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Doctoral thesis2000Open access

Resource consumption and emissions induced by logging machinery in a life cycle perspective

Athanassiadis, Dimitris

Abstract

This thesis summarises and discusses results from four separate studies on energy and resource consumption and emissions during the life cycle phases of harvesters and forwarders i.e. logging machinery in the cut-to-length harvesting system. Energy input during operation was 82 MJ/m3ub, 11% was due to energy consumption during the production phase of the fuel. Exhaust emissions varied considerably depending on the kind of fuel that was examined (rapeseed methyl ester, environmental class 1 and environmental class 3 diesel fuels) and on whether emissions produced during the production phase of the fuels were taken into consideration. It was also estimated that 351/1000 m3ub of chainsaw oil was used for felling and crosscutting while hydraulic oil spillage from both harvesters and forwarders was 201/1000 m3ub. On the subject of spare part replacement, it was estimated that 52% of the mass of a forwarder would be replaced during its operational lifetime while the corresponding figures for the single- and two-grip harvesters are 56% and 50%, respectively. The manufacturing phase of the forest machinery was found to contribute only modestly to the total environmental impact of timber harvesting and terrain transportation (measured per unit of timber production). Six percent of the machinery’s life cycle energy consumption was due to activities connected with the production of the vehicles; raw material acquisition and intermediate processing, fabrication of individual components, assembly of the vehicles, and associated transports.

Keywords

harvesters; forwarders; life cycle assessment; life cycle inventory; energy consumption

Published in

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae. Silvestria
2000, number: 143
ISBN: 91-576-5877-3
Publisher: Department of Silviculture, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Forest Science

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/107949