Wood chipping service: an analysis approach in Northeastern Italy

With the spread of wood chip boilers and district heating, the chipping service in North-eastern Italy is gradually growing. With a GIS based approach is possible to define operative areas of chipping services in relation to the availability of wood biomass that potentially can be chipped. By evaluating the amount of wood that could be chipped, it is possible to check if chippers have the warranty of operating time so that the machine initial investment is justified. Moreover, the possibility to buy and use further chippers, that can work in a sustainable way with the potentially available biomass, can be evaluated. Wood biomass for chipping service, potentially available from forest and sawmill, is estimated and combined to chipping service headquarters distribution and to road network. Chipping service productivities and costs are considered for two classes of machines: big and medium power class. In the supposed conditions, the study highlights that the current distribution of chippers in the North-eastern Italy require about 70 000 t/y of woody biomass from forest and wood industry. Some more biomass is still available to be chipped, but actually it can be covered with a more far working distance. Moreover not all estimated wood biomass can be technically supplied because of high cost.