Revue6-EN

FUELS PYROLYSIS

Liquefied Wood Fuel could soon replace heavy oil !

Steven Gust Jukka-Pekka Nieminen Fortum Oil and Gas Oy

Finland

Fortum Oyj and Vapo Oy of Finland are launching forcefully the commercialisation of their technology for liquefied wood fuel produced from forest industry wastes, residues and by-products, an innovative and ecological solution to replace heavy oil. The pilot plant was officially opened by the Finnish Minister of Trade and Industry on 14 May 2002. innish companies Fortum Oyj and Vapo Oy have upgraded the commercialisation of their fast pyrolysis process with the completion of the commissioning of their 3.5 million euro pilot plant. The plant was officially opened by Sinikkä Mönkäre, the Minister for Trade and Industry who stressed the importance of renewable energies in the Finnish energy mix, Figure 2.

Their main interest is to meet the increasing demand for renewable fuels. This liquefied wood fuel, Forestera™, produced from forestry industry wastes, residues and byproducts is CO2 neutral. This is due to the fact that these residues if not used, will decay in the forest pro-

F

Fig. 2 : Biomass drier using heat generated in the pyrolysis process.

FORTUM

FORTUM

Fig. 1 : Forestera™ is a liquid fuel produced from forestry industry wastes, residues and by-products and can replace heavy oil.

ducing CO 2 . Conversion into fuel replacing mineral oils will thus reduce net emissions.

The main market for this fuel in Scandinavia would be as an alternative

heating fuel in big light fuel oil boilers as used in small industry, schools, hospitals, etc. The rough size for these installations is 100 kW to 1 MW. A prototype of this combustion system will be ready for testing this autumn.

Using this fuel as heavy fuel oil replacement is also possible for example in Sweden, where taxes are very high and therefore the consumer price of heavy fuel oil is higher than the consumer price of light fuel in Finland. Using this fuel, which is in fact a kind of liquid wood, will thus require that it not be subjected to the same taxes as the fossil fuels.

WOOD ENERGY N°6 < JULY 2002 > 24

Fig. 3 : Minister of Trade and Industry, Sinikka Mönkäre opening the pilot plant.

The main advantages of this liquefied wood fuel are that its shipping and storage are cheaper than for solid wood fuels and that it can be burnt cleaner. Cleaner combustion is due to the fact that liquids are burnt by forming sprays of millions of very small drops which when mixed with air, burn efficiently and cleanly.

The main raw material for Forestera™ is residues from logging operations.

These are normally found far from heating customers and are bulky, have very low energy density and are costly to handle and to transport.

Thus conversion into a compact liquid will permit long distance transport.

With the completion of the commissioning of their pilot plant, Fortum

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and Vapo will further develop and optimise the entire production chain from residue collection, through crushing, drying, pyrolysis, vapour recovery, quality control and on to final use. Both the technology and the final fuel have been registered as Forestera™. The basis for the process was rediscovered from old existing rapid pyrolysis technology, which has been modernised, optimised and improved using existing in-house knowledge. An important innovation that was suited to this process was obtained as a spin-off of a refinery development project.

The main challenges of the development work are to make the product price competitive with existing fuels and to ensure an adequate fuel quality for the applications in question. The main areas are to reduce solids and improve stability over existing, competing technologies. In practice this means that the plant must be able to process various raw materials, the yield must be high, the fuel quality must be consistent.

The capacity of the pilot plant is 300 to 350 kg of liquefied wood fuel from an input of 0,5 t/h dried wood weight which means an efficiency rate of 6070 %. The yield of the process is important in order to keep the cost of the product low. Special attention was placed on safety features and ease of operation of the plant with extensive work on the automation system and training of operators.

The process used is a fast pyrolysis process in which the raw material is first crushed and dried to a moisture content of under 10 %, followed by a rapid heating to around 500 °C and finally followed by the condensation of the vapor. The main steps of the process are shown in figure 5.

