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Crop-biomass production • There is greater incentive in the sugar industry to integrate the supply chain with the key driver being enterprise profitability. Returns from mallee production in Western Australia are generally seen as secondary to the core business of wheat production and marginal so there is less incentive to optimize. • Changes to mallee farming systems are therefore unlikely while wheat production remains the main economic driver. The only changes are likely to be in frequency of harvesting. • Consideration has been given to alternative mallee field layouts. Economic modelling has been undertaken to evaluate the most effective cropping of mallee and wheat accounting for yield versus moisture competition. Changes to recommended configuration are unlikely in integrated plantings. • Consideration needs to be given to alternative denser mallee plantings in narrower alleys (10-30m) on marginal land (ie without annual crops in the alleys), close to the processor, to supplement existing and future mallee plantings that are wide-spaced belts integrated with annual cropping. • Such block plantings close to a processor will be important for large scale industry development. Planting would need to be in row configuration to improve harvesting efficiency with row spacing established to minimise suppressed growth due to competition. • Harvest efficiency will be maximised when the concentration of biomass per metre of row is maximised and distance between rows is minimised. Impact of spacing on moisture competition is however critical when determining optimum configuration. • Unlike what has occurred in Western Australia, future expansion in mallee production will be driven by the market for biomass and farming systems and layouts will need to adapt to the economics of this supply arrangement. • Sophisticated information and data collection systems have been developed in the sugar industry to manage supply areas and volumes which can be readily customised for biomass industries. • Consideration will need to be given to protocols for carbon credits under the carbon farming initiative. • In Western Australia mallee planting provides vegetative biodiversity in a wheat monoculture and the collateral benefits of this biodiversity and associated environmental dividend needs to be quantified. Key Issues and recommendations for harvesting, transport and storage systems are identified below. xx
Harvesting, transport and storage systems • Mallee harvesting costs are expected to be 3-4 times that for sugarcane. With increased production volumes and higher delivery rates this could drop to twice current sugarcane harvesting costs. New field layouts and increased harvester performance need to be considered to reduce these costs. • Harvester pour rate has the largest impact on the cost of harvest and transport. Current trials provide opportunities to optimise harvest performance and collect appropriate information on fuel consumption, vehicle utilisation, harvester location, power and pressure and material flow, bulk density etc. This should include matching the power in different parts of the harvester. • Bulk density changes with tipping and transport and associated impact on product handling needs to be assessed. Consideration will need to be given to appropriate tipping and pouring options. Harvester and chipper design could be impacted in terms of chip size and the trade-off between chipping costs (chip size) and transport costs (packing and bulk density). • Consideration will need to be given to ways to improve field efficiencies. This could inform changes to the mallee row arrangement to better suit commercial harvester and transport constraints. Harvester operation and production appears optimised if mallees are close together (
Page 1 and 2: Sustainable Biomass Supply Chain fo
Page 3 and 4: Foreword This report provides an as
Page 5 and 6: include business development (new p
Page 7 and 8: Acknowledgments The authors would l
Page 9 and 10: 4.1 Product Options and Supply Chai
Page 11 and 12: Table 4.2 Assessment of current val
Page 13 and 14: Figure 3.4 Tracked rigid self-prope
Page 15 and 16: Executive Summary What the report i
Page 17 and 18: • Biomass production potential of
Page 19: • As the Industry expands, the mo
Page 23 and 24: Biomass processing, supply chain pl
Page 25 and 26: Key barriers to biomass industries
Page 27 and 28: Crop-Biomass Production Production
Page 29 and 30: Figure 1.1 The cropping and pasture
Page 31 and 32: Table 1.1 Mallee species used for p
Page 33 and 34: 1.1.4 Growth Cycle Mallee System Ma
Page 35 and 36: northern New South Wales (where it
Page 37 and 38: Almost 80% of the industry now cuts
Page 39 and 40: Bark has relatively high ash but as
Page 41 and 42: Carbon sinks Planting of mallees to
Page 43 and 44: Table 1.5(a) State Land area devote
Page 45 and 46: out the fluctuations in farm income
Page 47 and 48: Mallee system Most of the mallee bi
Page 49 and 50: inconclusive result may have been d
Page 51 and 52: For a sustainable woody crop indust
Page 53 and 54: changed significantly since they we
Page 55 and 56: Figure 2.2 Biosystems Engineering p
Page 57 and 58: Whole-of-crop harvesting represents
Page 59 and 60: During the last decade the harvesti
Page 61 and 62: single row, as this would improve t
Page 63 and 64: 2.2.2.2 Weight Sugar System The Aus
Page 65 and 66: Table 2.1 Harvester Comparison Tabl
Page 67 and 68: The quality of cut may be less impo
Page 69 and 70: ate than a 170 tonne/ha crop of sta
Page 71 and 72:
Dry Leaf 6.1 - 3.5 17.0 58.9 53.2 T
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Bulk density will be a key consider
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Table 2.4 EM levels in cane supply
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L/T L/T 60 0.97 0.71 80 0.92 0.66 1
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Total 7.5-26 16.5 Mallee System The
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• waiting for mill delivery of em
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perhaps at 10 - 20 km intervals. Th
