Recipient Organization
STATE UNIV OF NEW YORK
(N/A)
SYRACUSE,NY 13210
Performing Department
Forest & Natural Resources Management
Non Technical Summary
Despite the projected increase in demand for woody biomass from sh01i rotation woody crops(SRWC) and the wide array of benefits associated with their production and use, the expansion and rapiddeployment of these systems has been restricted by their high cost of production and in some situations alack of market acceptance because of poor quality chips from first generation harvesting systems. Forwillow and hybrid poplar SRWC, harvesting accounts for about 1/3 of the delivered cost. Harvesting andtransp01iation combined account for 45-60% of the cost of delivered cost. Harvesting is also the secondlargest input of primary fossil energy in the system, after commercial N fetiilizer, accounting for about 1/3 of the input. Improvements in harvesting efficiency would reduce the delivered cost, increase the netenergy ratio and decrease greenhouse gas emissions associated with SRWC production systems.Over the past four years the project partners have worked together to develop and test chips from asingle pass cut and chip harvesting system for SRWC based on a New Holland forage harvester.Significant progress has been made, but the level of effort needs to be increased in order to meet therapidly growing need for woody biomass from SRWC systems.This project will build on existing collaborative efforts among the project paiiners to develop, testand deploy a single pass cut and chip harvester combined with a handling, transportation and storagesystem that is effective and efficient in a range of different SRWC production systems across N01ihAmerica. The system will reduce the costs associated with harvesting and transpo1iation, provideconsistent quality material to meet end users specifications, improve environmental attributes andaccelerate the deployment of SR WC. The project will address four specific tasks critical to attaining thesegoals, each of which has specific objectives.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The overall goal of this project is to build on existing collaborative effotis among the project partnersto develop, test and deploy a single pass cut and chip harvester combined with a handling, transportationand storage system that is effective and efficient in a range of different SR WC production systems acrossNorth America. The system will reduce the costs associated with harvesting and transpotiation, provideconsistent quality material to meet end users specifications, improve environmental attributes andaccelerate the deployment of SRWC. The project will address four specific tasks critical to attaining thesegoals, each of which has specific objectives.Task 1. Develop, tune, test and deploy a New Holland single pass cut and chip harvestingsystem that can be used in a range of willow and hybrid poplar management systems across theUnited States. hi this task the New Holland sh01i rotation coppice cutting head will be developed andtuned so that it efficiently harvests both willow and hybrid poplar SRWC across N01ih America.Harvesting will be tested during both the dormant and growing seasons to expand the harvesting windowand across a range of stem diameter distributions to increase the range of SRWC that can be harvestedand processed with this unit.Task 2. Develop and refine handling systems that will effectively and efficiently move SRWCchips produced with the harvester in task 1 from the field to the end user. Handling systems will bedesigned and tested to determine the most cost effective and efficient method of moving chips from theNH harvester to the end user. Systems will build on trials of different handling systems that have alreadybeen tested with combinations of forage wagons and blowers and dump wagons of various sizes.Task 3. Changes in Wood Quality for Chips of Different Sizes Harvested at Different Times ofthe Year. This task will quantify changes in moisture content and energy content of willow and hybridpoplar biomass chips stored in piles created during differenttimes of the year (dormant and growingseason) with different sizes of chips from the New Holland harvester. A biomass supply model forSWRC, including staging, storage, transpotiation and multiple satellite staging location versus on siteprocessing, will be developed to determine optimal supply scenarios.Task 4. Impact of Harvesting Improvements on the Economics of Short Rotation WoodyCrops. This task builds on existing economic models for hybrid poplar and willow SRWC productionsystems to refine the analysis of the harvesting, transportation, storage and handling systems. A variety ofdifferent harvesting-distribution-storage system models will be developed and compared. Thedevelopment of this model will be used to assess the impact of harvester improvements and changes inthe distribution and storage and variety changes based on data collected in tasks 1-3.
