WES2013 - Forest energy & Bioeconomy 2013

2. Efficient wood energy harvesting,
logistics and handling
WES2013 – FOREST ENERGY & BIOECONOMY 2013
Koli National Park, Finland 11.-15.2.2013
12.2.2013
Kalle Karttunen (LUT) & Juha Laitila (Metla)
Lappeenrannan teknillinen yliopisto,
LUT Savo Sustainable Technologies,
Bioenergy technology

3. Content
1. Forest fuel markets in Finland
Cost-efficiency improvement potential of…
2. Harvesting
3. Logistics
4. Handling
5. Conclusions

4. 1. Forest fuel markets in Finland
In 2011 the use of forest chips was 7.5 million m3 (~ 14
TWh), which was almost 4% of total energy use in Finland
All of this was transported by trucks either as chips or as
uncomminuted material
Only some trials with trains and barges/vessels have been
carried out
The target is to increase current use to 13.5 million m3
(25 TWh) by 2020
As a result, there will be a regional imbalance between
locations of demand and supply of forest chips

5. Forest fuel markets in Finland
Small scale use. 9%
Other, -
Rotten wood. 7%
Stumps. 13%
Logging residues, 30%
Energy wood, 41%
Forestchipsuse,TWh
(Ylitalo, 2012)
• Small-sized energywood is the most used source of forest biomass nowadays

6. Forest fuel markets in FinlandShareofsupplychains,%
Share of volumes (2011):
Stationary chipping,18%
Terminal chipping, 21%
Roadside chipping, 61%
• Roadside chipping system is the most used chipping method of forest biomass
• Terminal chipping is expected to grow in future because of increased use (buffer
storage) of forest biomass and need of long-distance transportation (transfer storage)

7. Cost-efficiency potential of …
More efficiency means that same task can be done
faster but not necessarily cheaper as unit cost
More cost-efficiency means that same task can be
done cheaper as unit cost but not necessarily faster
The biggest cost-efficiency improvement potential of
supply chain:
- Harvesting
- Small-sized energywood harvesting solutions
- Logistics
- Long-distance transportation solutions
- Handling
- Terminal handling solutions

8. 2. Harvesting
Small-sized energywood harvesting solutions are essential for cost-efficient
supply chain of forest chip (cutting costs are high)
The cost structure of forest chips:
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Wholetrees&chippingatthe
roadside
Wholetrees&chippingatthe
terminal
Wholetrees&chippingatthe
plant
Loggingresidues&chippingat
theroadside
Loggingresidues&chippingat
theplant
Loggingresidueslogs&
chippingattheplant
Stumps&crushingattheplant
Stumps&crushingatthe
terminal
Costatthepowerplant,€/m³
Delivery from terminal
Transporting
Chipping
Forwarding
Bundling
Stump lifting
Cutting & bunching
Overhead costs
X
Reference: Laitila et al. 2010

9. Harvesting methods
Suitable harvesting and whole
logistical choice depends basicly
on the size of trees:
Whole trees (<11cm)
Delimbed energywood
(>11cm)
Suitable forest facilities for
harvesting of first thinning should
be paid attention
Integrated logging of pulp
wood and energywood is an
option
Optimal forest management
should be paid attention:
Cutting volume and timing of
pre-commercial and first
thinning is crucial
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Loggingcost,€/m³
Diameter at 1,3 m height, cm
Delimbed longwood
Whole-trees
Logging cost, €/m³ = Cutting + Forwarding
Cutting removal 1500 trees per hectare
Reference: Laitila et al. 2010
Delimbed energywood

10. 3. Logistics
Long-distance transportation solutions can be developed
More payload (and lower costs) for biomass transportation:
Refining biomass to increase energy content (drying)
Developing lighter transportation solutions (or increase weight limit)
Developing larger transporation solutions
Increasing energy density of biomass (compression)
MT

11. Refining biomass to increase
energy content (drying)…
Case: Delimbed energywood
Drying is the easy way to refine
biomass to increase energy content
Drying was found to be more
effective to the delimbed
energywood than whole tree
harvesting in a year follow-up study
because of tearing effect (Karttunen et al.
2010)
Difference in moisture content
from 40% (3 MWh/tn) to 30%
(3.5 MWh/tn) means ~15
percentage difference in energy
content and same in money
=
Transportation costs are the
cheapest for delimbed energywood
(€/m3) and as energy unit (€/MWh)
even much cheaper
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
28.maalis 17.touko 6.heinä 25.elo 14.loka 3.joulu 22.tammi 13.maalis 2.touko
Kosteuspitoisuus%
Karsimaton
kokopuukoivu
Karsimaton
kokopuumänty
Karsittu
rankapuu (sis.
koivun ja
männyn)
Whole
trees:
Birch
Pine
Delimbed
Energy
wood:
Birch,
pine
Moisturecontent,%
2009 Time 2010

