A method of assessing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of forest biomass supply chains on a site¬specific level is presented, which includes biomass availability and transportation network assessments based on geographical information system (GIS) data, and GHG emission assessment based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) methods. The GHG assessment takes into account distances traveled on the various types of road by trucks. Two case studies are presented, with 200 GWh/a of small-diameter energy wood chips delivered to two locations in Finland: Mikkeli and Rovaniemi. In the case studies, possibilities for train transportation from distant supply areas were included. The case-study results show that if direct truck transportation around the plants were supplemented with one trainload per week (64 GWh/a) from suitably located railway loading points, GHG emission savings of 8% could be achieved in both cases. The most GHG-efficient supply chains around the railway loading points were found to be based on transportation of loose trees to the loading spots. Because of better biomass availability and better roads, the emissions of the least GHG-emitting supply chain were 9% lower in Mikkeli's case than for Rovaniemi. The results indicate that if suitable conditions exist, railway transportation offers potential for reduced supply-chain emissions.

Proceedings of the 20th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 18-22 June 2012, Milan, Italy, pp. 2199-2208