Avec E’nergys, Aprobois s’engage dans la décarbonation de sa production de « granulés » #2

Angers and Rostrenen, December 7, 2023 – A leading player in the timber industry in Western France, Aprobois employs 100 people and generates €15 million in annual revenue, 90% of which comes from local markets. The company operates across a diverse range of activities, including sawmilling, construction timber, pallet and crate manufacturing, and energy wood production. Founded in 1988, Aprobois is a local, supportive, and socially responsible company dedicated to balancing economic, social, and ecological performance. It achieves this by implementing sustainable practices in its operations that but both people and the environment first. This is demonstrated by its SCOP (Worker Cooperative) status since 2017, its “Socially Responsible Business” label supporting the employment of individuals with disabilities, its commitment to a short-circuit approach, from sourcing local wood to production and marketing, and its ongoing focus on value-added processing of raw materials.

In response to rising demand for wood pellets, Aprobois plans to increase its annual pellet production by 10,000 tons by 2025 while enhancing the energy efficiency of its most energy-intensive processes at its Rostrenen production unit, near its Carhaix sawmill. To address its economic and energy performance challenges, Aprobois has renewed its trust in Impulse, an expert in industry decarbonization, for the winter of 2023. Impulse had previously supported the company in establishing its pellet production unit in 2017. For Aprobois, this represents a key step forward in advancing wood resource development and driving the decarbonization of energy consumption. Impulse has recently recommended that Aprobois install a new, higher-capacity dryer that utilizes waste heat for improved energy efficiency. This waste heat project, spanning from the feasibility study to completion by summer 2025, represents a total investment of between 2 and 3 million euros. It will also be the subject of an application for funding from ADEME’s Fonds de Chaleur. Driven by Aprobois’ initiative, Impluse conducted an assessment of existing technologies and has just demonstrated the viability of a pyrogasification process combined with an electricity production unit. This solution proved to be both cost-effective and functionally suited to meet the energy self-consumption needs of the Rostrenen facility.

Karine Mahé, CEO of Aprobois, explains: “In a world of dwindling resources and skyrocketing fossil fuel prices, today’s manufacturers have to make sure that they get the most out of their raw materials, while at the same time decarbonizing their operations. In our opinion, we need to initiate a win/win conservation and self-consumption dynamic through hands-on local solutions. This low-energy project, which we will undertake in close collaboration with Impulse, aligns with our sustainable development strategy and our commitment to the community, where everyone plays a vital role.”

Giving sawmill by-products a “second lease of life” starting in 2017!

Since 2013, Aprobois has aimed to add value to the large volume of wood by-products generated by its sawmill by producing heating pellets. The figures speak for themselves: for every 10m3 of softwood from the forests of western Brittany, 5m3 of boards are produced and 5m3 of by-products generated. One of the first leaders in Brittany’s wood industry to embrace the “second life” of wood by-products through wood energy, Aprobois is planning to install a biomass boiler to produce 25,000 tons of pellets annually. To complete this project, Aprobois chose to partner with Impulse, the engineering firm from the E’nergys Group, to provide support at every stage—from boiler room design to process implementation. Karine Mahé tells us why she made the choice she did: “In addition to its local presence with a branch in Angers, Impulse offered a wealth of energy expertise, a strong national presence, and extensive experience, particularly in our sector.” From building design to supplier selection and process implementation, Aprobois relies on the experience and expertise of Impulse, which offers a comprehensive range of services. These include pre-project studies, project specification, the production of the BCIAT application file, and project management from 2014 to 2017. This spans the installation of a biomass boiler fueled by by-products to the development of pellet production processes. The results matched Aprobois’ expectations, with its manufacturing unit up and running in summer 2017!

Increasing pellet volumes by 10,000 tons by 2025, while consuming less energy!

In response to the exponential growth of the national pellet market, rising from 50,000 tons in 2000 to over 2 million tons by 2022, Aprobois now aims to increase its production by an additional 10,000 tons without modifying its biomass heating plant, all while reducing energy consumption. The challenge for Impulse, faced with a bottleneck due to the saturation of the existing dryer, is to “break this constraint” and enable Aprobois to increase production while reducing energy consumption. Following a thorough study, Impulse recommends installing a new, higher-capacity dryer equipped with an energy recovery system that captures waste heat, using it to preheat incoming air. The heat requirements of this new dryer with its energy recovery system should be reduced by 50%, i.e. 10 Gwh/year instead of 20 Gwh/year today. From 2023 to 2025, Impulse will provide Aprobois with comprehensive, flexible support, including feasibility studies, project design, preparation of the ADEME application, and the adaptation and implementation of processes both upstream and downstream of the dryer.

In Karine Mahé’s own words: “By summer 2025, once the new dryer is installed, we’ll be able to produce over 10,000 tons of additional pellets, while consuming less energy. This energy-saving project, a critical element of our competitive edge, aligns seamlessly with our sustainable performance strategy. It supports both the growth of our sales and margins, while helping to minimize our carbon footprint.”

Produce and consume your own energy in the future!

With electricity prices skyrocketing, Aprobois is now thinking about producing its own energy on its pellet production site, which operates 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. At Aprobois’ request and after reviewing existing technologies, Impulse has demonstrated the cost-effectiveness and functionality of a pyrogasification process combined with an electricity production unit to meet the energy self-consumption needs of the Rostrenen facility. In this process, wood by-products are heated to high temperatures, producing gas that is then re-injected into an engine to generate electricity. This project would mark a significant advancement for Aprobois in its circular business model: eliminating waste by utilizing wood by-products and enabling the daily production and consumption of its own energy, fully independent of energy supplier pricing. Karine Mahé concludes: “With the help of Impulse, this project, currently under consideration, would ideally fit in with our eco-citizen approach, after local sourcing, manufacturing and marketing, and energy self-consumption.