12. Developing lighter
transportation solutions…
Case: Intermodal composite container
Composite container truck can be even
5 tons lighter than traditional options
5 tons of payload means over 10 %
more capacity and less trucks is
needed
Light container logistics can be done
cost-efficiently compared to traditional
logistics
Effective roadside chipping
Effective unloading system
… or increasing road weight limit
Road weight limitation may change in
Finland (from 60 tons to even 76 tons)
More truck variation
Cost saving potential
Reference: Karttunen et al. 2013
GWh
http://personal.lut.fi/users/lauri.lattila/Mikkeli/MikkeliNetti.html
Figure: Traditional (18 trucks) vs.
composite container (12 trucks) supply
costs (€/MWh) for forest chips to fulfill a
need of large-scale powerplant (750
GWh). Includes the costs from roadside the powerplant.
Simulation model available:
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
650
700
750
€/MWh
Traditional
Composite container

13. Developing larger
transportation solutions…
Case: Waterway transportation by
barges
Large volume of barge itself (vs. 15-50
average truck loads)
It´s possible to increase number of
barges in transport logistics
It is possible to increase number of
barges as a part of interchangeable
logistics
Increasing energy density
of biomass (compression)…
Energy density (MWh/frame-m3) of
barge load was 25% better than
trucks
That’s mainly because of large load
size compressing the forest chips
load itself.
0,0
2,0
4,0
6,0
8,0
10,0
12,0
14,0
16,0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Transport distance, km
supplychaincosts,€/MWh
Chip truck 3,000 hours, load: 34 tons
Chip truck 4,000 hours, load: 34 tons
Big tug-boat, load: 1,800 tons, harbour shift
independent
Small tug-boat, load: 1,200 tons, harbour shift
independent
Reference: Karttunen et al. 2012
Figure: Supply chain costs (truck vs. tug-boat)
Nk Consult 2008

14. 4. Handling
Terminal handling solutions
Material handling machines
Example: Mantsinen 100, forest chips (Karttunen et al. 2012)
Annual operation hours matter (2100 h)
Cost-efficiency depends on:
Cost of machine: 95 €/h
Productivity of machine/worker: 177 tn/h
(=530 MWh)
Unit cost: 0.18 €/MWh
It is possible to increase efficiency much better if
bigger buckets are used
Intermodal composite container logistics
Example: Fibrocom (Supercont) (Karttunen et al. 2013)
It is possible to increase cost-efficiency in loading
and unloading terminals:
Intermodal containers (truck and train)
Automatic identification system (RFID)
Fast handling with fork loader or fixed
unloading machine

15. 5. Conclusion
1. Forest fuel markets in Finland
There is a big boom to increase the use of small-sized energywood
Logging costs are the most expensive part of cost structure for small-
sized energywood
The biggest cost-efficiency improvement potential of supply chain
2. Harvesting: Small-sized energywood harvesting solutions
The supply chain cost of delimbed energywood at power-plant is cost-
competitive towards whole trees when the breast height diameter of the
harvested trees (pine) was 11 cm or more
Logging of delimbed energywood is a promising way also to decrease
moisture content and lower the supply chain costs
3. Logistics: Long-distance transportation solutions
More payload (and lower costs) for biomass logistics can be achieved
either developing vehicles or refining biomass
4. Handling: Terminal handling solutions
Handling cost-efficiency can be improved by innovative technology

16. References
Laitila, J., Heikkilä, J. & Anttila, P. 2010. Harvesting alternatives, accumulation and procurement cost
of small-diameter thinning wood for fuel in Central Finland. Silva Fennica 44(3): 465-480. Available:
http://www.metla.fi/silvafennica/full/sf44/sf443465.pdf
Laitila, J. & Väätäinen, K. 2012. Truck transportation and chipping productivity of whole trees and
delimbed energy wood in Finland. Croatian Journal of Forest Engineering 33(2): 199-210. Available:
http://crojfe.sumfak.hr/v33no2/03_laitila_199-210.pdf
Karttunen, K., Föhr, J. & Ranta, T. 2010. Energiapuuta Etelä-Savosta. Lappeenrannan teknillinen
yliopisto. Teknillinen tiedekunta. LUT Energia. Tutkimusraportti 7. Lappeenranta. 150 s. ISBN 978-952-
265-003-0. Saatavilla (in Finnish):
http://www.doria.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/66283/isbn%209789522650238.pdf?sequence=1
Karttunen, K., Väätäinen, K., Asikainen, A. & Ranta, T. 2012. The operational efficiency of waterway
transport of forest chips on Finland’s Lake Saimaa. Silva Fennica 46(3):395-413. Available:
http://www.metla.fi/silvafennica/full/sf46/sf463395.pdf
Karttunen, K., Föhr, J., Lättilä, L., Korpinen, O-J., Knutas, A., Laitinen, T. & Ranta, T. 2013.
Metsähakkeen logistiikka komposiittirakenteisilla siirtokonteilla. Metsätehon tuloskalvosarja 1/2013. 29
s. Saatavilla (in Finnish):
http://www.metsateho.fi/files/metsateho/Tuloskalvosarja/Tuloskalvosarja_2013_01_Metsahakkeen_logist
iikka_komposiittirakenteisilla_siirtokonteilla_kk_ym.pdf