Report
Control and manage the moisture content of logs and biomass to maximise benefits along the wood supply chain
Forest & Wood Products Australia Limited
2020
Abstract
Transport costs of logs and forest biofuel can make up 50% of their delivered costs. As approximately 50% of fresh logs and forest biofuel is water, infield drying of this material presents the Australian forest industry with the opportunity to reduce delivered costs through reductions in transport costs, and increased calorific value in the case of biofuels, which will enable better cost-competitiveness with alternative building materials and wood imports and help establish a domestic and export forest biofuel industry.
The project aimed to provide forest managers with the tools to balance reduced transport costs through natural drying of roadside stocks of biofuel and of logs for chips and other wood products against quality specifications, and increased costs for storage time and processing machinery wear and tear. In order to extract the gains from infield drying, there are a number of changes that need to be made by the Australian forest industry. The key changes are:
• Moving from payment on delivered green weight to payment on delivered volume or oven-dry weight.
• Increasing the use of high volumetric capacity trucks, particularly for the transport of dried and infield chipped forest biofuel
• Using the drying models and tools developed in the study to guide planning the storage of logs and forest biofuel, in particular as part of operational planning processes.
Details
- Title
- Control and manage the moisture content of logs and biomass to maximise benefits along the wood supply chain
- Authors
- Martin Strandgard (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Industries Research CentreRick Mitchell (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Industries Research CentreMauricio Acuna (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Industries Research CentreMohammad Reza Ghaffariyan (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Industries Research CentreMark Brown (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Industries Research Centre
- Additional notes
- Project No: PNC400-1516
- Publication details
- 60 pages
- Publisher
- Forest & Wood Products Australia Limited
- Date published
- 2020
- ISBN
- 9781920883997
- Organisation Unit
- Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; Forest Industries Research Centre; Forest Research Institute
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99471608902621
- Output Type
- Report
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