A Simulator for Estimating Cost and Energy Consumption of Wood Pellet Production Based on Forest Management Information

Abstract

A simulator was developed for a sequential process comprising from a tree felling process to a pellet distribution process to estimate cost and energy consumption of wood pellet production. Linear programming was used in the simulator to minimize the pellet production cost. An objective function of the pellet production cost was set to seek an optimal solution. In order to avoid influence of external economical factors such as timber demand and prices, an assumption was made in the algorism of the simulator as follows: all harvested trees will be utilized for a raw material of wood pellet, and no trees will be utilized as an industrial timber or pulp chip. The simulator was given default parameters, functions of pellet producing efficiency and information of energy demand and supply, which were obtained and summarized in our previous study. This is the first work to present a simulator for estimating cost and energy consumption of wood pellet production, which was developed for a sequential process comprising from a tree felling process to a pellet distribution process based on the forest management information.