The state of the art for the environmental protection in the European wood bases panels industry

In the last few years the production of wood panels, mainly of MDF, PB and OSB, went worldwide through a dramatic growth period. The rapid increasing production capacities forced a dynamic mechanization and automation of this industrial sector. The environmental aspects of this development have just recently become in the focus of public interest due to increasing environmental requirements. In the past different technologies to reduce environmental impact has been developed, while due to the practical experiences only some of them can be stated as "state of the art". The regulations for air emissions in Central European countries required the conception of new treatment plant, which established a new state of the art in the environmental technology. For the production of PB the wet electrostatic precipitator has been recognised to be the most effective system in terms of investment as well as running costs and also in terms of environmental benefits for the cleaning of the gas coming from direct fired dries. For MDF factories it was possible to combine the advantages of known technologies for waste air and water and to develop them further firstly to a pilot plant and later to the "state of the art" in this field. This new system completely closed all water cycles of the production site and minimized the exhaust of air pollutants. During more than five years operation this system clearly proved its economical and technical advantages. The development of this treatment plant prevailed new experiences and know-how, which are very helpful for the design and optimization of new equipment generation for reducing the environmental impact of the wood based panels industry.