Vietnamese
