Feasibility study into the potential for gasification plant in the New Zealand wood processing industry

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of installing gasification-based energy plants in the New Zealand wood processing industry. The study compared energy plants supplying the thermal and electrical energy in sawmills, laminated veneer lumber (LVL) plants and medium density fibreboard (MDF) mills. The breakeven electricity price for the MDF and LVL scenarios ranged from 4–8.9 c/kWh while the sawmill scenario was 11.6 c/kWh. The conclusion of the study is that while the economics are comparable with other renewable energy generation methods such as hydro and wind the location of the plant is critical to overall feasibility due mainly to biomass availability and power price both now and in light of expected future trends. The technology is complementary to the government's forward strategy which encourages both distributed generation and renewable energy.