Abstract
Forests are the main sources of wood chips delivered to the end customers by road or railway. This research analysed the impact of the quarter of the year: Q1 (January–March), Q2 (April–June), Q3 (July–September), Q4 (October–December) when wood chips were obtained over two consecutive years (2019–2020) and the type of transport used (railway and road) on the thermophysical properties of wood chips and the cost of their delivery. The mean moisture content in the wood chips was 38.28% and it was the highest (45.55%) in Q1, while in Q2 and Q3, this parameter was 8 and 17 percentage points (p.p.) lower. The mean lower heating value (LHV) of the chips was 10.46 GJ Mg−1. The chips delivered by road transport had a 4% higher LHV compared to those shipped by railway transport. The wood chips contained 3.42% d.m. of ash. The road transport at a distance of 200 km was found to be approximately 10% cheaper compared to the transport by rail for most of the study period, both with respect to 1 Mg of fresh or dry mass and 1 GJ of energy in the chips. The railway transport was cheaper in the winter (Q1).
Highlights
Biomass has become an important renewable energy source (RES) throughout the European Union (EU), as it accounted for the greatest part (40.1%) of the primary energy production in 2019 [1]
The moisture content, lower heating value (LHV) and ash content in the chips were significantly differentiated by the main source of variation and by the various interactions between them (Table 2)
The results indicate that the road transport costs were lower nearly throughout the analysed period
Summary
Biomass has become an important renewable energy source (RES) throughout the European Union (EU), as it accounted for the greatest part (40.1%) of the primary energy production in 2019 [1]. Biomass has become the most important RES in Poland, accounting for 65.6% of renewable energy production in 2019. Solid biomass in the form of wood chips is mainly consumed by power plants, combined heat and power plants (CHP) and industrial heating plants, with the demand for this fuel rising continuously. They produced 56,414 TJ of energy from solid biofuels in 2017, 58,484 TJ in 2018 and 71,201 TJ in 2019 [2]
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