This comprehensive report, which can be downloaded from the web, investigated harvesting wood for energy.
The title of the report is “Harvesting wood for energy. Cost effective woodfuel supply chains in Irish Forestry”. The report was published by COFORD (Dublin) in 2011, and was authored by Tom Kent, Pieter Kofman and Enda Coates. The objectives of the report were as follows:
- Identify various sites for the research, and identify potential cost-effective woodfuel supply chains
- Document the productivity and costs of the identified systems
- Harvest sufficient wood so that some material could be processed immediately, and the remainder left to dry for up to two years to determine possible fuel quality improvements
- Record the drying rate over the two seasons and determine the efficiency of container transport of woodchips.
The report consists of nearly 100 pages of valuable information. The executive summary and recommendations provide a very good overview of the salient points. The remainder of the report is divided into four sections:
- Description of the woodfuel supply chains trials carried out – this includes conifer and broadleaf supply chains, and investigated woodfuel moisture contents and bulk density.
- Methodology used in assessing productivity and costs – the methods used to determine production, harvested volume assessments, moisture contents, bulk density, conversion factors and energy contents are provided.
- Results of all the production trials and woodfuel assessments – the results of the investigations carried out in Section 1 are presented.
- Conclusions - system productivities in conifers and broadleaf forests, and moisture contents and bulk densities are summarised.
To access the report, click on the following link: http://www.coford.ie/media/coford/content/publications/projectreports/Harvesting_Wood_low_res_for_web.pdf