Assembly progresses at WOTECH MDF plant in Egypt

Construction of the Siempelkamp plant for processing rice straw into MDF at Idku started in January 2022.

The new plant will have an annual production capacity of 205,000m3 and is considered an important step in Egypt's government initiative to use rice straw in a value-adding, CO2-reducing and sustainable way. 

WOTECH, founded from companies in the Egyptian oil and gas industry, is taking on a pioneering role here by developing the factory near Alexandria.

Siempelkamp is providing the essential scope of supply, including the secondary size-reduction, separation, conveyors, dosing units, refiner, dryer, energy plant, gluing and sifter. 

The forming and press line is supplied with an 8ft x 48.7m ContiRoll, while other supplied equipment from the group includes a cooling and stacking line, a sanding line and a packaging line. 

"In the context of the pandemic-related impediments, we succeeded together with WOTECH in safely planning the MDF plant - this partly via digital media, which we used significantly for planning and plant design,” said Roland Peltzer, senior project manager at Siempelkamp.

Board produced on the line will cover 3 to 40mm thickness. The panels produced will primarily go into the furniture industry in the local or Middle East region.

By using rice straw, the plant opens up new perspectives for a raw material that would otherwise be largely incinerated as a waste product. It also closes the gaps caused by insufficient local wood resources. 

Start-up is scheduled for the end of 2022.