The properties of the Forestera

product liquid are the same as those of other fast pyrolysis processes : - 20-30 % of water - viscosity between that of light and heavy fuel oil - high acidity, pH 2-3 - high density, about 1,2 kg/l - heat capacity about half that of light fuel oil : 15-17 MJ/kg. ᔤ

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION : Steven Gust and Jukka-Pekka Nieminen, Fortum Oil and Gas Oy, steven.gust@fortum.com or jukka-pekka.nieminen@fortum.com

Fig. 4 : Forestera™ heat cracker and liquid condensers.

FORTUM

FORTUM

FUELS PYROLYSIS

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Fig. 5 : The steps of the wood pyrolysis process.

Green lines : material flow Red lines : heat flow Blue : non-condensible gases

WOOD ENERGY N°6 < JULY 2002 > 25

FUELS TORRÉFACTION

Global Markets and Technologies for in 2002

torrefied wood

Electric utilities are considering co-firing of renewable fuels such as waste wood or energy crop biomass as a low cost option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Transnational Technology proposes cofiring Torrefied Wood, an intermediate product between wood and charcoal.

USA

TW is not a new product. In the 1980’s the French developed industrial equipment for production of torrefied wood and expressed interest in TW as a substitute for conventional charcoal. The French continue work on torrefied wood today ; using it in building materials they call Retified Wood. Heat-treated wood is also produced as ThermoWood in Finland.

Jim Arcate is promoting wood heattreating as a parallel path for development of processes and equipment to manufacture torrefied wood for energy applications.

Torrefaction achieves a stable mois-

SOURCE NREL

James R. Arcate, Tr a n s n a t i o n a l Te c h n o l o g y L L C , U S A

WHAT IS TORREFIED WOOD ?

Figure 1. The 49,9 MW (net) Wheelabrator Shasta wood-fired power plant processes about 750,000 tons/year of mill waste and forest residues.

WOOD ENERGY N°6 < JULY 2002 > 26

SOURCE : TRANSNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

FUELS TORRÉFACTION

Condenser

Fan 2 to Condenser

Heater 2 Condensate

Dry

Wood

TW

TW

Cooling Water

Heater 1 Fan 1

Cool

Combustibles Recovery

Fan 3

Drain

Fired Heater Thermal Fluid to Heaters 1 and 2

ture content of approximately 3 %, reduction of mass by 20 to 30 % (primarily by release of water, carbon oxides, and volatiles) while retaining up to 90 % of the wood’s original energy content as shown in Table 1.

MARKETS FOR TORREFIED WOOD Co-firing Torrefied Wood with Coal Co-firing involves substituting biomass fuels for a portion of coal used i n electric power plant boilers. This all ows the energy in biomass to be converted to electricity with the high efficiency of a modern coal-fired power p l a n t . C o mpare d to th e coa l i t replaces, biomass reduces sulfur dioxide (SO2) and net emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2.

Transnational Technology proposes co-firing torrefied wood with coal in pulverized coal (PC) boilers. TW is friable and can be blended with coal in the fuel yard, transported to the boiler via the coal handling system, pulverized and co-fired with the coal.

TW’s heating value is close to the average for steam coal and TW has less moisture than coals used for power generation. The heat rate may actually be improved by co-firing TW with coal. TW could also be co-fired at higher rates than raw biomass and separate biomass feed and firing systems would not be required.

Andries Weststeijn of Essent in the Netherlands said his power company

Figure 2. Continuous Superheated Steam Drying & Torrefaction of Wood.

Flue Gas

Auxil. Fuel

is actively involved in direct cofiring a wide range of biomass fuels in their PC power plants. If torrefied wood can be co-pulverized with steam coal in unmodified pulverizers, at higher fuel mix percentages and at competitive biomass costs, there could be a substantial market opportunity for TW in the power generation sector. A government funded demonstration program is currently underway to produce approximately 30 tons of TW and test co-firing at

one of Essent’s PC power plants.

TW for Biomass-only Power Plants Why bother making TW for biomass power plants ? Why not just burn green wood chips ?

