Prinz Robert, MSc.

Logistics of roundwood and biomass comprise a high number of operations, machinery, storage sites and transportable roundwood and biomass assortments. Moreover, complex and highly varying operational environment through the year poses logistics challenges incurring additional costs. An extensive review of studies was conducted in Sweden and Finland concerning roundwood and biomass logistics, starting from roadside landings and ending with delivery to a mill or a conversion facility. The main aim of the review was to describe trends in roundwood and biomass logistics since the start of the century. Papers were classified to categories of truck transports and roads, terminals, multimodal transports, storage and supply chain logistics. Slightly over 50% of reviewed articles were constrained to biomass only, 31% to roundwood only and 14% to both. Rapid technology development, amendments concerning road transports, increasing environmental concerns and forestry sector’s push to decrease the logistics costs can be seen as the biggest drivers for the reviewed studies and their study objectives. These aspects will also drive and increase the demand for research and development in roundwood and biomass logistics in the future.

Fuel consumption is one of the key parameters in mechanised forest operations, particularly on lower bearing capacity soils, as wheel chains or bogie tracks can have a strong effect on it. This study aims to analyse the fuel consumption of several individual wheeled cut-to-length forwarder set-ups with different types of bogie tracks on peatland using automatic recording of data bus information. Two types of forwarders, 8-wheeled and 10-wheeled, and three types of tracks were tested on peatland in Eastern Finland. A mixed-model approach is the basis to study the fuel consumption as a function of the soil bearing capacity, the number of passes of the machine on the same soil, the section (curve or straight) and other variables related to the machine performance and set-up, for a total of N=27,928 fuel observations on three machines in 33 plots (trail segments). The model results in an R2=0.78; the number of passes increases the fuel consumption significantly, while the soil bearing capacity did not affect the fuel consumption. There are, however, important differences between the machines performance, which are addressed in the model. By contributing to the knowledge on the connection between operational conditions and fuel consumption, the study can contribute to the aim towards a sustainable forest operation through minimizing negative environmental impacts and providing the necessary tools for further research efforts.