The transportation of fuelwood from forest to facility

Abstract

Secondary transportation from the forest to the utilisation facility is the simplest of the handling phases in transferring fuelwood from its point-of-origin to ultimate processing point, both in its objectives and application. In spite of this simplicity secondary transport is typically responsible for between 20 and 40% of the delivered fuel cost. Truck transportation is in an advanced state of development as the technology employed comes from a very large scale industry that dominates the transport of industrial products in most developed countries. To achieve a full payload within maximum allowable load dimension restrictions the material transported must have a minimum bulk density of about 250 to 280 kg/m 3. While conventional forest products generally exceed this limit, fuelwood in an unprocessed form may have a bulk density of only 120 to 150 kg/m 3. To offset this problem fuelwood material can be compacted before loading, or compacted in the trailer, but, more frequently, it is comminuted before transport. Processing of fuelwood to a chip allows the use of standard transport systems designed for the transport of wood chips for the pulp sector. Major technological gains to improve the transport efficiencies of fuelwood are unlikely in the immediate future. The most important improvements are likely to come from efforts to improve carrying efficiencies in pulp chip transport because of the much greater volume and value of this material carried annually. Any developments will be rapidly adopted by those engaged in fuelwood chip transport.