Decreasing the diesel fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of industrial in-field chipping operations

Plantation forestry accounts for a rapidly increasing proportion of the global wood supply, which makes it especially urgent to reduce its environmental impact. In that regard, much benefit can be obtained by reducing fossil fuel consumption during tree harvesting operations, which represent a main contributor to CO2 emissions in the plantation wood supply chain. This test was conducted in Brazil on three industrial delimber-debarker-chippers (Peterson Pacific DDC 5000H), which are the largest fuel consumers among the machines used for harvesting plantation eucalypt. Production, fuel use and product quality data were collected for each machine on a daily basis under the standard 2100 RPM engine setting, and under a new reduced engine setting (1820 RPM). Fuel consumption and productivity data were collected continuously for 30 days (triple shift) for each machine and treatment. Under the new treatment, fuel use and emissions were reduced in all machines, without any negative effects on productivity and product quality. In fact, both debarking performance and chip size distribution were improved. The experiment showed how a simple adjustment of engine setting may cut fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by an average of 17% over the control values. Engine setting adjustment is a basic measure, easy to implement and suitable for application to a wide range of activities and environments.