The 49,9 MW (net) Wheelabrator Shasta wood-fired power plant in Anderson, California processes about 750,000 tons/year (350,000 to 400,000 dry tons/year) of mill waste and forest residues from Shasta County and surrounding areas. The

Table 1. Characteristics of some torrefied woods

Species Torrefaction Results Temperature reached, °C Yield (on bone dry wood) Elementary Analysis C% H% N% O% Low Calorific Value of dry wood, kJ/kg Low Calorific Value of dry wood, kWh/kg Low Calorific Value of torrefied wood, kJ/kg Low Calorific Value of torrefied wood, kWh/kg Energetic Yield %

Maritime Pine Chestnut & Oak Eucalyptus 280 77 %

270 77 %

275 74 %

59.7 5.6 0.25 32.9 19 150

56.8 5.2 0.45 36.2 17 850

57.2 5.1 0.15 37.2 18 550

5.32

4.96

5.15

22 600

21 500

22 650

6.28

5.97

6.29

90.8

92.7

90.3

WOOD ENERGY N°6 < JULY 2002 > 27

FUELS TORRÉFACTION

AIRLESS PROCESS SYSTEMS

Figure 3. Torrefied Wood Chips produced using Airless Processing in prototype test equipment.

power plant, which has three Zurn traveling grate boilers, became operational in December 1987. See Figure 1.

Using TW rather than raw biomass would increase power plant efficiency (electricity produced per fuel energy input). According to Doug Albertson of Energy Products Idaho, using wet wood (50 % moisture content) the efficiency for a 10 MWe (net) power plant would be approximately 1819 %. Firing TW would increase the efficiency to about 21-23 %. TW would also reduce costs for biofuel receiving, storage & handling at the power plant.

Densified TW The heat content of torrefied wood pellets would be about 22,5 MJ/kg (6,25 kWh/kg) compared with 19,3 MJ/kg (5,36 kWh/kg) for conventional pine wood pellets. TW pellets would have a volume energy de n si ty of a bout 1 8 GJ / m 3 (5 MWh/m3), approximately 20 % higher than conventional wood pellets and about equal to steam coal at an average 20 MJ/kg (5,56 kWh/kg).

The higher energy density of TW pellets compared to sawdust, wood chips and conventional wood pellets, would reduce transport costs and facilitate higher rates of TW co-firing

WOOD ENERGY N°6 < JULY 2002 > 28

with coal at PC power plants. The cement industry represents another potential large application for cofiring densified TW with coal. Torrefied wood could also be blended with biomass feedstock used for production of wood pellets and briquettes.

TECHNOLOGIES FOR MANUFACTURING TW According to Ed Lipinsky of Innovative Thinking Inc., Worthington, Ohio, the chemistry of torrefaction is influenced by many parameters, including : biomass composition ; particle size ; processing temperature and time ; heating rate ; and off-gas composition, pressure and flow rate. In the temperature range of 220 °C to 280 °C, the major decomposition reactions concern hemicellulose. Cellulose and lignin undergo can also undergo polymer restructuring and depolymerization reactions, but to a lesser degree.

Because water can play a significant role in torrefaction, the effects of using superheated steam have been explored. Superheated steam has a higher heat capacity than hot air or nitrogen and steam provides an airless processing environment that reduces losses from oxidation.

Thomas Stubbing of Heat-Win Ltd in the UK calls it “Airless Processing”.

Superheated steam at atmospheric pressure is recirculated over an indirect heater and through the wood until it is dried and converted to torrefied wood as shown in Figure 2.

Steam generated from the moisture removed by drying is vented and is can be used for energy recovery. ᔡ The recirculating superheated steam atmosphere in the dryer is generated from the moisture removed from the wood by drying. The latent heat in steam vented from the dryer can be recovered by using an air or water-cooled condenser to produce hot air for pre-drying wood or hot water for space heating. ᔡ Steam & wood gases generated by torrefaction are recirculated through the indirect heater and the torrefying chamber. Excess steam is condensed and combustible off gases can be used to produce heat for the process. ᔡ To prevent self-ignition on contact with ambient air, the Torrefied Wood is cooled to a safe unloading temperature by recirculating superheated steam maintained at around 110 °C.