Project Methods
Task I. Develop, tune, test and deploy a New Holland single pass cut and chip harvesting system that canbe used in a range of willow and hybrid poplar management systems across the United States.Task 1.1 Testing and tuning the NH SRWC Harvesting System Based on a NH FR9060 ForageHarvester and a NH 130FB Woody Crop HeadThe harvesting system will be optimized through an iterative process of field testing andmodifications. Fields with a range of varieties representing the expected range of plant conditions(diameter dist~·ibutions, plant height and degree to which the crop deviates from the vertical) will beselected for testing the harvester at each stage of development. Prior to field testing, random plots will beinstalled and the survival, height, stem diameters, and stem angle will be measured to determinedifferences in harvester efficiency and effectiveness. Following harvesting operations additionalmeasurements will be made in the randomly located field plots to assess the effectiveness of the harvester.A scale will be developed and used to assess the quality of the cut made by the harvester. Time motiondata will be measured using a GPS system. This data, in combination with an running log that ismaintained in the field, will be used to determine harvesting speeds, the number of stoppages due to jamsand other malfunctions, time spent turning and repositioning equipment at the ends of rows and downtime associated with the collection and transpo1iation p01iion of the system. Chip samples will becollected during harvesting operations to characterize the size distribution and quality of the chips.Decision Points: Based on field operations and data collected during the first harvesting season(winter of 2009/10), the header and/or forage harvester will be modified to address bottlenecks in thesystem to improve overall performance during the spring and summer. The selection of areas to harvest insubsequent trials will be based on results from earlier trials and the need to examine other characteristicsof either the hybrid poplar or willow biomass systems.Deliverables: A New Holland Sh01i Rotation Coppice Woody Biomass cutting header and harvesterwill be available for harvesting both willow and hybrid poplar crops by early in 20 I 0 growing season.Data on materials and inputs for the designed harvesting system and from field trials will be used toupdate the economics model (Task 4). Semiannual rep01is of field data collected before, during and afterharvesting, identification of bottlenecks in the harvesting system, action steps taken to resolve them, andchanges to the harvesting system.Task 1.2 Harvesting SRWC at different times ofthe vear.The recommended time for harvesting of willow biomass crops is during the dormant season whenthe translocation of leaf, branch and stem nutrients to roots for winter storage has occurred. Expanding theharvesting season for willow biomass crops would expand the time period that it can be used as a key component of the feedstock supply for end users and reduces the costs associated with storage conditions.It will also increase the number of hectares that a single harvesting machine could cover in a single year.This task will make use of existing willow crop trials in NY and hybrid poplar trials in Boardman,OR to test the effectiveness the New Holland harvesting system during the growing season. The same setof measurements will be taken during these harvesting trials as under Task 1.1. In addition, the prop01tionof foliage to woody biomass will be estimated in the randomly located plots using destructive harvestingtechniques to create a foliage:woody biomass ratio. The impact of harvesting on survival, biomassproduction, stem production, and winter hardiness will be assessed in randomly allocated plots.Task 2. Develop and refine handling systems that will effectively and efficiently move SRWC chipsproduced with the harvester in task 1 from the field to the end user.Handling systems that collect the chips from the harvester and deliver them to an end user will bedeveloped and tested and the costs and limitations associated with the different systems will bedetermined. The systems will make use of equipment that is largely available in the agriculturalcommunity in the Northeast or the Pacific Northwest so that the system could be expanded rapidlywithout having to purchase additional equipment. Data from each cost input point will be collected andused to estimate final delivered biomass costs, using previous process models. Feedback from truck andplant operators concerning how the material handled and flowed in their systems shall be collected at alllocations where willow chips are used.Task 3. Changes in Wood Quality for Chips of Different Sizes Harvested at Different Times of the YearThis task will quantify changes in moisture content and energy content of willow and hybrid poplarbiomass chips with different pmticle size distributions stored in different size piles. Piles will be createdat least two different times during the year (dormant and growing season) with two different sizes of chipsbeing produced by the NH FR9060 forage harvester during the first year of this project as pmt of theactivities in task 1. Samples will be collected from these piles every 3 - 4 weeks over a period of one yearfrom the outer shell and the inner core. Characteristics of the chips that will be measured include moisture and energy content and ash concentrations. Subsamples will be collected to test different dryingtechniques necessary to reduce the moisture content of wood to less than 15% moisture content and testedin cubing and pelletizing densification equipment. Data from these trials will be used in task 4 to assessthe impact short and longer term chip storage on the overall economics of SWRC harvesting systems.For hybrid poplar trials in the western U.S. initial drying of the feedstock may be possible bystopping the irrigation and allowing the trees to dry down before harvesting. Chips from harvesting freshhybrid poplar and patiially dried hybrid poplar harvested will be used to create piles that will bemonitored at the site over time will be generated with the NH FR9060 forage harvester as pati of theactivities in task 1. A second variable that will be examined at the trials will be rotating or not rotating thepiles at the plant to determine if the additional cost of rotating the pile is cost effective or not. As with thetrials above, samples will be collected every 3 - 4 weeks from the inner p01iion of the pile and the outershell and tested for moisture and energy content.Task 4. Impact of Harvesting Improvements on the Economics of Sho1i Rotation Woody CropsDuring this project harvesting, in field handling and transp01iation, and chip storage submodels in anexisting hybrid poplar discounted cash flow (DCF) model and the Eco Willow cash flow model will bemodified or updated to reflect the current harvesting system based on the NH FR9060 forage harvesterand the NH 130FB SRC woody crop header for coppice systems based on shmi rotations. In fieldtransp01iation models will be updated to reflect the systems that are developed and then tested during theproject. Costs and yields in the model will be modified based on data generated from trials in both hybridpoplar for both the drier eastside conditions of Oregon versus the nonirrigated, westside conditions wherehybrid poplar is currently being produced and for willow across the notiheast where harvesting trials willbe conducted. As unit costs and prices are updated during the project, the models will be modified andsensitivity analysis will be run for hybrid poplar and willow plantations in both locations.