Integrated procurement of pulpwood and energy wood from early thinnings using whole-tree bundling

To increase the volume of energy wood and pulpwood harvested from early thinnings, their procurement costs will have to be significantly reduced. This can be done through the integration of pulpwood and energy wood procurement applying a newly-developed supply chain based on whole-tree bundling. In 2007, the first prototype of the bundle harvester capable of incorporating compaction into the cutting phase was launched. Cost savings, especially in primary and secondary transportation, can be achieved by increasing the load sizes by replacing undelimbed whole trees with bundles. The bundles can be hauled by a standard forwarder to the roadside storage area, from where they are transported by a standard timber truck to the pulp mill. Batches of bundles are then fed into a wood flow consisting of conventional delimbed pulpwood. Separation of the bundles into pulpwood and energy wood fractions does not take place until the wood reaches the debarking drum.In this feasibility study, the required productivity level of bundle harvesting (i.e., cutting and bundling) in Scots pine-dominated stands was assessed by comparing the total supply chain costs based on whole-tree bundling with those of the other pulpwood and energy wood supply chains by means of system analysis. The cost calculations indicated that whole-tree bundling enables the procurement costs to be reduced to below the current cost level of separate pulpwood and energy wood procurement in early thinnings. The greatest cost-saving potential lies in small-diameter (d1.3 = 7–10 cm) first-thinning stands, which are currently unprofitable for conventional pulpwood procurement.