Financial assessment of logging residue collection in the Southeast United States
2012
Smidt, Mathew F. | Zhang, Yaoqi | Zheng, Bin
Logging residue and nonmerchantable stems are an important component of present and future bioenergy resources. Integrated harvesting systems that chip or grind logging residues and nonmerchantable stems with the harvest of roundwood may be the most feasible technology and most likely to produce material at a competitive cost. We conducted simulated harvests on a wide range of southeastern US pine forests using a sample of Forest Inventory Analysis (FIA) inventory plots and Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) to model silvicultural treatments and intensities of pine management. In the simulation break-even marginal costs for biomass were typically present when residue volume exceeded 100 [m.sup.3] [ha.sup.-1] or ratios of roundwood to biomass were less than 4:1. Increased roundwood harvesting productivity also increased the rate at which residue arrived at the landing for processing, which improved chipper utilization and lowered costs. In integrated systems some roundwood that meets pulpwood specifications may be merchandized as biomass because of the cost savings available from increasing chipper utilization. Cost savings from merchandizing all pulpwood as biomass could support stumpage payments that may be equivalent to pulpwood stumpage in areas with low pulpwood prices and low pulpwood demand.
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