2017 Volume 96 Issue 10 Pages 436-440
We tried to obtain practical data on bulk density of forest residues for truck transportation in order to apply it to woody biomass electric power generation. A case study of packing and transportation using a panel truck of 11.5 t capacity was conducted for three types of forest residues: logs, twigs, and their mixture, with two repetitions for each. Bulk density was measured from bulk volume of residues and weight of the loads. The achieved packing efficiency ranged from 0.50 to 0.95. Using the data, we estimated the loading weight with packing efficiency of 1.00 to be 15.25 t, 5.78 t, 11.46 t for logs, twigs, and the mixture, respectively. A series of numerical examination found that in order to achieve the maximum loading weight of 11.5 t, keeping packing efficiency of 1.00, mixture of logs and twigs would be the best method with the ratio of twigs to be around 0.4 to 0.5.
