Truck transportation and chipping productivity of whole trees and delimbed energy wood in Finland (original) (raw)
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2018
A third of the final energy demand and almost a fifth of total emissions in the European Union is caused by road transportation. Advanced biofuels and larger and heavier vehicles have been seen in the literature as one potential logistics solution with which to improve the energy efficiency of the forest industry. The Finnish government aims to create a 100% carbon-neutral energy base by the year 2045, emphasizing the country's renewable forests as a source for energy and biofuel cycles. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the local biofuel cycling through larger and heavier vehicles may affect the sustainability of wood procurement in the industrial ecosystem by focusing on transport efficiency, cost-efficiency and energy efficiency. The paper presents a quantitative energy-performance analysis from the optimization of results of the multi-objective dynamic biofuel cycle model. Goal programming enables the energy management solution for three biofuel scenarios of larger and heavier vehicles in the 100% carbon-neutral wood procurement of decentralized energy production. Since the basic scenario in 2013, there has been an upward trend in the average payload weight and a transition in 7-to 9-axle vehicle combinations. While the increase in energy efficiency is significant, it is less than half of the government's maximum scenario estimated prior to the regulations. The novelty of this study is in providing the impacts of the local biofuel cycles (5%, 15% and 30%) on the energy efficiency of road freight transportation to create a 100% carbon-neutral energy base for Finland. Furthermore, the results also provide decision support to the ongoing policy debate towards the 100% sustainable wood supply and/or wood procurement of the industrial ecosystems in Europe.
2021
Transport of wood biomass is one of the key operations in forestry and in the wood industry. An important part is the transport of shredded wood, where the most common forms are chips and sawdust. The aim of the research was to present the variability of the total weight of trucks (gross vehicle weight, GVW), the weight of the empty trucks (tare), and loads of chips and sawdust in different periods of the year. Changes in specific parameters were analyzed: GVW; tare weight; trailer capacity; use of the trailer load capacity; bulk volume and bulk density of wood biomass loads; solid cubic meter (m3) and weight of 1m3 of the load; and load weight depending on the season, with simultaneous measurements of wood chips and sawdust moisture. More than 250 transports from four seasons of the year were analyzed in the research. It was found that the total weight of trucks (GVW) was at a comparable level, on average from 39.42 to 39.64 Mg with slight differences (with SD 0.29 and 0.39). The w...
The chipping cost of wood raw material for fuel in Estonian conditions
Forestry Studies, 2017
In Estonia up to now the producers of wood fuels have not yet adequately analysed the production and transport costs although it is known that the share of these costs form up to half of the final price of wood chips or hog fuel. With this in mind the goal of the case study was defined – to analyse the price formation of comminuted wood fuels in Estonian conditions. Within one year of the survey the initial data was collected from the company SLG Energy. Different types of machines (7 in total) were observed – wood chippers Jenz HEM 561, Jenz HEM 582, Heinola 910ES, and Doppstadt DH 608. All machines were equipped with a GPS tracking device which recorded the route and the fuel consumption and during the observation period all costs and revenues related to the concerned machines were accounted. It was determined that due to frequent repairs the maintenance costs of older machines were higher and productivity lower compared with new machines. The biggest item of expenditure turned ou...
Journal of Forest Science, 2013
Increasing productivity and reducing cost in long-distance transportation have become increasingly important in the logistics of forest harvesting operations. This paper presents the research results of the performance of loading with Volvo 4500 BM and timber trucking using two types of common trucks in the Nav watershed in Iran. Both trucks can carry logs shorter than 7.8 m in length. The study used a time study based on empirical data for loads collected from one procurement district in the Nav watershed. The models included the following explanatory factors: driving distance, number of logs, and load volume. The time consumption and productivity of loading and timber trucking depends on several variables such as volume and number of logs per cycle. To evaluate the current transportation system in the Nav watershed, the empirical time study was conducted. Since transportation includes several phases and since many factors affect the work performance, significant variation in the t...
2011
In studies carried out by Metsateho Oy, Metsahallitus and TTS Research, the total removal of integrated wood harvesting was found to have increased significantly compared to that of conventional, separate roundwood harvesting. When the total removal from the harvesting site increased considerably, there was a significant increase in the productivity of cutting work in integrated wood harvesting compared to that of separate pulpwood harvesting. In addition, the delimbing quality and bucking accuracy of the pulpwood poles obtained in multi-tree processing were comparable to those produced in single-tree handling. The measurement of work output was conducted with a crane scale, attached to the boom of the forwarder. The studies indicated very promising results in integrated wood cutting and suggest integrated harvesting is likely to continue to increase in both first and later thinnings in Finland.
