Waste wood recycling at Pfeifer in Uelzen takes shape

Every year, more than 8 million tons of waste wood are produced in Germany alone, which are recycled materially or energetically. The expansion of the material use is an important step to relieve the climate and to deal gently with the future material wood. In the waste wood processing plant in Uelzen, Pfeifer intends to process around 70,000 tons of waste wood of pollutant classes A1 and A2 annually in the future. These include products that are natural or finished with harmless adhesives or coatings, such as discarded pallets made of solid wood or transport boxes made of wood-based materials.

Significant growth on the factory premises

Due to the construction work for the waste wood recycling plant, the appearance of the Pfeifer site will change visibly in the coming months. By October, a 350-meter-long tubular belt conveyor is to be built, which will run over all buildings on the production site at a height of about 20 meters and is attached to huge pylons by means of ropes. A storage silo and cleaning tower, each almost 30 meters high, will also be built. The conveyor is used to transport the recycled wood chips from the storage silo to the belt dryers. The drying of the waste wood chips themselves requires only half as much energy as the drying of fresh chips, which are produced as a saw by-product directly at the site. Both types of chips are later mixed on a belt dryer and processed into pressboard pallet blocks for the pallet industry.

Optimizations for the benefit of employees

Pfeifer currently employs 200 people in Uelzen in the areas of production, maintenance and administration. After an investment programme of EUR 10 million from 2019 to 2021, Pfeifer is investing a further EUR 50 million in the long-term safeguarding of the site from 2022 to 2024. In addition to the construction of the waste wood recycling plant, the most important measures include the renovation of the sawmill including the log yard and the increase of the cutting capacity from 500,000 to around 800,000 fixed meters. In the course of the waste wood project, a new hall heating system for the log factory is also being built. The first part of the modern heating system has already been completed, the second part will follow in March. "Improving the indoor air in the log production hall is one of our priority goals. With the new hall heating, we are taking a big step towards this overall project closer," Hormess said. The heat for the new heating is supplied by the company's own biomass cogeneration plant.