Decarbonising Timber Haulage

Is Decarbonising Timber Haulage by using Electric Timber Lorries the answer?

Decarbonising Timber Haulage-Dr William Clark, Forestry Transport and Innovation Advisor with Scottish Forestry writes about the first annual report produced by the Net Zero Timhaul project.

This partnership project is looking into using electric timber lorries as a way to help decarbonise the forestry sector.

80,000 Hours

That’s a remarkable amount of work hours for a single machine, the Norcar 600 owned by Erkki Rinne is taken well care of, it even has the original Diesel engine.
Kieran Anders Forestry

Kieran Anders is a forestry contractor working in the lake district. His work involves hand cutting and extracting timber using a skidder and tractor-trailer forwarder.
Promoting safety in the workplace

It is not possible to eliminate chain shot, but there are simple steps that can be taken to reduce the risk.
Glasfryn Fencing and Sawmill

Arwel takes great pride in the fact that the mill has no waste whatsoever, “the peelings are used for children’s playgrounds, gardens and for farm animals in barns in the winter and the sawdust has multiple uses in gardens and farms as well.
Keeping Timber Hauliers Safe

Timber hauliers need to encourage young blood in, and also look after the hauliers we have, we need make the sector a safe and positive place to work.

FIND US ON

At the moment, forestry is around 90% dependent on heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) to transport wood and wood products at every stage of the supply chain from forest to end user.

However, no new diesel HGVs will be sold after 2040 as part of UK government plans to decarbonise the transport sector. From that, quite apart from the climate emergency and the sectors decarbonisation ambitions, and the fact oil is finite, we have 15 years to solve the problem.

Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) were an obvious place to start because we see electric cars every day, but BEV HGVs were manufactured relatively recently, and forestry applications are very specific and can be particularly demanding.

In combination with a lack of data on critical factors like payload, performance, comparative milage, charging and working patterns, maintenance, carbon payoff distance, and cost, the risks are high for operators to get fully invested into these vehicles. This means progress could remain limited without support and this information being available.

Net Zero Timhaul was formed in 2021 as a way to help address some of these issues, to understand effective deployment, and promote a better transition. With support from the Scottish Forestry Strategic Timber Transport Fund (STTF), Net Zero Timhaul brings together a forward-thinking innovative group lead by Neil Stoddart of Creel Maritime with James Jones & Sons and Scotlog hosting the lorries in Lockerbie and Inverness respectively.

It’s worth bearing in mind that BEV HGVs are prototypes, so this was a pilot project which is designed to encounter and explore problems, then develop and embed the solutions.

A key priority was on knowledge exchange to help build understanding and confidence in new technologies for operators and owners and smooth the sectors rapid transition towards net zero.

The project has just reached the end of year 1 (of 3) and the findings really have been quite revealing. For example, for charging, the public infrastructure for BEV HGVs isn’t really available yet so the mileage range is limited. Site design is critical for safe and efficient operations, and some networks can’t support charging so deployment opportunities may vary, and shift patterns may have to adapt to accommodate appropriate charging.

Similarly, tractor units may be longer or heavier depending on battery configuration so payload and trailer design may be affected, the range remains a major difference, charging needs and times will have to be accounted for in operations, and maintenance may vary depending on region.

This might sound a bit negative, but these issues were either resolved in full or identified with new conversations taking place towards long term solutions. The greatest testament to the Volvo FH Electric tractor units/potential of BEV HGVs is that despite these teething troubles, the operators, fleet managers, and drivers report positive experiences and significant interest & support from customers over the year in operation.

Total cost of ownership and carbon payoff will be reported in year 3 but currently, the lorries have driven 40,000 miles and achieve c. 2kgCO2eq emissions reduction per mile (80 tonnes GHGs avoided in year 1).

So, it’s clear BEV HGVs offer a tangible pathway to reduced carbon and enhanced sustainability for timber supply chains and the wider haulage sector. However, ex forest haulage requires a flexibility the charging infrastructure simply can’t support at this time. From this, some regions, and hence, some parts of the supply chain, are more ready for electrification than others at this time.

This is improving and will resolve in the near-term, but it is worthy of consideration that HGVs are only part of the forest supply chain in that forwarders, harvesters, graders etc. also require diesel. A more practical approach is to explore parallel opportunities around greener lower emission ‘drop in fuels’ that can integrate with existing assets.

Good news is the amazing project team is already working on it. For example, The Waterhorse project is achieving 85% reductions in tailpipe emissions using HVO which is interchangeable with diesel.

Similarly is BioForestDrive is exploring methanol as an alternative which does require some modifications, but the fuel can be extracted from renewable and sustainable biomass, and can be split to hydrogen for direct use as a fuel, or use in Fuel Cell EVs which could support other alternative drive trains and solves remote charging for the BEVs.

The recent ICF Decarbonising Forest Transport event in Lockerbie also highlighted “hidden” decarbonisation opportunities which are huge once all of the heavy plant at sawmills and the millions of movements are considered. It was great to hear about current and future battery options and the practicalities of deploying low carbon options.

Essentially, the Net Zero Timhaul is a great and timely demonstration that BEVs are the answer, that they do work, but, if we are to achieve zero emission HGV transport by 2040, we’ll need all of these technologies, and the industry, and other sectors working in synergy towards a future fit supply chain.

The future is bright, the future is forestry.