Woodchip Carrier

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Keywords restricted nautical conditions, icebreaking, double acting ship, peat, woodchips, pneumatic reloading, seasonally varying supply demand
Short description The Jyväskylä electric power plant to be located on the shore of Lake Päijänne in central Finland is planned to burn biomass– peat and woodchips – as a fuel for energy production. The forestry industry in the surrounding area has numerous timber collecting stations located along the shore of a system of mutually connected navigable lakes. These stations are places where the wooden rests can be shredded to chips and delivered to the power plant for burning in boilers. One of them is also a peat excavating site. The concept looks for the way how to organise optimal supply of peat/woodchips to the power plant, taking into account seasonal demand variations and considerable differences in climate/nautical conditions between winter and summer time.

Two alternatives are technically feasible: by truck and by ship. Due to luck of road infrastructure the efforts were engaged to investigate whether is economically viable to build a special vessel being able to match all logistic requirements set up by the user. This resulted in conceptual design of a very special ship being able to cope within the entire year with varying supply demand and extreme nautical conditions.


Fig.1: DAS woodchips carrier general concept (CREATING initial design)

Objective & target Development of the conceptual design of a special self-propelled, self-loading/unloading vessel able to operate in shallow lake waters, having required performances also during the long winter period with severe ice conditions and being able to reload peat/woodchips on places ashore with no arranged berths.
Key success factors Key Success Factors:
  • high, long-term annual supply demand of peat and woodchips as bio-fuel for thermal power plant
  • there is no single vessel being able to match all given requirements simultaneously: other theoretically possible waterborne alternatives would be almost ad hoc rejected as economically not acceptable
  • there is no road infrastructure in the concerned area and if it would even existed, the reliable operation of a fleet of special heavy duty vehicles in severe Nordic conditions have been found after the preliminary check as very expensive
  • a quite new vessel concept enabling required, very complex and highly demanding logistic performances under severe climatic and restricted nautical conditions set up by thick level ice, lock chamber size, bridge heights and water depths in the area of operation
Innovative aspects Feasible conceptual ship design dedicated for supply of biomass as a fuel for energy power plant. Conceptual solution includes a number of logistic and technical innovations as for instance:
  • residual secondary row material of forestry business utilized as a renewable energy source
  • first time a double acting ship (DAS) with ice belt concept planned to be applied for the operation on inland waterways
  • pneumatic reloading system on board enabling an efficient operation without arranged berths or other shore facilities
  • spud-poles for positioning system during reloading operation near the shore
  • diesel-electric propulsion wit electric pods, prime movers use LNG
  • optimization of hull structure as a compromise between weight minimization and building costs, ultra light construction
Benefits for users Reliable waterborne solution of a given transport/logistic task avoiding high investments in land infrastructure
Geographic area Lake Päijänne in central Finland but applicable elsewhere too, where main particulars of the hull do not exceed 110 m in length, 14 m in beam and draught of 2.4 m
Status First concept was drafted within the CREATING Project funded by the Commission of European Communities within the 6th Framework Programme for RTD – Sustainable Surface Transport. Further development is in course by consortium consisting of Fraunhofer Institute (D), Helsinki Technical University (FIN), FEB AG (D) and LaffComp Oy (FIN)
Difficulties met The following difficulties were met:
  • matching ship maximised capacity with waterway restrictions
  • finding compromise between ship design and predicted performances with respective transport demand in two quite different nautical conditions (ice in winter and maximal supply demand)
Year(s) 2004-2007 (CREATING) and 2009-2011 (continued development)
Users and stakeholders Finnish Waterway Association, Jyväskylä electric power plant, concerned shipowners
Contact person Mr. Antero Pulkkanen, FWA (Finnish Waterway Association) +358-5-535-4198, email me

or Mr. Branislav Zigic, DST-Duisburg, +49-(0)203-99369-52, email me, http://www.dst-org.de

Costs & financing Investment costs to build up a special DAS with self-reloading pneumatic equipment for peat and woodchips are roughly estimated at 21 million €. The costs of transport of a cubic meter of woodchips over 100 km distance is estimated at about 3 €.
Website / links CREATING official web (http://www.creating.nu/news/view/15) and http://www.laffcomp.fi (for the current developments)
Available data & material Publicly available CREATING project reports can be submitted only upon individual request addressed to the FWA or DST
Added value: possibility for application elsewhere As a quite new supply concept this totally autonomous waterborne solution could be also considered for any other analogue operation where collection of material, self reloading on-off board and transport between sites located on waterway banks are the required tasks. As far as the feasibility study/cost analysis showed very promising economic effects and full competitiveness of the system, it might be expected that in less difficult climate and waterway conditions the chances for a successful implementation would be quite good. The unique light weight vessel can be also designed in various versions for carrying e.g. timber, containers or heavy voluminous cargoes.
Further information The dedicated area of operation is actually the system of mutually connected lakes in central Finland. The entire length in north-south direction is about 400 km. The trend line obtained from statistical data on ice take-in and fading shows an average ice period of 5 months, from the mid of December until the mid of May.

Simultaneously the demand for wood-chips and peat supply is exactly the highest in the coldest period of the year and 54% of the total annual supply must be realised within these 5 months.

Fig.2: Area of application – Lake Päijänne in central Finland

The emphasised need for ice-breaking capabilities was an important aspect of the design, but also the open water performances were not neglected because the other 46% of cargo has to be transported during ice-free period of the year. This and other nautical, technical and commercial restrictions impose the solution in a form of DAS – Double Acting Ship – having the following principal particulars:



The biomass ship needs to operate under the harshest conditions: she needs to advance at 10 km/h through ice in fully loaded condition and needs to be able to load and unload vast amounts of bulk cargo without any shore based transhipment facility. The choice of a novel DAS concept provides best compromise between running ahead features in ice-free waters and operating astern in ice conditions. The bow form is designed to provide least resistance while stern design optimally copes with icebreaking requirements. On the contrary, a conventional vessel concept and form would be neither good for free water nor optimal for icebreaking and additionally, the block coefficient would be lower thus affecting the carrying capacity of the ship.

The hull form is in many aspects more similar to a seagoing icebreaker design than an inland cargo ship,
but still different from seagoing icebreakers because of the bigger block coefficient and the main dimensions optimized for the restrictions on respective lakes. The set of powerful pod propulsors, enables the ship to cut through thick slabs of ice. The choice of diesel-electric propulsion system for the efficient operation in ice requires powerful generator sets which are also used for the reloading system. Due to the need to perform reloading without shore facilities, the ship is equipped with a novel vacuum cleaner-like pneumatic system and a large crane boom. The consequences of applying this system go beyond the actual equipment. The ship is envisaged with her
own quay less mooring system in the form of spud poles, pillars that are driven into the bottom of the lake. This feature is present on inland ships, for instance on dredgers, but certainly not applied as usual equipment on freighters.

The harsh environmental conditions and resulting design aspects make the ship relatively expensive for an inland ship. Nevertheless these costs are unavoidable when attempting to operate under the severe conditions the biomass ship has to deal with. The ship is therefore not substantially more expensive than any other ship that would operate under these conditions, since the most expensive items (propulsion system and generators) are directly related to the need to break ice. The main issue for the ship is the competition with road transport which - as is shown in comprehensive project analyses - might be very successful.





Fig.3: Advanced concept (LAFFCOMP current design)










Fig.4: Advanced concept (LAFFCOMP): timber carrier (left) and container carrier (right)

DST/B. Zigic, FWA/A.Pulkkanen, Laffcomp/V.Hintsanen

Filled in by Branislav Zigic
Date 2009/03/10
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