Fuel consumption of timber harvesting systems in New Zealand

Year 2016, Volume: 2 Issue: 2, 67 - 73, 22.11.2016

Paul Oyier Rien Visser

Abstract

Fuel is a major cost in timber harvesting operations.
Changes in fuel cost are also typically used by forestry companies in New
Zealand to adjust unit harvesting rates. There is however no benchmark on fuel
consumption rates for the different harvesting systems to assist optimizing the
design of operations. Seventeen ground-based and 28 cable logging crews in New
Zealand were surveyed on annual fuel consumption, production, stand and terrain
attributes, type and number of machines used and their kW rating. The average
rate of fuel consumption was 3.04 lt/m3 and 0.15 lt/kWh for ground-based
systems, and 3.18 lt/m3 and 0.09 lt/kWh for cable yarder systems. There was no
significant difference between the two groups for the average rates of fuel
consumption in lt/m3, but ground-based system were significantly less energy efficient
(more lt/kWh) than cable yarder systems. The average rate of fuel used per unit
volume harvested decreased with total annual system production. Rates of fuel
consumption in lt/kWh are influenced by the type of harvesting system used,
total production, number of machines used, average machine power, slope,
directions of pulling during extraction and surface moisture conditions during
harvesting. Using standard published machine costing spreadsheets, fuel costs
per unit volume of wood harvested was approximately 15% of the total harvest
system cost.

Keywords

Fuel consumption rates, Ground-based, Cable yarding, Harvesting machines, fuel cost

References

• Acuna, M., Bigot, M., Guerra, S., Hartsough, B., Kanzian, C., Kärhä, K., Spinelli, R., 2012. Good practice guidelines for biomass production studies, from http://www.forestenergy.org/openfile/329.
• Alastair, R., 1994. Business management for logging. Rotorua, New Zealand: New Zealand Logging Industry Research Organisation.
• Athanassiadis, D., Lidestav, G., Wästerlund, I., 1999. Fuel, hydraulic oil and lubricant consumption in Swedish mechanized harvesting operations. International Journal of Forest Engineering, 10(1):59-66.
• Athanassiadis, D., 2000. Energy consumption and exhaust emissions in mechanized timber harvesting operations in Sweden. Science of the Total Environment, 255(1-3):135-143.
• Baker, S., Greene, W. D., 2012. Logging cost components in the US South. Paper presented at the 35th Council on Forest Engineering, New Bern, North Carolina.
• Baker, S., Greene, D., Harris, T., Mei, R., 2013. Regional Cost Analysis and Indices for Conventional Timber Harvesting Operations.
• Baker, S., Mei, B., Harris, T. G., Greene, W. D., 2014. An index for logging cost changes across the US South. Journal of Forestry, 112(3):296-301.
• Drolet, S., Lebel, L., 2010. Forest harvesting entrepreneurs, perception of their business status and its influence on performance evaluation. Forest Policy and Economics, 12(4):287-298.
• FORME, 2012. Independent Harvesting Survey (INFORME). Forme Consulting Group Ltd. Wellington, New Zealand. 2012. Retrieved from http://forme.co.nz. 43pp.
• Gordon, R., Foran, W., 1980. Fuel for logging in New Zealand. Logging Industry Research Association of New Zealand, 5(2):1-4.
• Greene, D., Biang, E., Baker, S., 2014. Fuel consumption rates of southern timber harvesting equipment. Paper presented at the 37th Council on Forest Engineering, Moline, Illinois.
• Hackman, T., 2008. Production economics: Integrating the microeconomic and engineering perspectives. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
• Holzleitner, F., Kanzian, C., Stampfer, K., 2011a. Analyzing time and fuel consumption in road transport of round wood with an onboard fleet manager. European Journal of Forest Research, 130(2):293-301.
• Holzleitner, F., Stampfer, K., Visser, R., 2011b. Utilization rates and cost factors in timber harvesting based on long-term machine data. Croatian Journal of Forest Engineering, 32(2):501-508.
• Kenny, J., Thomas Galagher, Smidt, M., Dana Mitchel, McDonald, T., 2014. Factors that affect fuel consumption in logggning systems. Paper presented at the Council on Forest Engineering, Moline, Illinois.
• Klvac, R., Skoupy, A., 2009. Characteristic fuel consumption and exhaust emissions in fully mechanized logging operations. Journal of Forest Research, 14(6):328-334. DOI: 10.1007/s10310-009-0143-7.
• Lindholm, E.-L., Berg, S., 2005. Energy use in Swedish forestry in 1972 and 1997. International Journal of Forest Engineering, 16(1):27-37.
• Makkonen, I., 2004. Saving fuel in mechanized forestry operations, from http://partenariat.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/OT-55.pdf
• Nordfjell, T., Athanassiadis, D., Talbot, B., 2003. Fuel consumption in forwarders. International Journal of Forest Engineering, 14(2):11-20.
• NZMBIE, 2015. Weekly oil price monitoring, from http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-industries/energy/liquid-fuel-market/weekly-oil-price-monitoring.
• Pierre, A., Helmer, B., Lars, E., Anjo de, J., Andis, L., Lyons, J., 2014. The COST model for calculation of forest operations costs. International Journal of Forest Engineering, 25(1):75-81.
• Pokorny, B., Steinbrenner, M., 2005. Collaborative monitoring of production and costs of timber harvest operations in the Brazilian Amazon. Ecology and Society, 10(1):3.
• Sambo, S. M., 2002. Fuel consumption for ground-based harvesting systems in western Canada. Forest Research Institute of Canada, 3(29):1-12.
• Smidt, M., Gallagher, T., 2013. Factors affecting fuel consumption and harvesting costs. Paper presented at the Council on Forest Engineering, Missoula, Montana.
• Sundberg, U., Silversides, C., 1988. Operational efficiency in forestry (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Springer.
• Tolan, A., Visser, R., 2015. The effect of the number of log sorts on mechanized log processing productivity and value recovery. International Journal of Forest Engineering, 26(1):36-47.
• Visser, R., 2011. 2010 Benchmarking of harvest cost and productivity. Future Forest Research, 3(10):1-6.
• Visser, R., Spinelli, R., Magagnotti, N., 2011. Landing characteristics for harvesting operations in New Zealand. International Journal of Forest Engineering, 22(2):23-27.
• Visser, R., Raymond, K., Harrill, H., 2014. Mechanising steep terrain harvesting operations. New Zealand Journal of Forestry, 59(3):3-8.
• Visser, R., 2015. Harvesting cost and productivity benchmarking: 2014 update. Future Forest Research, HTN07-05, 5.