Optimization of drying kiln operation

When timber is to be used in the form of furniture it must be dried. Green timber contains many times more water than wood and if it is placed indoors the water will slowly evaporate. When the fibre saturation point is reached the wooden parts start to shrink and the shape of the details will change. If the wood is dried before it is used for furniture parts this calamity is reduced because shrinking has occurred already in the drying kiln when the raw material was in the form of lumber. This drying process uses a lot of heat which is produced by electricity or by firing wood chips or oil in boilers. The cost for these energy sources varies during the season or, for electricity, also during the day. This paper describes how to optimize the use of energy in two drying kilns located at a small carpentry factory in the south of Sweden. Monitored values from the factory are used in order to describe the process in close detail. These values are then used as a basis for a mathematical model which is designed in the form of a mixed integer linear program. The method makes it possible to optimize the operating schemes for the two dryers.