Headrigs, breakdown saws, resaws and edgers on a production mill are large motors, often well beyond 15 kW each, and several run at once. Planers and chippers are similar. Powering them from stored hydrogen, at round-trip efficiency of 30% or less, would use enormous amounts of energy and would not be sensible even with a multi-unit setup. A portable bandsaw mill with its own engine is already independent. If you are hoping to run a production line from this system, it is not the right fit.
Around the saws there are smaller loads that matter in an outage: the saw doctoring shop with its grinders and benders, timber drying kiln controls and fans on a small kiln, sorting table lights, the weighbridge, office computers and phones, and the dust extraction controls. A UPS-mode inverter keeps controls and kiln programs from resetting, and the fuel cell runs from hydrogen stored at 30 bar or less.
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Timber drying kilns run long programs over days or weeks. Losing the controller midway can force a restart or cause degrade if fans and vents stop. The heat in most kilns comes from a boiler, but fans and controls are electrical. Small kiln fans and controls fit within 15 kW, larger ones may need the pilot to size a bigger setup. Hydrogen is made on off-peak power or wind and kept for weeks.
No. Headrig and breakdown saw motors draw far more than 15 kW, and running them from hydrogen at 30% or less round-trip would not make sense. This system is for the smaller loads around the mill.
The kiln controller and small fans, yes, with an instant switch-over so the program does not reset. Large kiln fan banks and boiler pumps may need a larger setup sized in the pilot.
Large extraction fans are heavy loads and usually only needed when saws are running. Since the saws would not run on this system, extraction would normally stop too, while its controls stay powered.
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