IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v7y2015i3p3017-3030d46723.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving Log Loading Efficiency for Improved Sustainable Transport within the Irish Forest and Biomass Sectors

Author

Listed:
  • Amanda Sosa

    (School of Biosystems Engineering, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland)

  • Radomir Klvac

    (Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University, Zemědělská 3, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic)

  • Enda Coates

    (Department of Chemical and Life Sciences, Waterford Institute of Technology, Cork Road, Waterford, Ireland)

  • Tom Kent

    (Department of Chemical and Life Sciences, Waterford Institute of Technology, Cork Road, Waterford, Ireland)

  • Ger Devlin

    (School of Biosystems Engineering, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland)

Abstract

In Ireland, timber and biomass haulage faces the challenge of transporting enough material within strict legal dimensions and gross vehicle weights restrictions for trucks and trailers. The objective of this study was to develop a method to control payload weight by knowing the moisture content of the wood. Weights, volumes, and moisture content were gathered from 100 truckloads of Sitka spruce pulpwood. Truck volume and weight utilization patterns were analyzed based on stacked volume, truck volume, and weights recorded from the weighbridge. Solid/bulk volume conversion factors for the truckloads were estimated indicating the truck’s solid volume capacity to be filled. Trucks were grouped into five conditions based on their configuration—volume capacity and legal maximum payload. A loaded volume fraction was estimated to assess the optimal volume capacity and stanchion height at which the trucks should be loaded. Results showed that 100% of the trucks presented volume underutilization, with a maximum of 27.5 m 3 (only 39.85% volume capacity). In contrast, 67% of trucks were overweight while the remaining 33% were under the legal maximum weight. The average solid/bulk volume conversion factor was 0.66 ± 0.013 at 95% confidence level. Depending on the conditions, trucks can be filled to 100% of their volume capacity with wood at an MC from 29% to 55%. The minimum truck volume capacity utilization was 45%. This methodology can be used by truck hauliers, enabling them to determine in-forest the optimum volume and weight of wood to be transported by knowing the moisture content (MC), the wood specie, and using the height of the stanchions of the trailer as reference when loading the truck.

Suggested Citation

  • Amanda Sosa & Radomir Klvac & Enda Coates & Tom Kent & Ger Devlin, 2015. "Improving Log Loading Efficiency for Improved Sustainable Transport within the Irish Forest and Biomass Sectors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-14, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:3:p:3017-3030:d:46723
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/3/3017/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/3/3017/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Devlin, Ger J. & McDonnell, Kevin & Ward, Shane, 2008. "Timber haulage routing in Ireland: an analysis using GIS and GPS," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 63-72.
    2. Devlin, Ger & Klvac, Radomir & McDonnell, Kevin, 2013. "Fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions of biomass based haulage in Ireland – A case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 55-62.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Teijo Palander & Stelian Alexandru Borz & Kalle Kärhä, 2021. "Impacts of Road Infrastructure on the Environmental Efficiency of High Capacity Transportation in Harvesting of Renewable Wood Energy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-20, January.
    2. Zygmunt Stanula & Marek Wieruszewski & Katarzyna Mydlarz & Krzysztof Adamowicz, 2023. "Fuel Use Reduction and Economic Savings from Optimization of Road Transportation of Coniferous Roundwood," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-16, July.
    3. Katarzyna Mydlarz & Marek Wieruszewski, 2020. "Problems of Sustainable Transport of Large-Sized Roundwood," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-10, March.
    4. Pei Liu & Dong Mu & Daqing Gong, 2017. "Eliminating Overload Trucking via a Modal Shift to Achieve Intercity Freight Sustainability: A System Dynamics Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-24, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amanda Sosa & Kevin McDonnell & Ger Devlin, 2015. "Analysing Performance Characteristics of Biomass Haulage in Ireland for Bioenergy Markets with GPS, GIS and Fuel Diagnostic Tools," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Kilcline, Kevin & Dhubháin, Áine Ní & Heanue, Kevin & O'Donoghue, Cathal & Ryan, Mary, 2021. "Addressing the challenge of wood mobilisation through a systemic innovation lens: The Irish forest sector innovation system," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    3. Devlin, Ger & Talbot, Bruce, 2014. "Deriving cooperative biomass resource transport supply strategies in meeting co-firing energy regulations: A case for peat and wood fibre in Ireland," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1700-1709.
    4. Murphy, Fionnuala & Devlin, Ger & McDonnell, Kevin, 2014. "Forest biomass supply chains in Ireland: A life cycle assessment of GHG emissions and primary energy balances," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 1-8.
    5. Cartelle Barros, Juan José & Lara Coira, Manuel & de la Cruz López, María Pilar & del Caño Gochi, Alfredo, 2015. "Assessing the global sustainability of different electricity generation systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 473-489.
    6. Murphy, Fionnuala & Sosa, Amanda & McDonnell, Kevin & Devlin, Ger, 2016. "Life cycle assessment of biomass-to-energy systems in Ireland modelled with biomass supply chain optimisation based on greenhouse gas emission reduction," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 1040-1055.
    7. A. Parsakhoo & M. Jajouzadeh, 2016. "Determining an optimal path for forest road construction using Dijkstra's algorithm," Journal of Forest Science, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 62(6), pages 264-268.
    8. Aidin PARSAKHOO & Mohsen MOSTAFA & Shaban SHATAEE & Majid LOTFALIAN, 2017. "Decision support system to find a skid trail network for extracting marked trees," Journal of Forest Science, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 63(2), pages 62-69.
    9. Yuan, Peng & Shen, Boxiong & Duan, Dongping & Adwek, George & Mei, Xue & Lu, Fengju, 2017. "Study on the formation of direct reduced iron by using biomass as reductants of carbon containing pellets in RHF process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 472-482.
    10. Devlin, Ger & Klvac, Radomir & McDonnell, Kevin, 2013. "Fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions of biomass based haulage in Ireland – A case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 55-62.
    11. Curl, Angela & Davison, Lisa, 2014. "Transport Geography: perspectives upon entering an accomplished research sub-discipline," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 100-105.
    12. Shafie, S.M. & Masjuki, H.H. & Mahlia, T.M.I., 2014. "Life cycle assessment of rice straw-based power generation in Malaysia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 401-410.
    13. Flisberg, Patrik & Frisk, Mikael & Rönnqvist, Mikael & Guajardo, Mario, 2015. "Potential savings and cost allocations for forest fuel transportation in Sweden: A country-wide study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 353-365.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:3:p:3017-3030:d:46723. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.