Consequences of increasing payloads on carbon emissions – an example from the Bavaria State Forest Enterprise (BaySF)

Abstract

To significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in general, and to substantially reduce the energy input specifically of wood products, is an overall accepted aim. Here, log transport significantly contributes within the wood supply chain, and the question arisesin which quantity the gross vehicle weight contributes to the related greenhouse gas emissions within wood transportation and the energy input in relation to the wood energy content of the transported goods. The study uses a modelling approach, following the DIN EN 16258:2013-03 for calculating GHG emissions, and the energy consumption of transport services. To apply these calculations data of the transported log volume of the Bavaria State Forest Enterprise (BaySF) in 2010 were used. Results show that the overall potential to reduce GHG emissions from log transports by increasing payloads is high. In particular, the reduction factor is 2.5 % per extra tonne of gross vehicle weight allocated to tonne-kilometer. In our sample study, the energy input was reduced from 404 to 352 MJ/ a, and the GHG emissions were decreased from 28,899 to 25,145 tCO2eq/ a when increasing the gross vehicle weight by only 4 t up to 44 t per truck. For both categories this is a decrease of 13.0 %.