Short review on overview of forest biomass harvesting case studies in Australia.

The article presents a summary of five research projects on different biomass harvesting systems in Australian plantations. The first trial assessed the productivity and cost of slash-bundling the harvesting residues in clear felled area using Pinox slash-bundler in Eucalypt plantation in Tasmania. Second project investigated the efficiency of a European mobile chipper to collect pine harvesting residues Green Triangle (Victoria) while in the third project a conventional forwarder was studied to recover pine residues logs (called Fibre plus material) as an integrated biomass operation in Western Australia. The product quality and fuel consumption of the biomass harvesting systems were also assessed within the trials. Whole tree biomass harvesting (including feller-buncher, grapple skidder and chipper) was another trial carried out in low-productivity Eucalypt stands in Western Australia to produce biomass chips for bioenergy purposes. Where bioenergy markets are strong, thinning materials (e.g. large branches) may also be utilised as a source for bioenergy. The operating costs and environmental impacts (including remaining residues assessment to sustain soil quality in biomass recovery operations) of different technologies were compared/discussed in this article.