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

201

Climate change mitigation in the forest-based sector: a holistic view

Non peer reviewe

Perunaviljelmän edullisin koko Suomessa : sään rajoittama viljelytöiden aika : viljelmien nykytilanne kyselyn perusteella

TIIVISTELMÄ Tutkimus jakaantui kahteen osaan: sääolosuhteisiin perustuvaan tarkasteluun, jonka pohjalta laskettiin eri viljelytoimenpiteisiin käytettävissä oleva aika ja sen perusteella töiden tekemiseen tarvittava koneketju. Tutkimuksen toinen osa oli kysely tiloilla käytettävissä olevista menetelmistä ja viljelyn laajuudesta. Kyselyn perusteella kävi ilmi, että on monta onnistunutta ja toimivaa ratkaisua. Parhaiten koneyhteistyö näyttää toimivan samanhenkisten naapurien kanssa. Tärkeimmät edut ovat viljelijöiden mukaan säästöt konekustannuksissa ja työvoiman parempi riittävyys. Myös investointikustannusten aleneminen oli tärkeä syy yhteishankinnoille. Moni viljelijä korosti joustavan mielenlaadun merkitystä koneyhteistyön onnistumiseksi. Konekustannusten osuus perunan tuotantokustannuksista alenee peruna-alan ja koneiden vuotuisen käyttömäärän kasvaessa. Pienillä tiloilla koneiden koko kapasiteetti ei useinkaan tule täysimääräisesti hyödynnettyä. Monet viljelijät ovat tämän jo huomanneet ja pyrkineet lisäämään peruna-alansa niin suureksi kuin se on olemassa olevalla kalustolla mahdollista hoitaa. Tilan pinta-alan kasvattaminen voi onnistua naapurin tilan tai peltolohkojen ostamisen tai vuokraamisen kautta. Kaikille peruna-alan lisääminen ei sopivan maan puutteen tai jonkin muun syyn takia kuitenkaan onnistu. Tällöin konekustannuksia voi vähentää koneiden käyttöikää pidentämällä eli käyttämällä samaa konetta kauemmin. Tämäkin vanha keino on ollut viljelijöillä jo kauan käytössä. Esimerkiksi istutus- ja korjuukoneiden keski-ikä on noussut 7 vuodesta 10 vuoteen tämän vuosikymmenen aikana. Koneen käyttöiän pidentäminen vaatii myös huolellista ennakkohuoltoa, jotta kone ei rikkoontuisi juuri käyttökauden ollessa parhaimmillaan. Perunantuotannossa taudit ja kasvintuhoojat voivat helposti levitä pellolta toiselle yhteiskoneiden välityksellä. Siksi perunakoneet on aina huolellisesti puhdistettava lohkolta ja erityisesti viljelijältä toiselle siirryttäessä. Koneiden säännöllinen puhdistaminen ja rasvaaminen pidentävät myös niiden elinikää. Tilojen välistä markkinointiyhteistyötä koskevaan kysymykseen vastasi 262 viljelijää. Kokemuksia markkinointiyhteistyöstä oli 29 %:lla vastanneista. Tavallisin yhteistyötapa on pakkauttaa perunat naapurilla tai yhteispakkaamolla, josta perunat myydään yhteisesti eteenpäin. Jonkin verran on myös perustettu perunarenkaita, joilla on nimetyt henkilöt hoitamassa perunan myyntiä ja tarvikkeiden hankintaa. Markkinointiyhteistyö näyttäisi olevan lisääntymässä. Monet viljelijät ovat sitä mieltä, että yhteistyöhön on nykytilanteessa pakko mennä.vokMTT/VAKOL

Contribution of wood-based products to climate change mitigation

Forest-based products––often referred to as harvested-wood products (HWPs)––can influence the climate through two separate mechanisms. Firstly, when wood is harvested from forests, the carbon contained in the wood is stored in the HWP for months to decades. If the amount of wood entering the market exceeds the amount of wood being discarded annually, this can lead to a HWP sink impact. Secondly, HWPs typically have a lower fossil carbon footprint than alternative products, so, for example, using wood in construction can lower fossil emissions by reducing the production of cement and steel, resulting in a substitution impact. The international greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting conventions and the related Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guidance covers the HWP sink impact, but not the substitution impacts. The HWP sink impact is restricted to tracing biogenic carbon flows, whereas the substitution impact typically covers fossil carbon flows exclusively. Importantly, the substitution and HWP sink impacts do not represent the climate- change mitigation impact of wood use, as such. Instead, they are important pieces of the broader puzzle of GHG flows related to the forest sector. This chapter presents the state-of-the-art approaches for determining the HWP sink and substitution impacts, and concludes with the policy and research implications.Non peer reviewe

