Impacts of Road Infrastructure on the Environmental Efficiency of High Capacity Transportation in Harvesting of Renewable Wood Energy

Teijo Palander, Stelian Alexandru Borz and Kalle Kärhä
Additional contact information
Teijo Palander: Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland
Stelian Alexandru Borz: Department of Forest Engineering, Forest Management Planning and Terrestrial Measurements, Faculty of Silviculture and Forest Engineering, Transilvania University of Brasov, Şirul Beethoven 1, 500123 Brasov, Romania
Kalle Kärhä: Stora Enso, Forest Division, Wood Supply Finland, P.O. Box 309, FI-00101 Helsinki, Finland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-20

Abstract: Transportation of renewable wood is increasing, being a necessary operation in logistics of the environmentally sustainable forest industry. However, increasing the transportation capacity is a source of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to trucks’ emissions, maintaining road infrastructure affects the environment by the emissions of increasing utilization of HCT (high-capacity transportation), that is, larger and heavier vehicles, affecting the backhauling transportation and the efficiency of road-network combinations. Environmental efficiency is an important metric which is used for comparisons among technological alternatives employed in the utilization of energy derived from both fossil and renewable resources. Based on the enterprise resource planning (ERP) data (2018–2020), CO 2 emissions of increasing HCT were calculated for a forest industry corporation. The reduction in average fuel consumption (ml t × km −1 ), between 52% and 70% in backhauling transportation, was 18.88%. In this respect, CO 2 emissions were reduced by 4.52 g t × km −1 , achieving 19.48 g t × km −1 , based on the data from the 76 t vehicle combinations. Furthermore, the metric of total environmental efficiency shows the potential of the alternative road-network combinations for the HCT. The environmental efficiency of the 92 t HCT increased by 11% via an intensive road-network combination, compared to the most efficient 76 t HCT alternative and the efficiency increased by 21%, compared to the most efficient line-hauling alternative. Thus, the results are in favor of the backhauling transportation by the means of 92 t vehicles for HCT development. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis demonstrates that technological improvement of the forest roads is essential for HCT in an increasing harvesting of renewable wood energy. Also, to achieve the maximum environmental efficiency of the HCT during upgrading of the forest roads, efficiency measurements of the HCT should be implemented in the transportation planning systems.

Keywords: transportation; backhauling; emissions; environment; efficiency; high-capacity; technological updating; road network setup; infrastructure; energy; wood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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