Problems of Sustainable Transport of Large-Sized Roundwood
Sustainability, 2020
When considering the economic and environmental aspects of forestry, especially the issues related to timber harvesting, emphasis should be placed on the importance of the availability of raw material resources for the sustainable flow of goods. It would also be difficult to disregard certain issues related to transport, which play a key role in the efficient flow of wooden raw materials. It has to be noticed that timber transport options are limited by a number of factors, including the considerable fragmentation of wood resources and the lack of adequately developed railway transport facilities. This paper focuses on issues related to the road transport of timber carried out by transport companies. Observations to date of large-sized roundwood (thicker than 14 cm and longer than 3 m) transport in Poland indicate a relatively frequent occurrence of overloaded vehicles, exceeding the permissible total weight limit. Empirical evidence also suggests that in many cases, it is an effect...
Improving the energy efficiency of wood harvesting in Finland
Dissertationes Forestales, 2023
To address the issue of climate change, the EU's climate and energy framework has set targets to improve energy efficiency. Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions requires higher energy efficiency in the wood supply of forest industries. The aim of the study was to clarify the energy-efficiency baseline for wood-harvesting operations, define useful measures and follow up the total fuel consumption and resulting emissions. The results indicated that wood-harvesting entrepreneurs have a positive attitude towards energy efficiency. The fuel consumption of wood-harvesting machines was the lowest for the final fellings, while in first thinnings, the consumption was highest per cubic metre harvested. The average cubic metre-based fuel consumption and GHG emissions in respect of wood harvesting were more than double in the first thinning compared to the final felling. Better allocation of harvesting machines could reduce fuel consumption and GHG emissions while improving work efficiency. Hour-based fuel consumption is most affected by machines' engine power and wood-harvesting conditions of forest stands. Fuel consumption per cut cubic metre is affected by wood-harvesting conditions and machine units. The calculated energy efficiency was highest in final fellings. A more significant factor than fuel consumption (input) is the amount of harvested wood (output) in the energyefficiency equation. Energy efficiency can also be improved by operator education. Trucks which are used for harvesting-machine relocation have a significant impact on woodharvesting operations' total fuel consumption and emissions. It is therefore essential to minimise the number of relocations and operational and resource planning should be developed. In the future, the examination of fuel consumption and GHG emissions should be extended to the entire wood-harvesting chain, including long-distance transportation and timber trade, and for example the effect of operator should be investigated in more detail.
Forests, 2020
Wood transportation is an important source of greenhouse gas emissions, which should be considered when the carbon neutrality of the forest industry is of concern. The EU is dedicated to improving technology for a carbon-neutral development. This study investigates carbon neutrality by improving road freight transportation fleets consisting of various vehicle size combinations. The environmental emission and energy efficiency of a transportation fleet were analyzed in selected wood procurement regions of Stora Enso corporation (Finland). Based on the enterprise resource planning (ERP) data (2018–2020), the environmental emission efficiency increased by 11% via 76 t-vehicles compared 64 t vehicles. The maximum reduction in fuel consumption was 26% for 92 t vehicles, though this was achieved when operations were fully adjusted to the maximum weight limit. The wood-based energy efficiency measure (wood energy/transport energy) was a useful development indicator. It showed that the adap...
Economics of Raw Timber Transportation a Feasibility Study
1997
16. Abstract Public investment in transportation infrastructure has traditionally been along modal lines with little effort to develop a multimodal approach. Consequently, it is difficult to determine if public transportation dollars have been invested in the most cost-effective manner. This study examines alternate strategies to transport raw timber from the stump to mills. At present, all raw timber is delivered to the mills within the Lufkin District utilizing the existing roadway system. The existing transportation system is examined using a "system costs" approach that includes public facility (infrastructure) costs, vehicle operating costs, and externalities like accident and environmental costs. Some of these costs are paid for by vehicle operators through user fees and taxes and represent the "supported" cost component of total system costs. However, unaccounted costs remain and consist of some proportion of the facility costs not paid by vehicle operator...