Assessment of Environmental Emissions from Sawmilling Activity in Malaysia

Abstract

The sawmilling sector is the backbone of the Malaysian wood-based industry. Sawn timber is used extensively for further manufacturing of secondary wood-based products. The conversion of saw-logs into sawn timber releases several gases into the atmosphere, and these may contribute to environmental burdens as well as environmental impacts. Thus, this study aims to determine the environmental performance from gate-to-gate in the sawmilling industry using the life cycle assessment technique. Data pertaining to the saw-logs and energy consumption was calculated, and the environmental performance was assessed. The study focused on two different size sawmills and two tropical hardwood species. The findings concluded that several types of gases namely, CO2, CH4, NOx, N2O, SO2, and CO were discharged to the environment as a result of sawmilling processes. The discharge of these gases impacted the environment in the form of global warming, acidification, human toxicity, eutrophication, and photo-oxidant formation potentials.

Attributes of Sawn Timber Important for the Manufacturers of Value-Added Wood Products in Malaysia

“…Although sawmilling was one of the earliest wood-based industries in the country (Ramasamy et al 2015), the sector has been experiencing a steady decline in output. This can be attributed to the declining supply of saw logs from the natural forests in the country, which is in line with sustainable forest management (SFM) principles.…”

Assessment of the Carbon Footprint of Rubberwood Sawmilling in Peninsular Malaysia: Challenging the Green Label of the Material

“…According to Martínez-Alonso and Berdasco (2015), the functional unit is used for comparison with other materials. In this study, the investigated finished product was rubberwood rough green sawn timber and the measurement unit for sawn timber was volume (Milota et al 2005;Bergman and Bowe 2012;Ramasamy et al 2015). Therefore, the functional unit was standardized as per-unit volume basis for 1.0 m 3 of rubberwood rough green sawn timber.…”

“…Generally, the final product from sawmilling is rough green sawn timber or kiln-dried sawn timber, depending on the customers' demand Ramasamy et al 2015). Studies conducted by Kinjo et al (2005), Milota et al (2005), and PE International AG (2012) focused on kiln-dried sawn timber as the final product.…”

Potential Co-Generation of Electrical Energy from Mill Waste: A Case Study of the Malaysian Furniture Manufacturing Industry

“…The electricity generated by specific fuels of coal, gas, diesel, oil, hydropower, and others were specified as 37.99%, 50.38%, 1.23%, 1.11%, 8.35%, and 0.93%, respectively. The emission factors associated with CO2, CH4, and N2O released from fossil fuels was based on Ramasamy et al (2015), as listed in Table 2,…”

“…The IPCC (2006) predicted that the continuous release of CO2 in large amounts will increase the average global temperature in the range of 1.4 °C to 5.8 °C from 1990 to 2100. Because wood is carbonneutral (Ramasamy et al 2015), the wood industries could play an important role in mitigating global warming.…”