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Trucking Characteristics for an In-woods Biomass Chipping Operation

Informally Refereed

Abstract

A study was implemented to evaluate the transportation of woody biomass. This paper reports on the results of transporting wood chips produced in the field from transpirationally dried trees. For the study, a stand of timber was felled and allowed to dry in the field for approximately six weeks. The timber was then chipped in the woods and transported to market. In order to maximize payload of the dry chips, larger capacity trailers were utilized along with the contractors existing chip trailers. The larger trailers (123 yd3) contain 19% more volume than the traditional trailer (100 yd3), but only increased payload by 10%. Additionally, the extra payload was still 16% below the legally allowed payload.

Citation

Thompson, J. D.; Klepac, J.; and Sprinkle, W. 2012. Trucking Characteristics for an In-woods Biomass Chipping Operation. In: Proceedings of the 2012 Council on Forest Engineering Annual Meeting: Engineering New Solutions for Energy Supply and Demand; September 9-12, 2012; New Bern, NC. 4p.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/45594