Characteristic fuel consumption and exhaust emissions in fully mechanized logging operations

Abstract

A study was done using eight different logging machines (harvesters and forwarders) in clear-felling operations to quantify the associated fuel consumption, and to define the inherent relationship between engine output power and fuel consumption. Exhaust emissions were also calculated on the basis of mean fuel consumption values, obtained by measurements, and from the developed regression and correlation model for diesel and rapeseed methyl ester (RME) fuels. The calculation considered exhaust emissions associated with the manufacture, distribution, and combustion of the respective fuels. It was found that carbon dioxide emissions amounted to 9.63 kg/m³ of delivered timber for diesel fuel, and to 10.64 kg/m³ for RME. It was also found that when using RME only 2.82 kg/m³ of carbon dioxide emissions originated from fossil resources, therefore, it is only this amount that can be deemed an environmental load, confirming RME as a lesser environmental pollutant.

Keywords:

• Carbon dioxide
• Diesel
• Emission factor
• Harvester
• RME

Acknowledgments

The paper was prepared within the framework of research projects of the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic “Forest and Wood. Support to a functionally integrated forest management” (MSM 6215648902) and of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic “Sophisticated model for nature-friendly timber haulage evaluation” (QH71159). The authors also wish to express their thanks to Coillte and contractors in Ireland for providing the possibility of data collection. Part of this study was presented orally at the IUFRO All-D3 conference at Sapporo whereas priority of publication is on this paper published in the Journal of Forest Research.