Regional energy wood logistics – optimizing local fuel supply

Abstract

The promotion of electric energy production from solid biomass by the Austrian government has lead to a boom in the construction of new combined heat and power plants. The current total demand for wood chips in the research area for energy purposes is 70 400 m 3 of loose volume chips per year. The expected increase in demand due to these new plants is more than 4 times greater than current demand: up to 302 700 m 3 of loose volume per year. Even if the energy wood feedstock potential is satisfactory, the design of the supply chain is still unresolved. The aim of this study is to give decision-makers a base for further development. To accomplish this, we designed and tested four different supply scenarios: one for 9 plants and one for 16 plants. The scenarios were developed using a combination of geographic information systems (GIS) and linear programming methods. The results indicate that direct transport of solid fuel wood as round wood and chipping at the plant is the cheapest supply system with a resulting cost of 5.6-6.6 EUR/m 3 loose. Using harvesting residues can only be recommended for large plants because of poor fuel quality. In this case, residues would be chipped at or near the landing, piled and transported via self-loading trucks at a cost between 8.4 and 9.1 EUR/m 3 loose. In order to meet increasing demand and to ensure a continuous supply, especially during the winter and spring seasons it is necessary to optimize the supply chain by including storage terminals. However, using terminals and increased demand both lead to higher logistical costs. For example, if the total volume is handled via terminals, the average supply costs including storage will increase by 26%. Higher demand increases the costs by 24%.

Chipping operations and efficiency in different operational environments

“…At the roadside, the raw material is chipped with either a truck mounted or tractor-based chipper directly into the chip truck. Only in some cases, for example in the Alps, chips are blown into a pile on the ground (Kanzian et al 2009). Chipping at a plant or terminal usually results in lower chipping costs, but increases the overall demand on logistics and handling costs, and is often not possible due to high dust and noise emmissions (Kanzian et al 2009).…”

Managing the moisture content of wood biomass for the optimisation of Ireland's transport supply strategy to bioenergy markets and competing industries

“…Combining geographic information systems (GIS) and Linear Programming has been studied by Kanzian et al (2009) in order to optimise the supply through the use of terminals. In Austria wood energy supply is required constantly through the year especially in winter when conditions often make mountainous regions inaccessible.…”

“…Together with Eriksson & Bjoerheden (1989) and Gunnarsson et al (2004) the authors have concluded that direct supply (without the use of intermediate terminals) is the most efficient and economical way to supply fuels to heating and power plants. Although the use of terminals can improve the quality of the biomass by minimising the MC and therefore increasing the energy content, it does not pay off the cost of making them part of the supply chain (Kanzian et al 2009).…”

Estimating the bioenergy potential of forest chips from final fellings in Central Finland based on biomass maps and spatially explicit constraints

“…After conducting a GIS analysis, the new attribute can be imported into the segment attribute table for further use in calculations. The next steps might be further studies utilising road map data to calculate the supply cost by optimising the biomass flow from the stands to the plants (see, for example, Ranta 2005;Kanzian et al 2009). More accurate and detailed stand inventory data would make it possible to simulate the development and operations for the stands and optimise forest management (Rørstad et al 2010).…”