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Search results for: โ€œharvest harvestingโ€

  • Energy history: how much wood can be cut in a day?

    Energy history: how much wood can be cut in a day?

    How much wood can be cut in a day? We review 500-years of industrial history. In medieval times, a manorial tenant might have gathered 250kg of fallen branches in a day. A modern feller-buncher is 150x more productive. But a modern energy analyst is little better than a medieval peasant, and harvesting wood as a…

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  • Tigercat: forestry and timber innovations?

    Tigercat: forestry and timber innovations?

    Tigercat is a private company, founded in 1992, headquartered in Ontario, Canada, with c2,000 employees. The company produces specialized machinery for forestry, logging, materials processing and off-road equipment. Our patent review has found a moat around reliable, easy-to-maintain, mobile and efficient forestry equipment.

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  • Windy physics: how is power of a wind turbine calculated?

    Windy physics: how is power of a wind turbine calculated?

    This data-file is an overview of wind power physics. Specifically, how is the power of a wind turbine calculated, in MW, as a function of wind speed, blade length, blade number, rotational speed (in RPM) and other efficiency factors (lambda). A large, modern offshore wind turbine will have 100m blades and surpass 10MW power outputs.

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  • Global wood production: supply by country by year?

    Global wood production: supply by country by year?

    This data-file quantifies global wood production, country-by-country, back to 1960, across energy, pulp and longer-lasting materials. Overall, wood energy has declined from 11% of the world’s primary energy mix in 1960 to c4% today, but it remains stubbornly high in less-developed countries, amplifying deforestation.

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  • Bio-coke: energy economics?

    Bio-coke: energy economics?

    Bio-coke is a substitute for coal-coke in steel-making and other smelting operations. We model it will cost c$450/ton, c50% more than coal-coke, but saves 2 – 2.5 tons/ton of CO2. Abatement costs can be as low as $70/ton. Although not always, and there are comparability issues.

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  • CO2 removals: CO2OL Panama project?

    CO2 removals: CO2OL Panama project?

    The CO2OL Tropical Mix project has planted 9M trees on 13,000 hectares of degraded pasture land across 45 sites in Panama since 1995. 20-30% of the land is reserved for conservation. The project achieved a relatively high score of 88/100 on our usual assessment framework. CO2 credits are priced at $38/ton. We contributed $1,900 to…

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  • Sugar production: the economics?

    Sugar production: the economics?

    The costs of sugar production are estimated at $260/ton for a 10% IRR at a world-scale sugar refinery, in a major sugar-producing region. Higher returns are achievable at recent world sugar prices, and by valorizing waste streams such as molasses for ethanol and bagasse for cogenerated electricity.

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  • Reforestation: costs of CO2 removals?

    Reforestation: costs of CO2 removals?

    Reforestation costs are modelled in this data-file, acquiring pastureland, planting new forests to absorb CO2, over a 50-year cycle. As a good rule of thumb, we think $50/ton CO2 prices, $50/m3 timber, and 3% pa land appreciation will unlock an 8% unlevered IRR at Yield Class 16 (5 tons of CO2 per acre per year).…

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  • Managed reforestation: growth rates by tree species over time?

    Managed reforestation: growth rates by tree species over time?

    This data-file tabulates the growth rates of 2,500 trees, in 12 different geographies, finding that younger trees accumualate biomass faster than older trees. The average tree widens its radius by 2mm per year. But on average, growth rates slow by c25% after 20-years, c40% after 40-years and 50% after 60-years.

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  • Finnish forests: trees, yields, costs, value?

    Finnish forests: trees, yields, costs, value?

    This data-base aggregates data from the Natural Resources Institute of Finland, covering how Finnish forestry produces 75 million m3 of wood per year, while also having accumulated 1bn tons of additional biomass over the past century, while creating โ‚ฌ20bn pa of value and employing 60,000 people.

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