Production Costs and Markets for Pellet Chips: Case Studies in Northern Sweden
Increasing use of woody fuels requires that nontraditional types of raw materials are exploited, including logging residues and small-diameter trees. Although medium-scale combustors often use pellets, they could conceivably use dried chips of sufficiently narrow size distribution (henceforth pellet...
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Series: | International Journal of Forestry Research |
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doaj-cc1c3a76840f47718bc0cba6b4e344652020-11-24T23:38:41ZengHindawi LimitedInternational Journal of Forestry Research1687-93681687-93762012-01-01201210.1155/2012/302014302014Production Costs and Markets for Pellet Chips: Case Studies in Northern SwedenGunnar Eriksson0Dimitris Athanassiadis1Dan Bergström2Tomas Nordfjell3Urban Bergsten4Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, SwedenDepartment of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, SwedenDepartment of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, SwedenDepartment of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, SwedenDepartment of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83 Umeå, SwedenIncreasing use of woody fuels requires that nontraditional types of raw materials are exploited, including logging residues and small-diameter trees. Although medium-scale combustors often use pellets, they could conceivably use dried chips of sufficiently narrow size distribution (henceforth pellet chips). The influence of the following factors on the relative cost-effectiveness of producing pellets and pellet chips was investigated for three plant sites in northern Sweden: (1) harvesting and transporting of forest residues; (2) the potential of existing energy plants to supply drying heat in periods of capacity surplus; (3) the distance to potential end-users. Data from the national forest inventory were used to estimate raw material costs. The resulting production costs were 144–176 $ per oven-dry tonnes (OD t) for pellets (27.4–33.5 $ MWh−1) and 143–173 $ OD t−1 (27.2–33.0 $ MWh−1) for pellet chips, with harvesting, forwarding, chipping, and transporting of logging residues to the sites amounting to 114–122 $ OD t−1 (21.7–23.2 $ MWh−1) for both fuels. Even though the differences in production costs were minor, the production of pellet chips requires significantly less electricity input per OD t of produced fuel. For cost reductions improved methods for wood fuel procurement, compacting and transporting of chips, small-scale low-temperature drying and foliage and bark separation are needed.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/302014 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Gunnar Eriksson Dimitris Athanassiadis Dan Bergström Tomas Nordfjell Urban Bergsten |
spellingShingle |
Gunnar Eriksson Dimitris Athanassiadis Dan Bergström Tomas Nordfjell Urban Bergsten Production Costs and Markets for Pellet Chips: Case Studies in Northern Sweden International Journal of Forestry Research |
author_facet |
Gunnar Eriksson Dimitris Athanassiadis Dan Bergström Tomas Nordfjell Urban Bergsten |
author_sort |
Gunnar Eriksson |
title |
Production Costs and Markets for Pellet Chips: Case Studies in Northern Sweden |
title_short |
Production Costs and Markets for Pellet Chips: Case Studies in Northern Sweden |
title_full |
Production Costs and Markets for Pellet Chips: Case Studies in Northern Sweden |
title_fullStr |
Production Costs and Markets for Pellet Chips: Case Studies in Northern Sweden |
title_full_unstemmed |
Production Costs and Markets for Pellet Chips: Case Studies in Northern Sweden |
title_sort |
production costs and markets for pellet chips: case studies in northern sweden |
publisher |
Hindawi Limited |
series |
International Journal of Forestry Research |
issn |
1687-9368 1687-9376 |
publishDate |
2012-01-01 |
description |
Increasing use of woody fuels requires that nontraditional types of raw materials are exploited, including logging residues and small-diameter trees. Although medium-scale combustors often use pellets, they could conceivably use dried chips of sufficiently narrow size distribution (henceforth pellet chips).
The influence of the following factors on the relative cost-effectiveness of producing pellets and pellet chips was investigated for three plant sites in northern Sweden: (1) harvesting and transporting of forest residues; (2) the potential of existing energy plants to supply drying heat in periods of capacity surplus; (3) the distance to potential end-users. Data from the national forest inventory were used to estimate raw material costs.
The resulting production costs were 144–176 $ per oven-dry tonnes (OD t) for pellets (27.4–33.5 $ MWh−1) and 143–173 $ OD t−1 (27.2–33.0 $ MWh−1) for pellet chips, with harvesting, forwarding, chipping, and transporting of logging residues to the sites amounting to 114–122 $ OD t−1 (21.7–23.2 $ MWh−1) for both fuels. Even though the differences in production costs were minor, the production of pellet chips requires significantly less electricity input per OD t of produced fuel. For cost reductions improved methods for wood fuel procurement, compacting and transporting of chips, small-scale low-temperature drying and foliage and bark separation are needed. |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/302014 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT gunnareriksson productioncostsandmarketsforpelletchipscasestudiesinnorthernsweden AT dimitrisathanassiadis productioncostsandmarketsforpelletchipscasestudiesinnorthernsweden AT danbergstrom productioncostsandmarketsforpelletchipscasestudiesinnorthernsweden AT tomasnordfjell productioncostsandmarketsforpelletchipscasestudiesinnorthernsweden AT urbanbergsten productioncostsandmarketsforpelletchipscasestudiesinnorthernsweden |
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