A project has been initiated in Finland for investigating the question if transportation of wood based energy by waterways would be a working and financially advantageous alternative. One aspect of the project is to find out if waterway transport could be a better alternative than truck transport. In Finland, the country of may thousand lakes, floating of timber is a longstanding tradition, but this project is about finding out if barge transport is better than road transport. Last autumn the Lappeenranta University initiated a three year project on this question.
Its purpose is to examine the whole logistics system of the acquisition, transport and processing of wood based fuels, where transport by waterway is one component. The aim of the study is to explore new models for combining transport of such fuels by waterways and by other means, as well as to explore how best to manage the logistics of the entire transport system.
The starting point of the study is the transport flows of present and future wood based fuels. The respective possibilities, prospects advantages of different modes of transport will be investigated, both for the purpose of finding the least costly and most efficient methods, as well as for the purpose of minimizing the costs for the national economy as a whole. One aspect of the study is to investigate the emissions caused by different transport systems.
The project will be implemented under the auspices of the ClimBus research programme of Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation.