Piled Fuels Biomass and Emissions Calculator

Project Description

The earlier, online, Hand-piled Fuels Biomass Calculator has been enhanced to include the calculations for machine piles that are currently inlcuded in CONSUME 3.0. Renamed the "Piled Fuels Biomass and Emissions Calculator," the caculator is an online and stand-alone program that calculates potential biomass and smoke emissions for piles of forest fuels (piled either by machine or by hand). Users can batch process their pile data by uploading their appropriately formatted input file. A desktop version of the calculator that uses the MicroWeb server emulator is also available.

This online calculator maintains the simplicity of the original, hand-pile-only, version while adding the capacity to characterize machine-piled fuels and batch process data from projects with multiple piles simultaneously.

A stand-alone version is available for users who required access to the calculator in a field setting or where Internet access is unavailable.

A comprehensive list of wood density and specific gravity values for North American species and for several internationally important species was compiled and incorporated into the machine pile calculation algorithms using data in Miles and Smith (2009). This represents an update to the machine-pile characterization capabilities of CONSUME 3.0 that the enhanced calculator was developed to emulate.

Purpose and Scope

The calculator developed by this project allows land managers to more accurately assess biomass in hand piles, leading to better smoke production estimates, improved burn scheduling, and more accurate compliance with the maximum allowable emissions limits as determined by various state smoke management plans.

Methods

Users need to enter information on the type of the pile (hand or machine) pile dimensions (width, length, and height), the number and composition of the piles, and the percentage of the pile estimated to be consumed. Groups of piles can be individually named.

Implementation

The calculator needs the number of piles, the shape of the piles and their dimensions (length, height, and width), the pile type (hand or machine), whether they are composed of conifers or shrubs and hardwood, and the percentage of the pile that is expected to burn.

Key Findings

We developed the calculations and calculator to estimate the smoke emissions from piles of "fuels" made by machine or by hand.

Project Deliverables

Piled Fuels Biomass and Emissions Calculator

Estimating the Biomass of Hand-Piled Fuels for Smoke Management (Final Report 2009)

We acknowledge funding from the Joint Fire Science Program under Project JFSP 07-2-1-57 and 10-S-02-2