Title:
Evaluating the Suitability of Long-Distance Railway Transportation of Forest Fuels in Finnish Circumstances
Author(s):
Korpinen, O.-J., Saranen, J., Jäppinen, E., Ranta, T.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
Energy use of biomass increases as EU’s climate policy drives power plants to produce energy from renewable sources. In Finland, the most important renewable biomass sources are wood fuels. Wood fuels can be derived as leftovers from forest industry or forest fuels deriving straight from loggings. Theoretically, the availability of forest fuels exceeds the capacity of power plants. However, the challenge is related to the cost of transporting the biomass to the point of use. The fuel needs to be gathered from hundreds of small roadside storages and comminuted to chips in various locations. When the hauling distance increases, supply via terminals and using railways instead of trucks in long-distance transportation becomes an option to consider. The purpose of the work was to evaluate alternative logistic solutions for forest fuel supply based on different transportation modes. The evaluation was performed using discrete-event simulation for deriving the forest fuel transportation cost. The results indicate that to be a profitable method, train transportation needs large volumes of material available for transport. Still, truck transportation is very competitive. Train transports are an option to consider, when the fuel demand at one point grows so high that conventional supply chains run out of machines and labour.
Keywords:
biorefinery, forest residues, supply chain, transportation, vehicles, wood chips
Topic:
Biomass resources
Subtopic:
Biomass supply, analysis and logistics optimization
Event:
18th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
OC7.3
Pages:
156 - 162
ISBN-13:
978-88-89407-56-1
ISBN-10:
88-89407-56-5
Paper DOI:
10.5071/18thEUBCE2010-OC7.3
Price:
FREE
