Competitiveness of Whole-Tree Bundling in Early Thinnings

In 2007, the first prototype of the Fixteri bundle harvester capable of incorporating whole-tree compaction into the cutting phase was launched by Biotukki Oy. The bundles are hauled by a standard forwarder to the roadside storage, from where pulpwood bundles are transported by a standard timber truck to the end-use facility. At the puplmill, bundle batches are fed into a wood flow consisting of conventional delimbed pulpwood. Separation of the pulp and energy fractions does not take place until the wood reaches the debarking drum. Energy wood bundles are crushed and used for energy generation. In the pre-feasibility study carried out by Metsäteho Oy and the Finnish Forest Research Institute, the required performance level of bundle harvesting (i.e. cutting and bundling) of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) dominated stands was determined by comparing the total supply chain costs with most common pulpwood and energy wood supply chains. The system analysis showed that whole-tree bundling enables the reduction of procurement costs below the current cost level of separate pulpwood and energy wood procurement in early thinnings. The greatest cost-saving potential lies in small-diameter (d1.3 = 7–10 cm) first-thinning stands.