Impact of Roadside Drying on Delivered Costs for Eucalyptus globulus Logging Residue and Whole Trees Supplying a Hypothetical Energy Plant in Western Australia Using a Linear-Programming Model

Martin Strandgard; Mohammad Sadegh Taskhiri; Mauricio Acuna; Paul Turner

doi:10.3390/f12040455

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Impact of Roadside Drying on Delivered Costs for Eucalyptus globulus Logging Residue and Whole Trees Supplying a Hypothetical Energy Plant in Western Australia Using a Linear-Programming Model

Journal article

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Impact of Roadside Drying on Delivered Costs for Eucalyptus globulus Logging Residue and Whole Trees Supplying a Hypothetical Energy Plant in Western Australia Using a Linear-Programming Model

Martin Strandgard, Mohammad Sadegh Taskhiri, Mauricio Acuna and Paul Turner

Forests, Vol.12, pp.1-19

2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/f12040455

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Abstract

bioenergy

forest biomass

feedstock types

transport cost

mathematical optimisation

supply chain

Australia’s large potential forest bioenergy resource is considerably underutilised, due largely to its high delivered costs. Drying forest biomass at the roadside can potentially reduce its delivered cost through weight reduction and increased net calorific value. There has been little research on the impact of roadside drying for Australian conditions and plantation species. This study compared delivered costs for three forest biomass types—Eucalyptus globulus plantation whole trees and logging residue (LR)-disaggregated (LR conventional) or aggregated (LR fuel-adapted)—and three roadside storage scenarios—no storage, ≤two-month storage and optimal storage—to supply a hypothetical thermal power plant in south-west Western Australia. The study was performed using a tactical linear programming tool (MCPlan). Roadside storage reduced delivered costs, with optimal storage (storage for up to 14 months) producing the lowest costs. Delivered costs were inversely related to forest biomass spatial density due to transport cost reductions. Whole trees, which had the highest spatial density, stored under the optimal storage scenario had the lowest delivered costs (AUD 7.89/MWh) while LR conventional, with the lowest spatial density, had the highest delivered costs when delivered without storage (AUD 15.51/MWh). For both LR types, two-month storage achieved ~60% of the savings from the optimal storage scenario but only 23% of the savings for whole trees. The findings suggested that roadside drying and high forest biomass spatial density are critical to reducing forest biomass delivered costs.

Details

Title: Impact of Roadside Drying on Delivered Costs for Eucalyptus globulus Logging Residue and Whole Trees Supplying a Hypothetical Energy Plant in Western Australia Using a Linear-Programming Model
Authors: Martin Strandgard (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Industries Research Centre
Mohammad Sadegh Taskhiri (Author) - University of Tasmania
Mauricio Acuna (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Industries Research Centre
Paul Turner (Author) - University of Tasmania
Publication details: Forests, Vol.12, pp.1-19
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date published: 2021
DOI: 10.3390/f12040455
ISSN: 1999-4907
Copyright note: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Forest Industries Research Centre; Forest Research Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99522304602621
Output Type: Journal article

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