Greenhouse gas emissions, energy and cost-efficiencies associated with liquefied biogas-powered heavy-duty timber trucks in industrial roundwood transportation

Forestry transportation is a difficult sector for decarbonization. Liquefied biogas (LBG)-powered heavy-duty vehicles have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across a range of transportation tasks. In this study, we investigated energy consumption, GHG emissions and operational costs of a heavy-duty LBG-powered timber-truck combination and compared the results to a regular diesel-powered heavy-duty reference timber-truck combination. The investigation was undertaken over a nearly year-long follow-up study under arctic conditions in northern Finland. The results revealed that the LBG combination consumed 15.4 % more energy per tonne-kilometer (tkm) than the reference combination. However, it produced substantially less GHG emissions when well-to-wheel emissions were considered. Using the default emission factors provided by the ISO 14083:2023 standard, the LBG combination produced 44.6 % less carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂eq) tkm⁻¹. Moreover, the operational costs of the combinations were similar. In a scenario where 10 % of timber transportation was carried out by LBG-powered trucks, a 4.5 % reduction in total emissions was achieved, which equates to approximately 12,000 t CO₂eq annually when GHG emissions from all timber transportation in Finland are considered. We found that LBG-powered timber trucks are cost-effective and can achieve substantial emissions reductions under challenging operating conditions, which is crucial to accomplish emission reduction goals. Furthermore, the LBG combinations were found to be functional under harsh arctic conditions and have sufficient operational range for long-distance timber transportation from forests where electrification is currently not cost-effective.