The Impact of Wood Moisture Content on the Productivity and Costs of Forest Energy Supply Chains in Southeast Brazil

Elaine Cristina Leonello; Mauricio Acuna; Mark Brown; Maura Seiko Tsutsui Esperancini; Adriano Wagner Ballarin; Saulo Philipe Sebastião Guerra; Humberto de Jesus Eufrade-Junior

doi:10.3390/f15010139

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The Impact of Wood Moisture Content on the Productivity and Costs of Forest Energy Supply Chains in Southeast Brazil

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

The Impact of Wood Moisture Content on the Productivity and Costs of Forest Energy Supply Chains in Southeast Brazil

Elaine Cristina Leonello, Mauricio Acuna, Mark Brown, Maura Seiko Tsutsui Esperancini, Adriano Wagner Ballarin, Saulo Philipe Sebastião Guerra and Humberto de Jesus Eufrade-Junior

Forests, Vol.15(1), pp.1-16

2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/f15010139

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Abstract

forest operations

biomass power plant

storage thime

operational cost

transport

Using wood for power generation necessitates a more efficient production chain in the various steps: harvesting, forwarding, storage, chipping, transport, and conversion systems. In this context, the moisture content (MC) of wood can impact the harvesting operation, the volume to be chipped, the transportation of raw materials, the storage time, and other factors, thereby influencing the economic aspects of the chain. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the influence of wood moisture content on the yield and costs of different forest operation chains for power generation in São Paulo State, Brazil. Our findings reveal that harvesting and forest transport are the primary cost components (over 80%) in the supply chains under study. We observed a difference of up to 17.6% in the unit cost of the energy generated among the studied supply chains. In economic and sustainable terms, our results suggest that logs should be stored in the field for three to four months and the transport distance to the power plant should not exceed 100 km.

Details

Title: The Impact of Wood Moisture Content on the Productivity and Costs of Forest Energy Supply Chains in Southeast Brazil
Authors: Elaine Cristina Leonello (Author) - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
Mauricio Acuna (Author) - Natural Resources Institute Finland
Mark Brown (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Industries Research Centre
Maura Seiko Tsutsui Esperancini (Author) - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
Adriano Wagner Ballarin (Author) - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
Saulo Philipe Sebastião Guerra (Author) - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
Humberto de Jesus Eufrade-Junior (Author) - University of Sao Paulo
Publication details: Forests, Vol.15(1), pp.1-16
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date published: 2024
DOI: 10.3390/f15010139
ISSN: 1999-4907
Copyright note: © 2024 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/).
Data Availability: The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.
Grant note: This research was funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), grant number 140145/2017-6.
Organisation Unit: Forest Industries Research Centre; Forest Research Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99996896002621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Forestry

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