TW COMMERCIALIZATION Torrefaction provides fuels that are rich in energy, low in moisture content, resistant to moisture, and easily applied via direct co-firing with coal at power plants. A major challenge for torrefied wood plant developers is the availability of commercial equipment that will reduce the processing time, energy inputs and production costs for manufacturing bulk TW to acceptable levels. The superheated steam drying and torrefaction process discussed in this paper is a prime candidate for meeting this challenge.

On March 28, 2002, Recycled Waste plc in Great Britain announced the acquisition of exclusive global rights to Airless Processing Technology “for the thermal processing of organic wastes in superheated steam and other gases in order advantageously to alter their physical properties and chemical composition while usefully recovering or combusting components emitted from them as gases.”

Airless Process Systems LLP was established to be responsible for the application of the Airless Processing Technology. Ceramic Drying Systems Ltd. will be the manufacturer and supplier of the necessary equipment.

Transnational Technology is also working on biomass drying and torrefaction with Merrill Air Engineers in South Portland, Maine. Merrill’s Thermodyne Evaporator is a continuous dryer that uses superheated steam, produced by dr ying the product, as the drying medium. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Entrepreneurs for Energy Efficiency awarded Merrill a 2002 award for Significant Contribution to Energy Savings. ᔤ

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT : James R. Arcate Transnational Technology LLC 3 447 Pipa Place Honolulu, HI 96822-1221 USA +1 808 741 7502 www.techtp.com

FUELS FOREST WOOD CHIPS

Wood Chips Production in

mountainous areas Raffaele Spinelli Italy

Even in mountainous areas, chip production for energy can be profitable. Here is some advice on how to improve the work efficiency and a spreadsheet to calculate the chipping costs. heating and power plants that will use biomass as their main fuel.

Therefore, wood-chip demand should soon grow, to the benefit of those logging companies that operate close to the new power plants. Chips will have to be delivered regularly and in large amounts. Organizing fuel supply is a main question. In many cases, resources are so diversified that they cannot be tapped into with one system only. Concentrating supply into a few industrial operations remains a theoretical ideal, which risks missing a large part of the available fuel. Italian fuel managers must be able to consider a whole range of operational alternatives, knowing the potential and the optimum characteristics of each one.

CNR LAUNCHES A NATION-WIDE SURVEY

Thanks to the need for energy-wood, recovery of low quality wood should increase in the forests of the mountain regions of Italy.

any Italian logging companies produce substantial amounts of wood-chips. In most cases, chip is a collateral product obtained from less valuable trees and tree portions.

Chipping is the only way to give some market value to low-quality trees, branches and tree-tops. Chip quality is comparable to the quality of the raw material : the bark and foliage content is too high for the pulping industry, which in Italy is rather small anyway. Particleboard factories are the main customers of the Italian chipping contractors, because they accept low-quality chip.

The bioenergy industry may soon offer an alternative market. Attracted by generous Government subsidies, several companies are building

M

Photo 1 : Self-propelled machines have better mobility and take less time to reposition.

SOURCE RAFFAELE SPINELLI

ITEBE

Recently, the National Council for Research (CNR) carried out a nationwide survey of chipping operations, with the purpose of gathering all

WOOD ENERGY N°6 < JULY 2002 > 29

Photo 2 : Cable extraction is used in mountainous area despite the difficulties.

is now mature, and it can reap the benefits of a denser service network.

The study covered a wide range of situations, as it included over 100 cases. It yielded a productivity model that can be applied to most chipping operations encountered Nationwide. The high statistical significance of this model makes it a reasonably safe tool to predict operational performance as a function of specific working conditions.

ENGINE POWER AND LOG SIZE DRIVE PRODUCTIVITY Engine power and piece size are the two most important elements for estimating chipper productivity. In addition to the obvious effects, these two parameters are closely related to other variables, such as operator type or feeding mode. It is a fact that powerful machines are generally

SOURCE RAFFAELE SPINELLI

existing information into an organic study. The ultimate goal of this effort was to relate chipping performance to a number of parameters, including machine type and size, feeding system, mode of operation, characteristics of the raw material, and site conditions. Such work allow e d th e de v e lop m e n t of a mathematical model that predicts machine productivity and chipping cost as a function of the above-mentioned parameters.

