Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2022
Sieving and covering of wood chips improves storability
Anerud, Erik; Bergström, Dan; Routa, Johanna; Eliasson, LarsAbstract
Minimising dry matter losses during storage of comminuted forest fuels is desirable from both an economic and a sustainability perspective. This study examined fuel quality and amount of recovered energy during the storage of forest wood chips stored at full industrial scale at three locations, and the effect of sieving and covering piles with a water-resistant, vapour-permeable fabric. Sieving wood chips before storage, that is, reducing the number of fines smaller than 8 mm, reduced the cumulative dry matter losses to <2%, while cumulative dry matter losses after storage for 4-6 months using current practices, that is, unsieved and uncovered, reached 10.6%. The combined effect of storage management led to a value loss of 11.5%, while both covering and sieving led to lower losses, with the combination of sieving and covering giving a 1.3% value increase, and thus, increased storability.Keywords
dry matter loss; forest fuel; fuel quality; moisture contentPublished in
Energies2022, volume: 18, number: 8, article number: 2953
Authors' information
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology
Routa, Johanna
Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE)
Eliasson, Lars
Forestry Research Institute of Sweden, Skogforsk
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG7 Affordable and clean energy
UKÄ Subject classification
Wood Science
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/en15082953
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/116690