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2. Harvesting Systems In considering an agricultural system as a whole, harvesting can be seen as the hinge, or as a ridge between the pre-harvest period, corresponding to production activity and the post-harvest period, extending from harvesting to consumption. All harvesting systems have component parts and processes. Usually the aim is to produce a quality product for the market as cheaply as possible, but other factors may need to be considered. In the case of harvesting biomass, the aims may include improving the productivity of equipment and resources and making the day to day operations easier, safer and more efficient. Analysing the elements and processes of a system is the first step in achieving these aims. Key Elements There are 3 key elements that make up any biomass harvesting system – trees, people and equipment. No matter what the system, these elements all interact at harvest time. The way the biomass harvesting system functions is the result of the interaction of these elements at harvest time. Each of these elements has specific characteristics that need to be taken into consideration when designing the whole biomass harvesting system. These are outlined in proceeding sections with comparison to the harvesting system of the Australian Sugarcane Industry. A change to any element of the biomass harvesting system will also have an impact on the other elements of the production system. 2.1 Harvester Design Sugar system One of the greatest changes in Australian sugarcane growing has been the replacement of manual cane-cutters by mechanical harvesters. The initial changes to whole-stick mechanical harvesting, introduced slowly since the 1930s, by themselves had little effect on the farming system, other than faster and timely harvesting allowing subsequent field operations to follow more quickly. However, it is difficult to assign benefits to this. It is the widespread adoption of chopper harvesters that has changed the farming system radically. The Australian Sugarcane Industry is based on ‘chopped’ or ‘billeted cane’ rather than wholestalk cane which is still a major component of overseas sugarcane industries. Australia pioneered the development of mechanical sugarcane harvesting. The evolution of the sugarcane harvester in Australia has been a unique blend of the developments of farmer innovators, small manufacturers, and the research and development teams of larger corporations. The pioneering ‘chopped cane’ harvester was the Massey Ferguson 515, side mounted on a farm tractor. By 1975 around 98% of the crop was cut by ‘chopped cane’ harvesters. In 1979, Australia became the first sugar producing nation to convert entirely to mechanical sugarcane harvesting. The Australian type ‘chopped cane’ sugarcane harvester, as shown in Figure 2.1, is a single row, over-the-row machine with a swinging elevator capable of delivering sugarcane to either side or to the rear of the harvester. The basic principles used in ‘chopped cane’ sugarcane harvesters have not 29
changed significantly since they were first developed. The main changes are related to improved feeding and cleaning during green cane harvesting and increased capacity. Figure 2.1 Layout of Australian standard ‘chopped cane’ sugarcane harvester Sugarcane when harvested is a perishable product, and unlike many agricultural commodities (e.g. grains) has no value at the farm gate. Value is added through cane transport to the mill and its subsequent processing into raw sugar and other products, and through storage, marketing and shipping to the customer. Mallee System A harvesting system for this new crop industry is needed. Various options for harvesting and chipping mallees have previously been considered. These include: Grapple harvesters are used extensively in Australian forestry operations. They are suited to medium-to-large trees with single straight stems. This system does not seem to have any application to multi-stemmed trees such as mallees where the cost of harvesting with conventional forestry equipment such as grapple harvesters appears prohibitive. Feller bunchers offer the advantage over the grapple harvester of being able to handle smaller stems more effectively. They have clamps that grasp the stem and additional stems can be added to the bunch held by the clamps. When the clamps are full, the bunch is dumped. The bunches can be chipped at the stump or at the roadside. The greatest limitation to this method is the number of mallees that can be collected into each bunch, because the cost of harvesting and the collecting of the bunches depends upon bunch size. Modified forage harvesters are used to harvest willow (in the deciduous phase) in Europe. The stems are fairly small and typically branchless and are pushed forwards as they are cut, collected underneath the harvester and chipped. The concept seems applicable to mallees, except that the mallee stems have too many branches to lie flat when the stem is cut and pushed over. Also, the close planting of mallees means the crown of the tree would fall against the next tree, further reducing the ability to lie flat. Debarking may be important for some products, such as engineering strand lumbar (ESL). For other products such as energy or medium density fibreboard (MDF), debarking may not be as 30
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 and 20: • As the Industry expands, the mo
Page 21 and 22: Harvesting, transport and storage s
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: For a sustainable woody crop indust
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
Page 73 and 74: Bulk density will be a key consider
Page 75 and 76: Table 2.4 EM levels in cane supply
Page 77 and 78: L/T L/T 60 0.97 0.71 80 0.92 0.66 1
Page 79 and 80: Total 7.5-26 16.5 Mallee System The
Page 81 and 82: • waiting for mill delivery of em
Page 83 and 84: perhaps at 10 - 20 km intervals. Th
Page 85 and 86: transport arrangements, harvest gro
Page 87 and 88: contractors and growers, and the fa
Page 89 and 90: experience of the sugar industry wi
Page 91 and 92: Table 2.11 Alternative harvest paym
Page 93 and 94: onto the harvester. BR+F still send
Page 95 and 96: Repairs and maintenance 2.10 Capita
Page 97 and 98: Figure 2.14 and Table 2.14 describe
Page 99 and 100: Sichter et al. (2005)), harvest and
Page 101 and 102: 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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