A number of Italian logging firms are involved in industrial chipping.

Most started in the mid-80s and have now gained considerable experience.

Although working conditions are somewhat different from those encountered in America or in Scandinavia, Italian chipping operations strive towards the same goal and face the same problems. Their goal is to transform a low-value residue into an industrial product. Their problems are related to the low value of the industrial product itself, which leaves little margin for error. Hence they exert tremendous efforts to improve efficiency, to cut costs and to optimize the whole production chain in general.

Italian operators use a very heterogeneous machine fleet. Chippers are represented by a number of different makes and models, including American, German and Scandinavian machines. However, Italian-made chippers are the most widespread and dominate the market. This probably indicates that the Italian technology

SOURCE RAFFAELE SPINELLI

FUELS FOREST WOOD CHIPS

operated by full-time professionals and fed with a crane, while the cont r a r y is o f t e n t r u e f or sma l l er machines.

Other important parameters are chipping site - landing or terrain - and chipper configuration. Self-propelled machines enjoy better mobility and take less time to reposition, whether they operate in the woodland or not.

Small chip forwarders are penalized by their limited payload and are generally used over comparably long forwarding distances - which explains higher time consumption when compared to other chippers.

The productivity model was coupled to a costing scheme, and assembled into an Excel worksheet. Microsoft Excel is one of the most widespread worksheet programs, and its choice reflects our goal of reaching the largest number of potential users. The worksheet itself was designed to be simple and user-friendly. Its structure is flexible enough to suit many different situations. As it stands, the worksheet provides a comprehensive instrument for planners, managers and contractors alike. It is available free of charge, and it can be requested

by E-mail at the following address : spinelli@irl.fi.cnr.it The study also indicated that chipping technology is relatively mature, which guarantees an extended working life for both chippers and our model. It will probably take several years before obsolescence finally invalidates them.

CHIPPING IN MOUNTAINOUS AREAS

Photo 3 : Hand-fed chippers always produce less than 3 gt/PMH, whereas crane-fed units can achieve anywhere between 6 and 20 gt/PMH.

WOOD ENERGY N°6 < JULY 2002 > 30

A minority of chipping operations is performed in conjunction with cable extraction : operators generally prefer to produce chips under easier harvesting conditions. However, several reasons may occasionally justify chipping at cable hoist landings : the disposal of logging residue is the pri-

Photo 4 : Storage should not be for long because it can generate difficulties : for instance branches binding together.

charge directly onto the ground, building up large heaps. This way neither the chipper nor the truck will be forced to wait for one another : each will be operated freely, when that fits best into the overall organization of the entire operation .

Besides, subsequent reloading into a truck may take less time than direct discharge - especially if the chipper is comparably small. Several loggers keep an old loader parked at the landing, so that the truck drivers can

pushing the chip all the way to the top, thus packing very large quantities of chips into comparably small landings.

The use of containers would offer the same advantages as heap building i.e. limited waiting times. However, this solution is not very popular among Italian loggers, who dislike the extra tare weight and the cost of the container system. Besides, containers can be difficult to handle in narrow landings. ᔤ

SOURCE RAFFAELE SPINELLI

mary reason.

A fundamental condition for chipping of residues is the availability of a market within reasonable distance from the harvest site. Such a market can be represented by particleboard factories and heating plants - the latter being more common in the mountainous regions where cableextraction is performed.

Most chippers found at cable hoist l a n d i n gs h av e an i nde p e n de n t engine, rated between 200 and 300 kW. Smaller units are occasionally found in the Apennines and they are hand-fed : all the rest are crane-fed. Hand-fed chippers always produce less than 3 green tons/Productive Machine Hour (gt/PMH), whereas crane-fed units can go anyw h ere b e twe e n 6 an d ov e r 2 0 gt/PMH, depending on piece size.

Most operators work cold decks.

The occasional hot deck operations always include a tractor that moves the wood from the hoist chute to the chipper.

