A method of finding HCT roundwood corridors for reduction of GHG emissions and hauling costs in Sweden

Abstract: In Sweden, 71.6 million tonnes(t) of forest biomass were during 2016 transported by truck, corresponding to approximately 15 % of all national goods truck transport. To reduce the environmental impact of forest product transports and meet Swedish climate goals, the use of 90-t high capacity transport (HCT) trucks on well-chosen routes has been identified as one potential measure to reduce im-pact. The objective was to develop a method of finding the geographical occurrence of potential roundwood HCT corridors for 90-t trucks, as well as estimating their envi-ronmental and economic potentials in comparison to the conventional 74-t truck transport system for Swedish conditions. The study used data from actual round-wood transports during 2016 along with a digitalization of the Swedish road net-work (SNVDB) for corridor identification. Results showed there were potential for 25 HCT corridors throughout Sweden to employ 20 90-t trucks to transport 2.5 Mt of roundwood, reducing up to 5500 t of CO2 and €3.1 M in fuel costs.