Increased costs of fossil fuels, regulatory policies, and investments by federal and state governments have caused increased interest and incentive for the use of wood as a renewable form of energy. As a result, landowners and forest managers are considering chipping whole trees and harvesting residues as a means to meet increased demand of wood chips as a renewable source of energy. However, the profitability, productivity gains, and sustainability of these alternative harvesting methods continue to be an area of research. The objective of this study was to compare two biomass harvesting treatments with regard to the characteristics of the chips they produced, chipper productivity, nutrient removals, and site disturbance. The first biomass harvesting treatment was an integrated harvest where roundwood was merchandized and hauled to the appropriate mill and limbs, tops, and small stems (residues) were chipped for hog fuel. The second biomass harvesting treatment simulated a scenario where biomass markets were competing with pulpwood markets and landowners could choose to sell wood for energy or pulp wood. In this treatment whole trees and small stems were chipped for hog fuel. A third harvesting treatment was a conventional roundwood harvest where no wood was chipped, and this treatment was used as a control for comparison of nutrient removals and site disturbance. The chips produced from both harvesting treatments were very similar, but those produced from whole trees tended to be slightly smaller than those produced from residues. Chipper productivity was significantly higher when chipping whole trees and it was also much more efficient in terms of fuel use. Estimations of nutrient removals showed that there was very little difference in the amount of nutrient removed from the biomass harvesting treatments, but both treatments removed significantly more N and Ca than the conventional roundwood harvesting treatment. There was significantly more downed and standing material left on the site after harvesting in the conventional treatment, but this did not translate into a large amount of additional nutrients left on the site. There was little difference in soil disturbance between all three treatments, and due to the dry soil conditions during harvesting, there was very little visual soil disturbance at all during harvesting. / Master of Science

<p>At the Skoghall pappermill, sulphatepaper pulp is produced in a continuous digester originally from 1969. To be able to maintain a high level of production there is a need for a process with few disturbances. Variations in how well the wooden chips are packed in the digester is one form of disturbance. Today there are no available measurements on how well the chips are packed. Instead this is regarded as being constant. </p><p>The variation in the so called bulk density of the chips is mainly due to variations in the percentage with small dimensions. Chips are classified in relation to their size and one of the smallest classes is referred to as pin chips. These are believed to have a big impact on the bulk density. The amount of pin chips fluctuate more then the other classes, there by causing disturbances. </p><p>The Skoghall pappermill has invested in a ScanChip. This is an instrument that measures the dimensions of the chips optically. ScanChip presents figures on chip quality, including a measurement of the bulk density. However, it has been shown that this measurement is not valid for the Skoghall pappermill. By using data from ScanChip a model that predicts how well the chips are packed has been devised. This value is the bulk density divided by the basic density. The model has proved to yield good results, despite a relatively small amount of data. </p><p>A theoretical value of the amount of produced pulp has been computed based on the revolutions of the production screw that feeds chips into the digester. This value takes in consideration how well the chips are packed. The value has shown great similarities with the empirical measurements that are used today. A simulation during one month has shown that differences in the mixture of chips have effected the measurement of produced pulp with up to 7 ton/h. </p><p>Chips are stored in open pile storages before they are being used in the process of transforming them into pulp. Four screws are used to move chips from the piles to conveyer belts. It has been shown in work done previously, that the movement of the screws contributes to variations in the amount of pin chips measured by ScanChip. </p><p>During the work with this master’s thesis I have found that there are variations in the piles that make it difficult to predict the amount of pin chips accordingly. However by filtering the measurements of pin chips to remove these variations, the results are improved. A new way of controlling the movements of the screws was operational on the 10 of March and this improved the results. </p><p>The direction in which the screws are moving influence the speed of the screws, mainly in the pile with the so called sawmill chips. By changing the amount of chips that each screw puts out, the differences in speed have been reduced. The mixtures found in the two piles are not completely homogenous. There are a greater amount of pin chips in the northern parts compared with the southern parts. This could be an effect of the wind direction, and will still cause variations.</p>

At the Skoghall pappermill, sulphatepaper pulp is produced in a continuous digester originally from 1969. To be able to maintain a high level of production there is a need for a process with few disturbances. Variations in how well the wooden chips are packed in the digester is one form of disturbance. Today there are no available measurements on how well the chips are packed. Instead this is regarded as being constant. The variation in the so called bulk density of the chips is mainly due to variations in the percentage with small dimensions. Chips are classified in relation to their size and one of the smallest classes is referred to as pin chips. These are believed to have a big impact on the bulk density. The amount of pin chips fluctuate more then the other classes, there by causing disturbances. The Skoghall pappermill has invested in a ScanChip. This is an instrument that measures the dimensions of the chips optically. ScanChip presents figures on chip quality, including a measurement of the bulk density. However, it has been shown that this measurement is not valid for the Skoghall pappermill. By using data from ScanChip a model that predicts how well the chips are packed has been devised. This value is the bulk density divided by the basic density. The model has proved to yield good results, despite a relatively small amount of data. A theoretical value of the amount of produced pulp has been computed based on the revolutions of the production screw that feeds chips into the digester. This value takes in consideration how well the chips are packed. The value has shown great similarities with the empirical measurements that are used today. A simulation during one month has shown that differences in the mixture of chips have effected the measurement of produced pulp with up to 7 ton/h. Chips are stored in open pile storages before they are being used in the process of transforming them into pulp. Four screws are used to move chips from the piles to conveyer belts. It has been shown in work done previously, that the movement of the screws contributes to variations in the amount of pin chips measured by ScanChip. During the work with this master’s thesis I have found that there are variations in the piles that make it difficult to predict the amount of pin chips accordingly. However by filtering the measurements of pin chips to remove these variations, the results are improved. A new way of controlling the movements of the screws was operational on the 10 of March and this improved the results. The direction in which the screws are moving influence the speed of the screws, mainly in the pile with the so called sawmill chips. By changing the amount of chips that each screw puts out, the differences in speed have been reduced. The mixtures found in the two piles are not completely homogenous. There are a greater amount of pin chips in the northern parts compared with the southern parts. This could be an effect of the wind direction, and will still cause variations.