Top-tier energy balance for new wood briquetting system

The world market leader for hydraulic briquetting systems RUF Maschinenbau proudly presents its new RUF 1200, a briquetting system for wood and biomass that saves its user cash and presents an improved carbon footprint to boot. This most powerful RUF machine now adopts a position in a series of new models whose energy efficiency has been optimised in recent years, needing less than 50 kWh to produce one tonne of wood briquettes.

The crucial factor behind this positioning is the completely revised hydraulics concept, enabling the RUF 1200 sporting a 55 kW main motor to deliver the same performance as its predecessor RUF 1100+ packing 75 kW. Of great importance here, among others, is an innovative rapid-traverse cylinder. Moreover, the developers have optimised the oil supply to the hydraulics. The result is a reliable, economic operation.

Following initial measurements during complex test runs, RUF specialists could verify energy consumptions that were regularly 25% less than the predecessor top model RUF 1100+. Also verified was the RUF 1200’s slightly higher performance. These findings are now awaiting verification in a continuous field trial planned over several months at a customer location. Here the RUF experts are keeping a close eye on the performance, giving the design and attachments those final tweaks.

At all events, it is clear that the new RUF 1200 will help users to save huge energy costs compared with the predecessor model, as shown in a simple calculation. The measured energy consumed by the new machine is less than 50 kWh/t, or about 15 kWh/t less than previously. Based on the present energy price of 20 c/kWh, the potential savings on 1000 tonnes amount to over EUR 2500.00. The RUF 1200 is designed for 24/7 operations, and our field experience indicates a mean annual production time of 5000 hours, so in this case the savings amount to over EUR 15,000 a year.