Fuel for Thought
Bowater's operation in Lac St. Jean, QC, is rolling to major fuel savings on a growing fleet of rubber tire CTL harvesters, a move that's benefiting company and contractor alike.
by Scott Jamieson
Environmental objectives are good, but when they dovetail with powerful economic drivers you've really got a potent cocktail. That's the concoction the folks at Bowater's northern Quebec operations are downing these days, as demands to reduce forest machine fuel consumption under their CSA-Z809 certification scheme combine with stubbornly high diesel prices to create what at the outset looks like a win-win-win scenario.
Bowater wins, because reduced fuel consumption per cubic metre looks good to its greener customers, and also allows it to control the fuel subsidies it pays loggers. Contractors win because if they reduce fuel consumption while maintaining production, they pocket the difference, plus a littler extra earlyadopter bonus. Finally, we all win, as do our children, since less fuel and green house gas emissions are required to make that same 2x6. It all makes wood products an even greener option.
Subsidy for Nothing?
Environmental issues aside, Bowater's objective with the new fuel saving regime is simple - cost control in an era of stalled commodity pricing and rising costs. In the short term, companies can pay fuel surcharges to loggers, but with crude over $80/barrel and set to stay there, longer-term solutions are required.
In an effort to gain some control over the carbon cost of delivered wood, Bowater in northern Quebec has created a fuel conservation incentive program that is both simple and effective. In theoretical terms, if a contractor cuts 1,000 m3/wk with a two-machine CTL team, that volume is multiplied by a base consumption target of 2.5 l/m. He then receives a fuel adjustment on 2,500 litres, depending on the price of diesel. If his consumption is actually down at 2.0 l/m3, and thus he consumed just 2,000 litres, he'll get the adjustment on 500 extra litres he did not in fact use as an incentive for early adopters.
Just for discussion, let's assume diesel at 86 cents/litre and a fuel adjustment of around 30 cents/litre. Our theoretical example above nets the logger an extra $150, plus some $430 worth of diesel he didn't have to buy, for an extra $580 in his pocket Friday afternoon. It's not bad, but the other element is still production. Get stuck in small wood, bad ground, or heavy undergrowth, or lose 10 hours on a breakdown, and the wood volume side of the equation goes to hell. Thus a fuel thirsty, but productive full-tree system in good wood can still feasibly make the 2.5 l/m3 target, while an inexperienced CTL crew in bad wood can fall short. True, but at least the simple incentive program is a starting point.
Indeed it is, and it is just a start. The 2.5 l/m3 threshold is likely a moving target, as machine efficiency and operator skills improve. For example, a recent study by Torbjorn Brunberg of Sweden's version of FERIC, Skogforsk, found CTL crews there averaged just 1.7 l/m3. Plantation wood quality is no doubt far higher, but it shows the potential for further fuel reductions that companies like Bowater are looking for.
For now, the strategy of a large number of local contractors has been to switch from large tracked harvesters to smaller, more efficient rubber-tire machines. All four contractors we met had taken that approach, making the switch from over seven years ago to just this past spring. All reported the machines were up to the job, and using much less fuel.
Rolling Along
The key of this new reduced-fuel reality is the ability of rubber tire harvesters to do the same job as their tracked predecessors, but with significantly less thirst. The second part's no big issue. Purpose-built track machines are more efficient each year, as more sophisticated engines and controls are employed. Still, they've a way to go to catch purpose-built rubber tire harvesters, themselves a moving target. Comparisons vary from machine to machine, but a safe range for most rubber tire harvesters is 16 to 22 l/hr, while fuel consumption for track harvesters starts at around 25 l/hr and can top 35 in some of the larger machines.
Sipping less is easy; producing the same depends on a number of variables, which when listed in order of importance for most parts of Canada includes company planning, operator skill, contractor attitude, dealer support, tree size, species mix, unmerchantables, and terrain. In this sense, this particular part of Quebec is as well set up for rubber tire harvesters as any.
For starters, CTL harvesting is already well established, representing over 85% of the machinery in the Lac St. Jean region, supported by a solid base of skilled operators, seasoned contractors, and experienced dealers. That's a good thing, as rough numbers from FERIC peg full-tree systems in the 3.0 to 4.8 l/m3 range, with CTL systems (tracked and rubber tire combined) at 1.6 to 2.7 l/m3. That's a gap of some 1.4 to 2.6 l/m3, with the high range likely being rubber tire systems.
Back in Lac St. Jean, contractor and operator attitudes regarding rubber tire machines may vary, but tree size and species mix is near perfect. It's almost all softwood in the 7 to 12 tree/m3 range. Terrain can range from flat and easy (rare) to nasty, broken, hilly, and rocky (more common), and snow depth - well this is northern Quebec, after all - but 6WD and 8WD forwarders have been making their way through it for decades now. In short - rubber tire machines can produce here.
In fact, several of the rubber-tire converts we spoke to said that if anything, their new machines were more productive. In at least one case this could be the result of the new machine having much higher uptime, but faster booms, better visibility, reduced fatigue, and better controlshydraulics were all mentioned as well. "These machines are more sophisticated, so we don't have to be," was how one seasoned CTL logger put it. Fair enough.
But just what does productive mean in these parts? Despite marginal wood, loggers here are expected to produce to survive, and for the most part they do a remarkable job. There are legendary producers in this part of the world, but getting back to averages, most loggers seem to target 1,500 m3/wk with a two-machine CTL crew, with close to 100 scheduled production hours. That's the target, and wood quality and terrain can often conspire to spoil things. Still, contractors we interviewed ranged from just over 1,200 to 1,600 m3/wk as fairly standard. One recent rubber tire convert said his 2007 production with two machines would hit 50,000 m3, despite a dismal 31 operating weeks.
Of course the other side of the coin is cost. The same contractor told CFI that "if I hit 50,000 m3, and keep a strict eye on my costs, I'll still do alright - No complaints. But if I let the costs get away from me even a bit, all bets are off."
This is where the real incentive for reducing fuel consumption comes in. The extra subsidy is welcome. Heck, I'd like to be paid for fuel I don't use. The real money, however, is in not spending those 86 cents a litre in the first place. See the contractor box below for details, but suffice it to say that a double-shifting CTL contractor can save as much as $1,000 per week for each harvester he runs, plus the subsidy top up. In many cases today, that may make the difference between profit and loss, or can easily double a logger's margin.
Now multiply 0.5 litres per m3 times all the wood harvested per province per year, and shout the greenhouse benefits loud and clear. That's some 40 million litres in BC and about 20 million in Quebec alone. Like the title says - It's fuel for thought.
