Abstract
A big amount of agricultural residues are generated from crop production and partially remain in the field after harvest. Removing the excess of residues after crop harvesting can increase farmer income, providing feedstock that could be used for industrial and energy purposes. The costs for collection and transport of straw and stalks are site- and region-specific and depend on the availability of agricultural residue and on how much of the residue is removed from any specific field or location. If the biomass is baled then it is required to upload the bales on a trailer, transport and unload all the baled biomass to the storage center. On the other hand, if a self-loading wagon is used the loose biomass collected, it must be unloaded every time the wagon is completely full. The distance and the harvesting system used influence the costs and should be analytically studied to avoid turning a possible profit into a disadvantageous business. The research represents a real case study to evaluate, which is the maximum distance to the biomass logistic center from which it is more economically convenient to gather the wheat and corn residues in bales instead of using a self-loading wagon. The results show a lower harvesting unitary cost for the self-loading forage wagon respect to the baling system. Although the study showed delivery distances over 11.4 km for wheat straw and 16.0 km for maize stalks, the use of the self-loading forage wagon is no longer convenient, and baling is the preferred harvesting system.
Highlights
The European Union Directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (RED) includes a binding target of a 20% share of renewable energy in energy consumption in EU by 2020 [1,2]
There were large variations in results of machine performance of the two harvesting systems, depicted in Figure 1, when different biomasses were harvested. This was certainly influenced by the different amount of residual biomass available in maize and wheat. For both maize stalks harvesting systems tested, lower operating speed and, lower field capacity were observed compared to the results obtained during the harvesting of cereal straw
Corn stalks and wheat straw are less costly than growing a dedicated energy crop because they are produced as a co-product of grain production, and no additional cost, other than the harvest and nutrient replacement, is required to produce the residues
Summary
The European Union Directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (RED) includes a binding target of a 20% share of renewable energy in energy consumption in EU by 2020 [1,2]. As possible solution to this issue, has attracted much attention in last years because feedstocks can be suitable surrogates for traditional energy production systems which are finite, non-renewable, and cause of environmental concerns [3]. It is foreseen that biomass could provide around two-thirds of the renewable energy share in 2020 according to scenarios. The bioenergy value chain requires the delivery of the biomass feedstock from the production sites to the utilization centers. Along this path, the biomass passes through facilities and processes that composed the so-called biomass supply chain. Each step of the supply chain needs specific expertise, technology, and operations including biomass production, feedstock transportation, processing, and Energies 2019, 12, 3086; doi:10.3390/en12163086 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies
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