Regression model to estimate the electrical energy consumption of lumber sawing based on the product, process, and system parameters

摘要

Specific energy consumption (SEC) also called energy intensity is one of the important aspects for lumber sawing sawmills since it represents the energy efficiency of the sawmill. Production, process, and energy data were gathered by visiting five sawmills out of which three sawmills had single sawing lines and two sawmills had double sawing lines. Sawmills with single and double sawing lines were selected in order to cover the different sawmill configurations. Data from sawmills 1,2,4, and 5 was used to develop an estimation model to estimate SEC of sawmill 3 based on the product, process, and system parameters. The independent variables that were included in the model were species, lumber sizes for the product, sawing time, maintenance schedule for the process, and motor horsepower, availability of resaw, and production line configuration for the system. Energy consumption of a motor on the demand side mainly depends on its capacity, operating hours, and load factor/efficiency ratio, and model 2 in this paper estimated SEC of a new sawmill from the product, process, and system parameters which represented the load factor/efficiency ratio when capacity and operating hours were known in the new sawmill. The product, process, and system parameters in model 3 represented motor capacity also along with the load factor/efficiency ratio and estimated SEC of a new sawmill. The developed regression models can be used to predict the sawing energy consumption of a new sawmill with reasonable accuracy.