ARS | Publication request: Infield aggregation and transport of biomass round bales

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: August 7, 2011
Publication Date: August 7, 2011
Citation: Igathinathane, C., Archer, D.W., Gustafson, C., Schmer, M.R., Hendrickson, J.R., Kronberg, S.L., Keshwani, D., Hellevang, K., Nowatzki, J., Backer, L., Thorson, C.R., Faller, T., Roth, M. Infield Aggregation and Transport of Biomass Round Bales. Meeting Abstract. American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual Internation Meeting. 2011.

Technical Abstract: . Biomass bales need to be aggregated and transported to the edge of the field for temporary storage, before moving them to permanent storage or processing facility. The major component activities were infield aggregation of bales into subgroups and transportation to field-edge stack. Several scenarios emerge considering the various possibilities of aggregation and transport involving different machines and strategies. We developed a computer program that reads field shape are size, simulates the operation of a baler and determines the theoretical layout coordinates of bales on field, and evaluates bales aggregation and transportation distances involving various loading and transporting machines. With a single bale loader, nine capacities of bales transportation wagons (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12, 26, 30, and 32 bales), and five collection strategies (central grouping, diagonal grouping, parallel transport, sub-grouping, and advanced picker-transporter), 45 logistics scenarios were evaluated for total transportation distances. The effect of field size from 20 to 640 acres was also determined using the simulation. Field edge stacking using single bale loader and fetching bales individually is considered as “control” with which the other scenarios were compared. The baler simulation produced a “diamond pattern” of bales layout on an ideal swath material content. The single bale control was found to be the most inefficient and the picker-transporter the most efficient. Great savings of traveled distances (hence time and cost) was realized when an additional bale transporter or advanced picker-transporter was introduced for bale transportation. Central grouping involves unproductive transport of bales in the opposite direction. Gradual increase in transporting efficiency was observed when the number of bales transported using an additional machine increases up to 26 bales, and the increase was marginal thereafter. Even a six-bale picker-transporter is about 60%-80% efficient than the control. Only a slight increase in transportation efficiency was observed with increase in the field area.