Tag Archives: Wood energy

529-532 A. Pasila
Changes, challenges and opportunities in the wood energy supply chain
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Changes, challenges and opportunities in the wood energy supply chain

A. Pasila

Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, School of Agriculture and Forestry,Ilmajoentie ⁵²⁵, ⁶0⁸00 Ilmajoki, Finland;
e-mail: antti.pasila@seamk.fi

Abstract:

One of the biggest challenges in using bioenergy has been the problem of logistics;that is how, in many cases, to process and transport these low density and bulky raw materials.Finnish  forestry  technology  is  advanced  and  the  same  machinery  which  is  used  in  timberharvesting is often used in energy wood harvesting.A  change  in  the  forest  industry  has  however  caused  some  new  expectations  concerning  thewood  energy  supply  chain.  One  of  the  basic  requirements  for  woodchips  is  low  moisturecontent. In the transportation of wood chips high moisture content, and therefore a high weight,may limit the carrying capacity of vehicles and roads. Also in syngas and charcoal productiondry raw material is needed to be able to control the combustion process.The reduction of moisture content under natural drying conditions means an extended storagetime. With Finnish climate conditions this normally means a storage period of at least one year.The  various  types  of  energy  wood:  stems,  whole  tree  harvested  stems,  logging  residues  orstumps are piled in storage sites and covered. The raw material is chipped or crushed at theseintermediate storage sites and after that transported to bio-refineries.In  the  measurement  of  the  energy  wood’s  quality  and  quantity  there  are  some  differencescompared  to  timber  measurements.  Normally  the  timber  measurements  are  based  on  solidvolume in cubic metres. The forest harvesters are equipped with on-line measurement systems.This  on-line  measurement  is  more  complicated  to  carry  out  in  the  case  of  energy  wood.Especially difficult are the volume measurements in whole tree and stump harvesting. A newmethod used in the measurement of energy wood is weight.

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