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Croatian Journal of Forest Engineering : Journal for Theory and Application of Forestry Engineering, Vol. 44 No. 1, 2023.

Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.5552/crojfe.2023.1685

Pre-Feasibility Study of Carbon Sequestration Potential of Land Clearing Stumps Buried Underground

Juha Laitila orcid id orcid.org/0000-0003-4431-3319 ; Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) Yliopistokatu 6 B 80100 Joensuu FINLAND
Lauri Sikanen ; Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) Yliopistokatu 6 B 80100 Joensuu FINLAND
Kari Väätäinen ; Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) Yliopistokatu 6 B 80100 Joensuu FINLAND

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Abstract

Stump harvesting for energy has decreased in Finland, and many heat and power plants no
longer accept stumps in their fuel portfolio due to fuel quality problems. However Finland is
a forested country, and land clearing stumps need to be extracted, e.g. in infrastructure construction
projects. If stumps cannot be used for energy production, they are dumped in landfills,
where they start to decay and release CO2 into the atmosphere. One option to avoid CO2
emissions would be the burying of stumps underground so that the decaying process of wood
would be inhibited in anaerobic conditions. The aim of this study was to define the carbon
sequestration potential of stump burying logistics and calculate their CO2-eq emissions to
compare them with the emissions of decaying stumps in piles. The analysis was performed as
a spreadsheet-based system analysis at a worksite level as a function of time and size of extracted
stumps. As a result of the analysis, the emission effiency of the logistics chain based
on stumps stored below the ground was good. The net carbon stock varied between 743.7 and
775.0 kg CO2-eq/m3 as a function of stump diameter, when the emissions of the stump burying
logistics chain were 49.0 and 17.7 kg CO2-eq/m3 respectively. In the case of a Finnish municipality
with an annual accumulation of 1000 m3 of land clearing stumps, the carbon sequestration
potential of stumps buried underground is equivalent to the emissions of between
280,000 and 290,000 liters of diesel fuel consumption, depending on the diameter of the extracted
stumps and the diesel fuel emission factors for different engine and diesel fuel types.

Keywords

carbon storage, climate change, mitigation, CO2 emissions, logistics, stump and root biomass, fuel consumption

Hrčak ID:

290880

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/290880

Publication date:

13.1.2023.

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