Speaker
Description
Growing environmental concerns and increasing pressure on natural resources have intensified the demand for robust sustainability assessment tools in industrial sectors. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) enables the systematic quantification of material and energy inputs, as well as associated environmental emissions, across the entire life cycle of products and technologies. In mechanized forest operations, LCA provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating the environmental implications of emerging solutions and informing the transition toward lower-emission technologies, such as hybrid harvesting systems.
This study evaluates the environmental performance of hybrid harvester engines compared to conventional diesel-powered harvester engines using a cradle-to-grave approach. The system boundary includes component manufacturing, machine assembly, operational use over the engine lifetime, maintenance, and end-of-life treatment. The functional unit is defined as one engine over its operational lifetime. The LCA model was developed in SimaPro using the Ecoinvent database and IPCC characterization factors. Environmental impact categories considered include global warming potential (GWP), acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, and resource depletion.
Field measurements from operational trials in Eastern Canada indicate that hybrid harvesters consume approximately 20% less diesel fuel under comparable stand and working conditions as compared to diesel harvesters. Preliminary results for the conventional diesel engine show that the use phase dominates total life cycle impacts, contributing most emissions across impact categories. Although hybrid engines require additional components such as electric motor and power pack units, preliminary scenario modeling suggests that operational fuel savings offset these additional embodied impacts over the engine’s lifetime. These early findings indicate that hybrid harvesting technology has strong potential to reduce the environmental footprint of mechanized forest operations, particularly where full electrification remains constrained.
| Keywords | LCA; Harvester; Hybrid; Emissions |
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