Integration of Work Tasks and Supply Chains in Wood Harvesting - Cost Savings or Complex Solutions?

The concept of integration is understood as a means for more cost effective solutions in the harvesting and transport of forest products. Harvesting of several assortments simultaneously or accomplishing several tasks at the same time and/or with a single machine are assumed to increase overall productivity. Integration of industrial roundwood and energy wood harvesting is an example, where a multitude of solutions based on integration have been proposed, introduced and tested. In some cases integration has given clear cost savings and simplified operations. There are, however, a large number of experiments, where integration has led to complex and expensive technological solutions, imbalance between machine elements or stages of the harvesting system and overall increase of expenses. In this paper, the concept of integration in wood harvesting in general and in thinnings, in particular, is described and discussed. A number of successful and unsuccessful integration cases are analysed. Finally, features of successful integration concepts are sketched

Simulation of Logging and Barge Transport of Wood from Forests on Islands

Logging on islands differs considerably from logging carried out on the mainland. The transportation of machines to the islands and between islands calls for special equipment. Furthermore, the long distance transport must be done simultaneously with logging, because the buffer raft between ground forwarding and vessel transport is very small and used also for the transport of logging machines and crews between islands. There are several options to arrange long distance waterway transport by using boats and various kinds of barges. In this study different vessel transport systems carrying wood from islands were studied by using discrete-event simulation. A new push barge system suitable for transport of wood from islands was compared to the current powered barge system. A three barges' setting system gave the lowest harvesting costs when the transport distance exceeded 100 km. At shorter transport distances the current system was most competitive. Direct loading of barges by forwarders was cheaper than the use of a separater loader. Direct loading, however, requires new driving ramps and is not applicable everywhere

Riittääkö metsähake?

Tieteen tori: Metsäalan toimintaympäristön muutoksen ennakoint

The climate change mitigation potential of forest biomass production and its utilization in Finland

201

Initial forest age distribution may generate computational sinks or sources of carbon : A generic approach to test assumptions underlying the EU LULUCF forest reference levels

Background The current EU LULUCF regulation calls for member state-specific Forest Reference Levels (FRLs) for benchmark in the accounting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals of managed forest land during the compliance period (2021-2030). According to the technical guidance on developing and reporting the FRLs, it could be actualized by projecting a ratio of harvested to total available biomass. We tested how the initial age distribution may affect the aforementioned ratio by simulating the continuation of forest management based on several descriptive shapes of forest age class distribution. Results Our simulations suggest that when the FRLs are prepared by employing the harvest ratio and forest management is assumed strictly age dynamics driven, the shape of the initial forest age class distribution gives rise to computational sinks or sources of carbon in managed forest land. Harvests projected according to the ratio corresponded those resulting from the age dynamics only in the case of uniform age distribution. Conclusions The result calls for a better consideration of variation in initial states between countries when determining the future LULUCF regulation. Our exercise demonstrates how generic simulations in a standardized modeling framework could help in ex-ante impact assessment of proposed changes to the LULUCF regulation.Peer reviewe

Future of NTFP’s – from production to applications and markets

NTFP's and bioeconomy 28.11.2017 Rovaniemi201

Ilmastopolitiikan sekä metsäenergian tuotannon ja käytön globaalit ja kansalliset näkymät

201

Metsä 2060 – kohti alueellisesti ilmastoviisasta metsätaloutta

Metsä 2060 - Kestävän metsätalouden skenaariot, Metsäpäivät, 9.11.2017 Helsinki201

Bioenergy as a side-product of the Finnish forest sector

201

Forwarding of Whole Trees After Manual and Mechanized Felling Bunching in Pre-Commercial Thinnings

This paper examines the forwarding productivity of energy wood thinnings. The objectives of the study were to: compare the forwarding productivity following either manual or mechanized felling of whole trees and create productivity models for forwarding. The time consumption of the work phases in forwarding, following manual and mechanized cutting, was formulated by applying a regression analysis, in which the independent variables were cutting removal (m3/ha) and forwarding distance (m). The final calculation unit for time consumption in each of the work elements was second (s) per solid cubic meter (m3). Time studies were carried out using two Timberjack 810B forwarders. According to these results, forwarding productivity following mechanized energy wood cutting was significantly higher compared to productivity after manual cutting. Mechanized cutting by the harvester enables the felling and bunching of whole trees into large grapple loads close to the side of the strip road, which clearly improves the output of forwarding thereby helping to reduce costs. When the forwarding distance was 250 m, accumulation of energy wood was 60 m3/ha, and load size was 6 m3, the forwarding productivity following mechanized cutting was 11.9 m3/E0h and 7.1 m3/E0h after manual cutting