Two programmes are available that compare different fuels for bioenergy production, including the delivered costs of wood.
The programmes were developed by Pieter Kofman (Denmark) and Glen Murphy (USA). There are two different software programmes that have slightly different applications.
The first programme compares different fuel sources to produce bioenergy, and determines if cost savings can be achieved. The fuel currently being used to fuel a boiler is entered, along with the annual consumption, price per unit and the boiler efficiency. This information is used to standardise the units of energy consumption and calculate the annual cost of the fuel. A future potential fuel is then selected and its information captured. The costs of converting the boiler to use the new fuel also need to be known. The programme then calculates the costs of the new fuel plus the number of years it would take to pay back the investment. One of the main advantages of this programme is that one does not have to find all the conversion factors to compare fuels; they are all stored in the computer programme. These can be adapted by the user, if required.
The second programme calculates the delivered cost of wood chips and determines whether a profit or loss can be expected. Unit conversion is also catered for, and one can investigate the effect of fuel moisture content changes. This is very important when the harvesting rate is per m3, but the delivered chips are paid for per tonne. This programme also includes a truck transport section which allows the user to enter the cost per hour of the truck, the transport distances, the volume transported and how the material is offloaded. The programme then calculates the cost of delivery.
For more information, please contact Pieter Kofman at pdkofman@gmail.com