FORE619-19S2 (C) Semester Two 2019

Wood Processing

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 15 July 2019
End Date: Sunday, 10 November 2019
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 26 July 2019
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 27 September 2019

Description

This course introduces students to various wood processing industries, ranging from sawmilling over engineered wood products to pulping and biofuels. Reference will be made to the most suitable resource for individual products. Emphasis is given to fast-growing short-rotation plantation species and tropical timber.

During the processing of solid timber a wide range of by-products are generated. These by-products range from undersized/low-quality logs over chips and sawdust to lignin from chemical pulping. A profitable forestry sector needs to make use of these resources. This is achieved by producing a wide range of wood-based composite products like plywood, OSB, MDF or particle boards. These wood-based composites not only provide an out-let for the above mentioned by-products but also generate unique material in their own.

The course will look at the wood processing industry. This includes saw milling and solid wood processing in general, drying and preservation, wood panel manufacturing, pulp and paper production and the energy sector. The implications of the variability of wood properties on wood processing are discussed and the advantages and disadvantage for processing wood in a particular way are explained.

The properties, markets and resource demands of the wood-composites are discussed. Their production processes as well as their environmental impacts are discussed as well as their demands on wood properties (highlighting fast-growing short-rotation plantation and tropical species). The ever-increasing importance of wood as an energy resource for wood-based production processes and as ‘bio’-fuels are highlighted.

Learning Outcomes

  • Students will
  • have an advanced knowledge of how wood products are manufactured.
  • be familiar with physical, mechanical and stability properties of wood based products.
  • be familiar with the contribution of forestry and the wood processing industry to renewable energy.
  • understand the demands of the wood processing industry on the timber produced by forestry operations, highlighting short-rotation plantation forestry and wood from tropical forests.
  • be able to judge the potential markets for the wood produced by production forestry.
  • have seen industrial wood processing operations.
  • research and review current scientific and technical knowledge.
  • present specialised scientific and technical topics in seminar and written formats.

Prerequisites

Subject to approval by the Head of School

Restrictions

Lecturer

Clemens Altaner

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,080.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Forestry .

All FORE619 Occurrences

  • FORE619-19S2 (C) Semester Two 2019