TITLE:
Harvest of Short-Rotation Woody Crops in Plantations with a Biobaler
AUTHORS:
Philippe Savoie, Pierre-Luc Hébert, François-Simon Robert, Derek Sidders
KEYWORDS:
Biomass; Harvesting; Willow; Woody Crop; Feedstock
JOURNAL NAME:
Energy and Power Engineering,
Vol.5 No.2A,
April
30,
2013
ABSTRACT: The biobaler is an alternative to
the modified self-propelled forage harvester to cut and collect short rotation
woody crops (SRWC). It is less capital intensive and more versatile, being able
to harvest woody crops on plantations, on abandoned farmland, on brush land or
within forest understory. The biobaler was evaluated specifically on five
different plantations over 19 experimental units (546 bales harvested with an
average mass of 427 kg and 49% moisture content). Average bale density was 266
kg wet mass (WM)/m3 or 139 kg dry mass (DM)/m3. Average harvest capacity was 35 bales/h (7.7
t dry matter/h), and ranged from 23 to 48 bales/h. Harvest in plantations with
a 149 kW tractor cost on average CAN $175/h, $5/bale and $22.84/t DM. Non
recovered biomass (field loss) averaged 11% at random locations in the field
and 8% at the point of bale ejection as a result of chip abrasion. While the
biobaler remains a versatile harvester for SRWC, its preferred utilization will
be in environments of diverse woody crops with final application as a rough
mulch or for combustion in furnaces requiring minimal processing or size
reduction.