The influence of gross vehicle weight (GVW) and transport distance on timber trucking performance indicators – Discrete event simulation case study in Central Finland

Today, timber trucks of gross vehicle weight (GVW) up to 76 tonne are allowed to operate on Finnish roads from roadside landings to mills. Reducing trucking costs and exhaust gas emissions have been the dominant reasons for the increased GVWs of timber trucks. A discrete-event simulation (DES) method was used to compare the impact of the truck and payload size, trucking distance and timber assortment lengths on trucking performance indicators (e.g. productivity, energy efficiency and costs of trucking) in the procurement area of a case logistic company operating in Central Finland. The studied truck sizes were 68, 76 and 84t, of which the 76-t trucks dominate timber trucking in Finland. Over a transport distance of approx. 105km with an average assortment length of 4.2m, 76-t trucks had 9% higher and 12% lower productivity (m³/100km), 1% lower and 4% higher fuel consumption (l/m³) and 4% lower and 6% higher trucking cost (€/m³) compared to 68- and 84-tonner options, respectively. The improvement in regards to previous indicators was clearly bigger for the 76-tonner than the 68-tonner if the trucked wood assortments were lengthened to 5.0m. The differences in cost and fuel efficiency as well as annual trucking volumes were increased as a function of the trucking distance, when comparing the truck configurations with different GVWs and payloads. To conclude, the tendency of the size increase in GVWs in timber trucking in Finland can be justified in the light of the study results.202

Impact of structural changes in wood-using industries on net carbon emissions in Finland

Forests and forest industries can contribute to climate change mitigation by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, by storing it in biomass, and by fabricating products that substitute more greenhouse gas emission intensive materials and energy. The objectives of the study are to specify alternative scenarios for the diversification of wood product markets and to determine how an increasingly diversified market structure could impact the net carbon emissions (NCEs) of forestry in Finland. The NCEs of the Finnish forest sector were modelled for the period 2016-2056 by using a forest management simulation and optimization model for the standing forests and soil and separate models for product carbon storage and substitution impacts. The annual harvest was fixed at approximately 70 Mm(3), which was close to the level of roundwood removals for industry and energy in 2016. The results show that the substitution benefits for a reference scenario with the 2016 market structure account for 9.6 Mt C (35.2 Mt CO2 equivalent [CO2 eq]) in 2056, which could be further increased by 7.1 Mt C (26 Mt CO2 eq) by altering the market structure. As a key outcome, increasing the use of by-products for textiles and wood-plastic composites in place of kraft pulp and biofuel implies greater overall substitution credits compared to increasing the level of log harvest for construction.peerReviewe

The impact of thermomechanical pulp fiber modifications on thermoplastic lignin composites

Peer reviewe

Effect of increased wood harvesting and utilization on required greenhouse gas displacement factors of wood-based products and fuels

Highlights • Displacement factor (DF) describes the substitution climate impact of wood use. • We estimated required displacement factor (RDF) to achieve zero emissions. • RDF should be 2.0–2.4 tC tC−1 for increased wood use in 2017–2116 in Finland. • RDF appears greater than the estimated current average DF. • This is a threat for forest-based bioeconomy from the climate change viewpoint.A displacement factor (DF) may be used to describe the efficiency of using wood-based products or fuels instead of fossil-based ones to reduce net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the DFs of individual products and their production volumes could not be used alone to evaluate the climate impacts of forest utilization. For this reason, in this study we have developed a methodology to assess a required displacement factor (RDF) for all wood products and bioenergy manufactured and harvested in a certain country in order to achieve zero CO2 equivalent emissions from increased forest utilization over time in comparison with a selected baseline harvesting scenario. Input data for calculations were produced with the simulation model, Monsu, capable of predicting the carbon stocks of forests and wood-based products. We tested the calculations in Finnish conditions in a 100-year time horizon and estimated the current average DF of manufactured wood-based products and fuels in Finland for the interpretation of RDF results. The results showed that if domestic wood harvesting will be increased by 17–33% compared to the basic scenario, the RDF will be 2.0 to 2.4 tC tC−1 for increased wood use in 2017–2116. However, the estimated average DF of manufactured wood-based products and fuels currently in Finland was less than 1.1 tC tC−1. The results indicate strongly that the increased harvesting intensity from the current situation would represent a challenge for the Finnish forest-based bioeconomy from the viewpoint of climate change mitigation. For this reason, there is an immediate need to improve reliability and applicability of the RDF approach by repeating corresponding calculations in different circumstances and by improving estimations of DFs on country levels