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transport arrangements, harvest gro
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contractors and growers, and the fa
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experience of the sugar industry wi
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Table 2.11 Alternative harvest paym
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onto the harvester. BR+F still send
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Repairs and maintenance 2.10 Capita
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Figure 2.14 and Table 2.14 describe
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Sichter et al. (2005)), harvest and
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Transport efficiencies may be possi
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3. Transport and Storage Systems Tr
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same time, the potential problems o
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Figure 3.3 Articulated self-propell
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• The harvester will not have any
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Figure 3.7 Gross mass compared with
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external factors dramatically impac
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Figure 3.11 The effect of haulout t
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3.3 Road Transport 3.3.1 Configurat
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Figure 3.15 shows an example of the
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Road distance one way < 20 km 70 km
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Haul distance is largely outside th
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3.6 Recommendations The nature of t
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• The strategy offered lower tota
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sugarcane billets are such that wit
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• Transfer the whole tree product
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Figure 4.5(b) Energy balance of con
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2010). Table 4.2 presents a summary
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4.4.2 Activated charcoal Activated
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Nett Product Value ($/t) $475.00 $
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Table 4.9 presents an estimation of
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• Oil from leaf @ $2/kg • Synth
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• The mallee oil would be extract
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5. Industry and Business Structures
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is conducted into tariff levels on
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Bx is % brix in first expressed jui
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Hildebrand (2002) estimated that th
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also has a flow on effect to the sp
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Sugar Industry Illustrative Example
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with super size multi-lift bins ove
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farmer vs. harvester) is the next l
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6. Supply Chain Planning and Manage
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Figure 6.1 Building blocks of the s
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weighed against the costs of operat
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• There is close contact between
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6.4 Planning, Management Tools and
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• Harvest and transport logistics
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interface. The system allows users
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Case Study 6.2 - Model Application
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Relationships between sectors and p
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7. Supply Chain Modelling and Econo
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It was assumed that there was a fif
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Table 7.2 Scenario two capital equi
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Table 7.4 Fuel burn rates harvester
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Figure 7.5 Effect of capital equipm
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Figure 7.7 Effect of annual tonnes
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30 1.8 7.0 12.3 17.5 50 1.1 4.3 7.6
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8. Conclusions and Recommendations
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Biomass bulk density has a large im
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Vehicles used for infield haulout w
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This can be compared with harvest a
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While diversification can add value
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Appendix 1: Comparative Assessment
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and transport conditions. Billet le
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that cane production is the most pr
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on sugar only, other proceeds (mola
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References Agnew, J 2002. A Partici
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Enecon 2001. Integrated Tree Proces
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Keating, BA, Antony, G, Brennan, LE
Page 219 and 220:
Ridge, DR and Linedale, AL, 1997. T
Page 221:
Willcox, T, Hussey, B, Chapple, D a
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