Solid fuels, biomass, waste

Wood fuel is collected from the forest as wood logs. This are usually done by agricultural machines. Further refining to wood fuel is usually done at small local production units and involves cutting, splitting, drying and packing. The transport to the consumer is done by car or tractor. Chips are produced from wood logs, wood residues or residual waste from wood-working industry. The raw material are transformed to chips by using a chipper. The raw material from the forest are transported by agricultural machines to the production place. At wood-working industry the chipping is done locally. The further transport is usually done by trucks. Pellets are normally made of wood waste from wood-working industry. Pellets are usually transported to consumer by trucks and have the advantage that it can be transported within the logistic chain by screw feeders or pneumatic systems. Briquettes are principally produced in the same way as pellets and transported to the consumer by trucks.

Bark, straw and peat are fuels that are in little use in Norway. The transport of these fuels is through trucks to the consumer, in addition to the primary transport which is mainly by agricultural machines. Transport of waste is usually by trucks.

Coal is in very little use as energy carrier to electricity and heat production in Norway even if we have coal production at Svalbard. At Svalbard we have the only Norwegian power plant based upon coal. Fossil coal is usually used in the metal-production industry in Norway and transport by ships is the most usual transport for coal and coke.

SINTEF is doing commercial research within value chain consideration for various energy carriers. Logistic systems are an integrated part of this and we have together with other SINTEF departments competence to evaluate effective and environmental friendly systems for transport of fossil and renewable solid fuels.