Characteristic fuel consumption and exhaust emissions in fully mechanized logging operations

A study was done using eight different logging machines (harvesters and forwarders) in clear-felling operations to quantify the associated fuel consumption, and to define the inherent relationship between engine output power and fuel consumption. Exhaust emissions were also calculated on the basis of mean fuel consumption values, obtained by measurements, and from the developed regression and correlation model for diesel and rapeseed methyl ester (RME) fuels. The calculation considered exhaust emissions associated with the manufacture, distribution, and combustion of the respective fuels. It was found that carbon dioxide emissions amounted to 9.63 kg/m(3) of delivered timber for diesel fuel, and to 10.64 kg/m(3) for RME. It was also found that when using RME only 2.82 kg/m(3) of carbon dioxide emissions originated from fossil resources, therefore, it is only this amount that can be deemed an environmental load, confirming RME as a lesser environmental pollutant.