When producing fuel chip, several operators prefer to let the residue dry on the landing before chipping. However, seasoning time should not be extended too much : long storage can generate some difficulties, especially if it concerns tops or whole trees. As the tops sit, their branches bind together. The binding gets stronger with storage time and with the total weight compressing the tops. Disentangling long-stored tops requires a powerful loader. Besides, excessively dry wood generates a lot of dust and tends to break easily, forcing the loader to pick up the same piece – or its fragments – multiple times. Rotten wood is also problematic : it is often reported to choke chippers, the fact being explained by its capacity to plug knife pockets and disc slots alike.

At cable hoist landings, limited available space is often a main constraint, imposing close co-operation between the stacking, chipping and transportation crews. Chipping requires the correct positioning of at least three elements : the wood-pile, the chipper and the chip discharge.

The loader may represent a fourth element to be positioned if the chipper lacks its own integral loader.

Chip discharge presents many alternatives. Blowing the chip directly into a truck saves space and additional loading costs. But discharging into a truck requires very careful organization, to avoid waiting times for either machine.

To avoid the problem, one may dis-

SOURCE RAFFAELE SPINELLI

FUELS FOREST WOOD CHIPS

Photo 5 : Containers can be difficult to handle on narrow landings and using this system is expensive.

load their trucks themselves, without waiting for anyone. Reloading a standard 26-t truck-and-trailer unit takes about 1 hour - considerably less than filling it up directly with a medium-size chipper.

Unfortunately, heaps take a lot of a space, which may be prohibitive at a hoist landing. The space requirements of heap building can be reduced with a small bulldozer, which can be used to raise the heap. This is done by building a ramp up the pile and

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT THE AUTHOR : Raffaele Spinelli CNR IRL Via Barazzuoli 23 50136 Firenze Italy Tel. : +39 055 661886 Fax : +39 055 670624 spinelli@irl.fi.cnr.it

WOOD ENERGY N°6 < JULY 2002 > 31

FUELS FOREST WOOD CHIPS

Energy-Wood Harvesting and Processing

Demonstration in Lorraine, France Timo Määttä, Contim Oy Finland and France

A French-Finnish co-operation has compared the chipping technologies of the 2 countries. This experiment was used to identify the cost factors so as to optimise the production of wood chips from trees blown down by the storms of 1999.

The demonstration project was carried out in July 2000 as a feasibility study investigating in practise the cost factors and effectiveness of energy-wood procurement obtained from the areas damaged by the storm in France in December 1999. After the forest damage caused by the storm, the utilisation of the forest waste material as a wood fuel for energy generation is regarded as the most rational option. After lying six months in the forest, the wood has no value for such purposes as commercial processing as sawn wood. Reforestation is cheaper when the fallen trees have been taken out of the forest. In the storm area, in most cases, the wood has to be removed before planting or before natural reforestation is possible.

Within the project, a wood fuel production chain was arranged by combining Finnish chipping and French transportation technology to demonstrate a procurement organisation from the forest to the plant. Therefore, a chipping unit was transferred from Finland to create an effective functioning energy-wood production chain. Economic cost-factors of this energy-wood procurement were investigated to assess the price ratio of the produced wood chips in order to investigate the competitiveness and efficiency of the supply of energywood in the Lorraine area for later commercial operations.

The Finnish participants were Jyväskylä Science Park, LHM Hakkuri Ltd (Chipper manufacturer) and Kotimaiset Energiat Ltd (chipper operator). Together, they arranged the provision and transport of a “Giant”

WOOD ENERGY N°6 < JULY 2002 > 32

ADEME - R. BOURGUET

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

A forest in France after the storm of December 1999.

FUELS FOREST WOOD CHIPS

EXPERIENCES The largest costs were related to roadside chipping operations and long distance road transportation. In comparison to Finnish analyses, the chipping operations were efficient while forest haulage and long-distance operations exceeded the costs encountered normally in Finland (see Table 1).

The moisture content of the chips was 45 %. The chips’ particle size was approximately 20 mm. The wood for chipping was fairly evenly divided between logging residue and whole trees.

The “GIANT” chipper owned by LHM Hakkuri uses the drum chipping method. The efficient chipping rate for that type of chipper ranges between 85 and 90 m3 per hour. The rate of moving the chipper was relatively low, transfer distance ranged between a few meters up to some kilometres per day. Other arrangements like maintenance and planning were filling the gap while waiting for the forwarder or trucks.

