Determining the Feasibility
of the Recovery of Woody
Biomass
Bob Rummer, US Forest Service
Mark Engle, Four Corners Consulting
Feasibility

Technical
– Performance
– Meeting constraints
Introduction

Economic
– Market values of goods and services
– Costs of operation
Determining Feasibility
Contractors bidding on a project
 Grantors or investors
 Wood purchasers
 Resource managers
 Policy makers
Introduction

Current Condition
Desired Future
Prescription
• What to treat
Introduction
Forest Operation
• How to treat
Forest Products and
Ecosystem Services
Introduction
Outline
Technical feasibility issues
 Needs and constraints
 Biomass system technology
 Performance estimation
Economic feasibility issues
 Business planning
Prescription
Piece size
 Species
 Volume per acre
 Acres per landing
 Residual spacing
 Utilization
 Terrain (slopes, riparian)
 Additional work
Needs and Constraints

Prescription Constraints
Soil disturbance
 Residual damage
 Exclusions (arch sites, nesting)
 Operating season
 Activity fuels
 Noise
Needs and Constraints

Example: WUI
Work hours limited 700-1700
 Road impacts (no steel grousers)
 Unit size <5 ac
 Landings limited
 Terrain relatively flat
 Control risk to public
 High visibility
Needs and Constraints

Needs and Constraints
Kyle Canyon, NV
Needs and Constraints
Los Alamos, NM
Products and Markets
Needs and Constraints

Current wood users
– Products
– Market size

Merchandizing operations
– Size
– Processing or conversion
Generic Technical Solutions

Functions
System Technology
– Felling, skidding, processing, loading

Systems
– Ground-based
 Whole tree or tree length
 Log length
– Cable
– Helicopter
Biomass Recovery
Added component of multi-product
harvesting
 Biomass harvesting smallwood
 Biomass harvesting brush/understory
 Short-rotation woody crops
System Technology

System Technology: Roadside
Multi-product harvest
15%
85%
System Technology: Roadside
Clean chips + biomass
80%
20%
System Technology: Roadside
Biomass Processing
System Technology: Roadside
Mobile Conversion
System Technology: Roadside
Recovering Residues
Chipping/grinding with harvesting
 Chipping/grinding separately
 Hauling residues
 Keep the chipper busy
 Can get complex
 Don’t haul slash very far

System Technology: In-woods
Forwarding or skidding
Payload = 1/3 solid wood
System Technology: In-woods
Forwidder
System Technology: In-woods
Biomass Bundling
System Technology: In-woods
In-woods biomass harvest
System Technology: In-woods
In-woods residue collection
Very sensitive to volume per acre
 Concentration by previous work
 Payload is critical
 Generally can’t pay for itself

System Technology: Swath
1980—Nicholson Koch
System Technology: In-woods
Texas A&M Mesquite
Photo: Texas A&M Univ
System Technology: Swath
Swath Harvesters
Sensitive to volume per acre
 Less sensitive to small piece size
 Takes everything
 Cleaning machines
 Alternative to mastication
 How to move the chips?

System Technology: Fuel Thinning
WT to chipper
System Technology: Fuel Thinning
Photo: BLM, Alturas
System Technology: Fuel Thinning
Fuel Thinning
System Technology: Fuel Thinning
Biomass Thinning
Low-value product
 Generally facing smaller diameters
 Many special treatments
 Tend to be lower system output

Performance Estimation
Put a number on Productivity
Need to know output
 Need to know time required

Productivity = output / time
Performance Estimation
If you have a system …

Gross production estimate
– simple
– Includes all effects, delays
– Only applies to specific conditions

Do your own time study
– Small sample of only productive time
– Measure things that affect time
Performance Estimation
Example: skidding

Key variable is distance
Get your data
16
14
Cycle Time (min)
Performance Estimation
Skidder Production
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0
100
200
Distance (ft)
300
400
Performance Estimation
Summarize Results
Watch skidding for a truckload
 Total volume skidded/# turns

– Volume per turn
Total time
 Calculate the average skid distance

“Skidder got 20 tons per hour at an average
skid distance of 300 ft”
Performance Estimation
Unknown Machine
Look at spec sheets for payload
 Estimate operational speeds

“Feller-buncher can cut 2 trees/min that are
250 lbs each for a productivity of 15 tons per
hour”
Performance Estimation
Be Careful
How many productive hours can
you get in a year?
 Did you see all work tasks?
 What limited production?
 Don’t overlook overhead

Performance Estimation
Look at the Whole System

System output is limited by slowest operat
Felling
Skidding
Loading
$75/hr
$75/hr
20 tons/hr
12 tons/hr
$50/hr
80 tons/hr
Performance Estimation
Technical Feasibility
Meets required performance
 Estimate of production rate
 Some idea of how output is
affected by key factors

Now the key question is, “Can you make
money with it?”
Why is feasibility an issue?
Constraints generally decrease options
 Constraints not treated as tradeoffs
 There are unsolvable problems
 New product opportunities/requirements
 “There be monsters …”

– Wide range of risks/unknowns