Energy consumption and CO2 analysis of different types of chippers used in wood biomass plantations

Woodchip is preferred to all biomass forms because it shows standardised sizes and offers additional benefits in terms of load density. In Europe, a large amount of woodchip is produced by dedicated cultivations: very Short Rotation Coppice (vSRC) and Short Rotation Coppice (SRC). The chipping operation can be done during the biomass harvest or some months after tree cutting. This operation can be performed by different machines: disc chippers, drum chippers, feller-chippers and grinders. The goal of this work was to determine the energy and the CO2 emission of different types of chippers used in biomass comminution produced by poplar vSRC and SRC. All machines were tested with two different feedstocks: branchwood (treetops and biomass produced by vSRC) and whole-trees (biomass produced by SRC). Fuel consumption ranged between 14.36 and 59.521 h(-1) and energy consumption varied from 0.92 to 0.62 MJ Mg DM-1, respectively, for branchwood and whole-trees feedstock type. In addition, an average value of 16.40 kgCO(2)eq Mg DM-1 in branchwood chipping and an average value of 10.80 kgCO(2)eq Mg DM-1 were obtained in CO2 assessment. This experiment indicated that self-propelled feller-chippers were significantly more convenient than conventional chippers in biomass comminution produced by dedicated plantations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.