Now if I could just figure out a market for the extracted lignins ...
Since the lignin’s are removed by heat, they likely become syngas, which , rerouted back to the heating system and burned, could reduce the amount of other energy needed to heat the wood....
Lignin’s are the stuff that make nice yellow and gold flames in a wood fire, but heated in a no-oxygen environment, they become useful as a natural gas source.
In pulp mills, the lignin extracted in the cooking process with “white liquor” from the wood fibre is concentrated then burned in recovery boilers. This produces the majority of power used in the mill. The remainder of the power needed is produced in power boilers that burn the waste (hog) from the cleaning/debarking processes.
IOW, they could likely produce a large fraction of the power needed by using the lignin as a fuel source.