fiaXl.ing and chipping

In tree-length harvesting operations, the trees are usually delimbed and topped in the woods. Sawlogs are bucked, and pulpwood is loaded tree-length. The use of in-woods chipping has been limited to energywood production because high bark content limits the use of whole-tree chips as pulp furnish. Flail delimbing and debarking allows economical processing and chipping of whole trees in the woods to produce clean, acceptable chips, In-woods processing of whole trees has several advantages over tree-length operations. Flail processing and chipping are potentially more economical for smalldiameter trees than delimbing and hauling tree-length wood. Another advantage is increased biomass recovery, assuming that the limbs, top, and bark can be utilized as fuel. In-woods flailing and chipping allows the recovery of a higher-valued chip product and the use of a larger portion of the whole tree, as well as the smaller-diameter stand components. Disadvantages to the logger are the high capital investment and a system that can produce only one product-chips. However, flail processing is a less capital-intensive alternative for a mill than whole-tree harvesting (hauling wood, bark, and foliage to the mill). A mill that receives and processes whole trees must have a specialized woodyard and specialized trailers. There may also be an economic advantage to transporting chips versus roundwood for certain tree sizes. The recovery efficiencies of tree-length, in-woods flail delimbing and debarking with chipping, and whole tree harvesting systems, are presented in this paper. Products were determined for a typical stand as a percentage of whole-tree biomass and as weight units per area for each harvest ing opt ion.