Energetic Efficiency of Forest Transport as a Tool for Sustainable Management of the Activity

Abstract

Background: The global interest in reducing fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions is not recent. Under this light, this study aimed to correlate the energetic efficiency of wood transport, using the specific fuel consumption, with the variables wood drying time, truck power, fuel consumption and transport distance, in addition to adjusting equations for estimating energetic efficiency of the activity. Study Design and Methodology:  From a database of a forest transport company operating in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, the results of 1,387 trips were compiled, with an average distance of 110 km, using forest bi-train and tri-train trucks, with which simulations were carried out considering the effect of wood drying time in the field, fuel consumption, truck power and transport distance on the energetic efficiency of wood transport. Results: The results showed the existence of a strong negative correlation between the drying time of the wood in the field, the fuel consumption of the trucks and the increase in power in them and the energetic efficiency of the wood transport. Moreover, every 10 days of drying the wood in the field there is, on average, a 2.0% reduction in the moisture content of the wood and, as a consequence, an improvement of 2.8% in the energetic efficiency of wood transport, keeping the other conditions constant. Additionally, it was verified that a reduction of around 10% in fuel consumption is capable of providing an improvement of around 9.0% in the energetic efficiency of the activity; and that an increase of 20 CV in the power of the trucks represents a possible gain of up to 4.4% in the energetic efficiency of the wood transport activity, keeping all other variables constant. Conclusion: It is concluded that the search for improvement in the energetic efficiency of the wood transport activity can represent an important tool for a management model based on the principles of sustainability by providing greater efficiency in fuel consumption and its associated benefits, such as the reduction of CO2 emissions per unit of wood transported.