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If a single product, sugar, is the supply-chain objective, only the millable cane is of interest and not extraneous matter. Millable cane is the sound stalk below the growing point of the plant. This includes suckers but excludes dead and rotten cane. Extraneous matter is anything that is not millable cane. Extraneous matter includes trash, tops, roots and soil. If other additional products are the supply-chain objective (e.g. electricity, ethanol), then both millable cane and EM components (trash) are of interest. The components of an extraneous matter analysis are defined as: Clean cane: pieces (termed ‘billets’) of cane without any adhering trash. Trash: leaf material, dry or green. Tops: the growing point of the cane plant; generally begins from the last node of the plant. Suckers: a somewhat subjective measure. Suckers are immature cane plants, and generally occur within a mature sugarcane crop as next year’s crop begins to grow. In their advanced stage, suckers are characterised by their whitish colour and large diameter; when immature, suckers resemble tops. Stool: any piece of harvested cane that has roots and dirt as the majority of its weight; the lower subterranean section of the cane plant. Foreign material: material that is not of interest in the analysis of harvested components. Examples are a basecutter blade, wheel nut or plant material of non-cane origin. Dirt: loose material left over after all other components of the analysis have been removed. There has been considerable debate about the cost of extraneous matter to the Australian sugar industry in recent years. Opinions are split as to whether it is worthwhile expending effort to reduce extraneous matter; whether extraneous matter should be reduced at the harvesting stage, separated at the factory, or processed with the cane; and whether benefits can be realised from the collection or processing of extraneous matter. Reduced extraneous matter levels result in higher bin weight, higher ccs, higher crushing rate, lower final bagasse moisture content and higher mixed juice purity. These factors minimise transport and milling costs and ensure the economic viability of the harvester sector. Cane quality is extremely difficult to measure. It is hard to get a sample of cane that is representative of the larger lot of cane. Manually sorting and analysing samples of cane is time consuming and expensive. NIR is a system that offers continuous real-time assessment of cane quality. The instrument takes an infra-red fingerprint of the cane as it flows into the mill. NIR accurately calculates fibre content of each individual rake of cane. Other cane quality measurements may be derived from NIR, such as extraneous matter, ash, pol and brix. Table 2.4 illustrates typical EM levels in the cane supply per biomass weight. The most variable component of EM is trash. The percentage of trash in the cane supply is dependent of crop conditions (e.g. lodged), weather (e.g. wet v dry) and harvester operational setting (e.g. fan speed). Trash levels can vary up to 20% of the total biomass weight. 51
Table 2.4 EM levels in cane supply Cane Supply Percent Percent Percent Component Biomass Weight Biomass Weight Biomass Weight SRDC (2006) SRDC (2004) Whiteing (2001) Clean Cane 90.4 87 89.4 Tops 4 5.0 5.0 Trash 5 6.5 4.8 Dirt 0.6 1.5 0.8 Mallee System Product specifications for woody biomass are most likely less when compared to other agricultural commodities. Lower chip specifications are acceptable for energy or oil utilisation. However, chipping of whole trees introduces other considerations, particularly the production of long particles such as sections of small branches, which add significantly to the difficulty of handling the bulk biomass (McCormack et al. 2009). The chipped biomass in its unsorted state is a mixture of wood chip, leaf, and residues of assorted fines, bark and small twigs (see section 1.2.1 for more detail). The proportions of wood, leaf and residues is about one third each, but these values vary widely according to tree species and age at harvest. Younger, smaller trees have high proportions of leaf and less wood, and the proportion of wood increases with age (Peck et al, 2011). The leaf proportion also declines with increasing competition between mallees as the leaf area is regulated by the availability of soil moisture, so mallees grown in blocks rather than belts can be expected to have higher proportions of wood. However higher proportions of any one component does not equate to higher yields – the most important factor remains to maximise productivity because in most instances this will increase the per hectare yield of all constituents of the biomass. It is expected that mineral content other than traces of dust will be minimal as the trees don’t touch the ground with chipper harvesting and the saw works at least 50 mm above ground level. The harvesting head of the current prototype is attached on the tractor’s three point linkage and supported by wheels to maintain its position above the ground, and future harvesters will also be designed to avoid contact of the ground by the saw. The size and shape of the chips will also impact on the bulk density of the material. The size and shape of the chips is known to vary with the chipper’s linear feed rate as this determines the length of fibre in each chip, and chip length and thickness are positively correlated. The product is not perishable over periods of a few days but the impact of this product composition on spoilage should be investigated. It is known from the forest industries that clean chip, properly stacked, can be stored for extended periods, but the leaf and other fine materials, either alone or mixed with the chip, will cause stack heating, decomposition, and potentially result in fire. Fine materials will need to be dried prior to storage for more than about a week. 52
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Sustainable Biomass Supply Chain fo
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Foreword This report provides an as
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include business development (new p
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Acknowledgments The authors would l
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4.1 Product Options and Supply Chai
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Table 4.2 Assessment of current val
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Figure 3.4 Tracked rigid self-prope
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Executive Summary What the report i
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• Biomass production potential of
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• As the Industry expands, the mo
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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 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
Page 73: Bulk density will be a key consider
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
Page 103 and 104: 3. Transport and Storage Systems Tr
Page 105 and 106: same time, the potential problems o
Page 107 and 108: Figure 3.3 Articulated self-propell
Page 109 and 110: • The harvester will not have any
Page 111 and 112: Figure 3.7 Gross mass compared with
Page 113 and 114: external factors dramatically impac
Page 115 and 116: Figure 3.11 The effect of haulout t
Page 117 and 118: 3.3 Road Transport 3.3.1 Configurat
Page 119 and 120: Figure 3.15 shows an example of the
Page 121 and 122: Road distance one way < 20 km 70 km
Page 123 and 124: 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
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Ridge, DR and Linedale, AL, 1997. T
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Willcox, T, Hussey, B, Chapple, D a
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