Manual recovery and collection of Pinus patula biomass after two clearfell harvesting systems

Biomass is an increasingly important resource for energy-related applications worldwide, sourced from natural forests, forestry plantations, and agricultural residues. While mechanised systems dominate in harvesting biomass due to their high productivity and cost-effectiveness, manually oriented biomass systems receive limited attention due to technical and financial constraints. In contrast, manual biomass recovery reduces fossil input and generates employment in disadvantaged rural areas. This study evaluated the efficiency of manually oriented biomass collection from pine logging residues. Researchers quantified both recovered and unrecovered biomass and estimated collection productivity and cost. The test was conducted under two typical condition s: after mechanised full tree (FT) and semi-mechanised tree length (TL) harvesting. Measurements were taken on eight plots with approximately 200 trees each. Productivity and cost were estimated separately for motor manual processing, manual extraction and manual loading. Recovered biomass amounted to 5.2 odt/ha and 9.1 odt/ha, in the FT and TL treatments, respectively. Motor manual processing took 0.6 worker hours per oven-dry ton (h/odt) and 0.8 h/odt whilst manual extraction of processed woody biomass to the roadside proceeded at a pace of 2 h/odt and 2.8 h/odt in FT and TL systems, respectively. Manual loading took 1.1 h/odt for both systems.