Procurement costs of cereal straw and forest chips for biorefining in South-East Finland

Abstract

Highlights• Procurement cost at the plant was 59 € dry tonne -1 when the annual procurement volume of biomass was 100 000 tonnes. Of that amount, the proportion of logging residues was 58.4%, stumps 24.3% and delimbed stems 17.3%.• Cereal straw represents an important source of biomass in Kouvola but the cost competiveness is poor compared the procurement costs of forest chips due to high baling and transporting costs. AbstractIn Finland the increasing use of biofuel in transport presupposes a search for new raw material sources for biorefining. The aim of this study was, at the regional level, to compare the procurement costs of logging residues, stumps, delimbed stems and cereal straw for biorefining. The accumulation and procurement costs of forest chips and cereal straw were estimated within a 100-kilometre transporting distance via existing road network from an end-use-facility located in Kouvola in South-East Finland. The analyses were performed as simulated treatments in thinnings of young stands, cereal fields and regeneration fellings using existing productivity and cost functions and yield calculations based on crop statistics, the forest industry stand data and the sample plots data of the National Forest Inventory of Finland. Accumulation of raw material assortments and costs of production stages were defined per dry tonnes. Subsidies and raw material prices were excluded from consideration in the study. The results indicate that recovering logging residues requires lower costs than utilization of stumps, delimbed stems or cereal straw. Cereal straw represents an important source of biomass in Kouvola but the cost competiveness is poor compared the procurement costs of forest chips. When the annual procurement volume of biomass was 50 000 dry tonnes the cost at the plant was 49 € dry tonne -1 and biomass was comprised totally of logging residues. Procurement cost grew to 59 € dry tonne -1 when the annual procurement volume of biomass was doubled to 100 000 dry tonnes. Of that amount, the proportion of logging residues was 58.4%, stumps 24.3% and delimbed stems 17.3%. First cereal straw dry tonnes were delivered to end-use-facility, when procurement cost grew to 60 € dry tonne -1 and annual procurement volume of biomass was 110 000 dry tonnes.

Roundwood and Biomass Logistics in Finland and Sweden

“…GIS-based static calculation modelling has been used, e.g. Ranta (2002), Laitila et al (2010b), Tahvanainen and Anttila (2011), Ranta et al (2012), Korpinen et al (2013), Nivala et al (2015, Laitila et al (2015), Laitila et al (2016aLaitila et al ( , 2016b, Laitila et al (2017) in area-specific GIS analysis of biomass availability and procurement costs, using the stand data, and transportation distance from the delivery point as explanatory factors.…”

Sustainable heating alternatives for 1960's and 1970's renovated apartment buildings

“…Thus, solid biomass fuels, i.e., wood pellets, wood chips, and cereal straw were considered. Due to the high baling and transporting cost, cereal straw is not a suitable case for Southern Finland, although it can be regarded as a possible biomass fuel in Southeast Finland (Laitila et al, 2016). Moreover, the price of wood pellets in Finland is by far higher than wood chips (Biomass price, 2022).…”

Spatial forest biomass supply chain analysis in Finland

“…new products or technologies) are concerned, spatial BSC case studies usually become relevant with a small delay, while the role of spatial data and GIS methods is much more important when new concepts are introduced within existing BSC systems. Such cases include, for example, new feedstock types (Laitila et al 2016a;Laasasenaho 2019) or changes in vehicles (Laitila et al 2016b; Paper IV), processing methods (Laitila et al 2015;Agar et al 2020), BSC network design (Kanzian et al 2009;Cavalli et al 2012;Athanassiadis and Nordfjell 2017;Berg and Athanassiadis 2019), or decision-making strategies (Windisch et al 2015;Eriksson et al 2017;Laurén et al 2018).…”