Abstract

Background and Objectives: in Sweden during 2016, 71.6 million metric tonnes (t) of forest biomass (roundwood and forest fuels) were transported by truck, corresponding to approximately 15% of all national goods truck transport. To reduce the environmental impact of forest product transports and meet Swedish climate goals, the use of 90 t high-capacity transport (HCT) trucks on well-chosen routes has been identified as one potential measure. The objective was, therefore, to develop a method of finding the geographical occurrence of potential roundwood HCT corridors for 90 t trucks, as well as estimating their environmental and economic potential in comparison to the conventional 74 t-truck transport system for Swedish conditions. Materials and Methods: the study used data from actual roundwood transports during 2016 along with a digitalization of the Swedish road network (National Road Database, SNVDB) for corridor identification. In four steps we: 1) identified supportive networks, 2) identified flow supporting corridors on the technically supportive networks, 3) applied a calibrated route finder (CRF) to route relevant transports both directly from the landing to the receiver and via the corridor, gathering drive distance information and, for example, 4) analyzed transports fuel consumption and potential CO2 savings. Results: Results showed there was annual potential for 25 HCT corridors throughout Sweden to employ 20 90 t trucks to transport 2.5 Mt of roundwood, reducing up to 5500 t of CO2 and euro3.1 M in fuel costs. Conclusions: the study reinforces previous studies' findings concerning economic and environmental potential using HCT vehicles and identifies terminal establishment and management costs as a bottleneck in successful large-scale implementation of HCT corridors.

Keywords

high-capacity transportation (HCT); roundwood; routing; supply chain; logistics

Published in

Forests
2020, Volume: 11, number: 2, article number: 220
Publisher: MDPI

SLU Authors

• Edlund, Björn

  • Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Bergström, Dan

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Höök, Christian

  • Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns


UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/f11020220

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/105066