Each truck had a load capacity b et w een 25 to 30 to n s a n d th e average load of chips was 27,5 tons, which is equivalent to an average load of 87,1 m3 per truck. The time necessar y to fill a truck ranged between 35 minutes to 1 h 40 min depending mainly on wood species and whether wood residues or whole trees were chipped. Transport operations were easy because of good roads. The transportation distance to Golbey town near Epinal ranged

Table 1: Comparison between costs of the energy-wood chip supply chain in Lorraine / France with average costs in Finland (in Euros).

Work Phase Acquiring / Purchase of harvesting rights Harvesting operations (felling and cutting) Piling of energy wood Forest haulage, 200 m Roadside chipping Costs aggregated according to payment at roadside Long-distance transportation of wood chips, < 50 km Organising purchase / delivery of the chips Total costs Total cost when integrated approach 1

Costs in Euros / bulk m3 in Lorraine

Costs in Euros / bulk m3 in Finland 1

0

0,5

1,83 Included in harvesting operations 1,83

0

2,13

1,68 – 2,69

5,79

3,18 – 5,04

2,29

2,19

Included in harvesting operations

0,5

8,08

5,87-7,73

6,25

5,87-7,73

0 – 0,5 1 – 1,35

Costs based on energy wood procurement methods made from logging residues and using roadside chipping

between 50 and 60 km.

Several shows for interest groups and other stakeholders were arranged.

There were various groups attending th e se sh ow s co m in g f ro m f o r example. The Netherlands, Germany, Finland, and of course France. The presentations were organised by ONF.

CONTINUATION The demonstration showed well the possibilities of modern wood chipping technology in France. If there were more facilities capable of utilising the wood chips, then the trans-

portation distances would be shorter making the costs of the energywood lower. In the Lorraine area, the demonstration project has promoted the use of energy-wood as a fuel.

With these experiences, there should be good chances for long-term chipping arrangements in a larger area in France, which would allow energywood to penetrate the local market.

If environmental and employment aspects are taken into account, the price for chips becomes more competitive compared to fossil based energy sources.

The project was able to clarify most Chipping at the road side of pine logs with the branches.

LHM HAKKURI OY, TOMMI LAHTI

chipper with the personnel to Lorraine for the duration of the project. The Finnish participants also contracted the Project Manager, Mr. Timo Määttä from Contim Ltd, to help in practical arrangements and to keep contact with the French participants.

The French partner was Office National des Forêts (ONF) as a customer for the chipping operations and organising the supply to the local energy generation facilities, which are suitable for using wood chips as an energy source. ONF acted as a wood chip supplier making contracts with the purchaser of the wood chips and the companies harvesting and chipping wood. Furthermore, ONF in cooperation with the company Norske Skog provided the transportation from the roadside storage areas to the plant using two transportation companies contracted by ONF.

WOOD ENERGY N°6 < JULY 2002 > 33

FUELS FOREST WOOD CHIPS

LHM HAKKURI OY, TOMMI LAHTI

Giant-model drum chipper built on Sisu truck chipping pine wood.

of the practical obstacles, costs and barriers of the chipping operations.

The maintenance of the chipper has to be improved whenever the chipping continues for longer periods.

Also the trucks could be more suitable for loading the chips. The trucks were not made for transporting wood chips ; they had a lower volume

capacity than the specially designed equipment used in Finland. The profitability of the energy-wood proc u re m e n t in L o r r ain e c a n b e increased by running chipping operations in a continuous and, therefore, more efficient way and by selecting the appropriate machinery for long distance transportation. ᔤ

FOR MORE INFORMATION : Tommi Lahti LHM Hakkuri Oy Tel : +358 400 656 045 Fax : +358 14 216 128 tommi.lahti@lhmhakkuri.com

LHM HAKKURI OY, TOMMI LAHTI

The wood to be chipped was mainly pine cut to five meter long logs with the branches.

WOOD ENERGY N°6 < JULY 2002 > 34