MAKING THE MOST OF WOOD CHIPS : FROM BRANCH CHIPPING TO MULCHING AND ENERGY
Making the most of wood chips: from branch chipping to mulching and energy
After a pruning, trimming or green-space maintenance job, what should be done with the volumes of branches that have accumulated? Rather than treating this plant material as simple waste to be removed, branch chipping makes it possible to turn it into a resource that can be put to immediate use.
Mulching planting beds, protecting and improving soils or, under certain conditions, energy recovery: wood chips can be given a genuine second life.
With a professional Schliesing wood chipper, branches are processed directly on site into attractive wood chips that are easy to transport, store and reuse. This transformation also helps reduce disposal costs.
Why make use of wood chips produced from branch chipping?
Pruning and maintenance work quickly generates large volumes of branches. Chipping all wood waste directly on site makes it considerably easier to manage.
But the benefits of chipping go further. The resulting material can become a useful resource for the professional, the customer or the site manager.
The recovery of chipped branch material therefore forms part of a circular-economy approach: plant material produced on a worksite can be reused locally instead of being systematically transported to a waste collection facility.
Mulching: a natural second life for wood chips
Using wood chips as mulch is one of the simplest outlets for the material produced after branch pruning, especially when the chipper turns the wood into attractive chips.
Spread around trees, shrubs and hedges or across planting beds, the chips form a protective layer on the soil surface. Mulching helps preserve moisture, limit weed growth and protect the soil from climatic variations.
Over time, the organic matter breaks down and also contributes to soil life.
For arborists, landscapers and local authorities, this use offers a twofold benefit: reducing the volume of material to be removed while directly producing a useful material for landscaping.
The chipped material can therefore be reused on the worksite that has just been completed or in another green space maintained by the company or local authority.
Wood chips to protect and structure soils
Using wood chips as mulch does not simply address a waste-management issue.
Materials rich in organic matter decompose relatively slowly. They can therefore help maintain a lasting soil cover and gradually improve soil structure.
Mulch can be used around plantings, beneath hedges, at the base of trees or in perennial beds.
The quality of the chipped material also matters. Schliesing cutting technologies are based on a heavy disc fitted with resharpenable and adjustable knives. The silent cutting system available on certain configurations uses four V-mounted knives to produce a more even cut. The resulting wood chips are even more attractive.
From wood chips to energy: possible recovery under certain conditions
Chipped material can also find an outlet in the wood-energy sector.
Chipped wood can be used as fuel in certain boilers and biomass heating plants. It can produce heat from a renewable resource, while demand for forest chips is linked in particular to the development of district and industrial heating plants.
For chips or chipped wood to be used in a boiler, their quality must precisely meet the requirements of the installation. **Moisture content, particle size, ash content and the nature of the raw material **are among the parameters used to characterise a wood fuel.
Material that is too wet reduces combustion and can impair heating performance. An unsuitable particle size can also disrupt storage, discharge or boiler-feeding systems.
The ISO 17225 standard also defines the classes and specifications applicable to wood chips and various types of wood fuel.
Energy recovery from chips produced by a wood chipper should therefore be considered as part of an organised supply chain, using suitable woody material, storage that allows seasoning or drying, and checks to ensure compatibility with the relevant heating plant.
Chipping on site: turning a constraint into a resource
For professionals, the first benefit of a chipper is operational.
On a pruning worksite, transporting whole branches requires space, time and numerous journeys. By immediately processing these branches into chips, the chipper makes them easier to handle and transport.
But when the chipped material is reused directly, the benefits also become environmental and economic.
A landscaper can, for example, chip pruning material at a customer site and then reuse some of it in planting beds. A local authority can use material produced from tree maintenance to mulch its green spaces. An arboricultural company can also organise a recovery stream for chipped wood intended for mulching or, when the product characteristics and equipment allow it, for energy recovery.
The worksite waste then becomes a locally produced secondary raw material.
Schliesing: chipping branches to make better use of them
For more than 40 years, Schliesing has been developing and manufacturing professional wood chippers in Germany, notably for arborists, landscapers, local authorities and green-space professionals.
Thanks to their disc-and-knife cutting system, Schliesing chippers efficiently process branches from maintenance work into a material that is much easier to manage and recover. The different ranges - engine-powered, battery-powered, PTO-driven or tracked - make it possible to adapt the machine to the constraints and volumes encountered on worksites.
Choosing a wood chipper is not simply about finding a way to dispose of plant material. It also means considering what will happen to the chipped material produced.
Mulching green spaces, returning organic matter to the soil or recovery through a suitable wood-energy supply chain: branches can continue their life cycle long after passing through the chipper.
What if your branches became a resource?
Turning branches into wood chips makes it possible to move from a disposal approach to a genuine recovery approach.
For green-space professionals, this approach can help reduce transport, encourage local reuse of material and give a new purpose to products generated by pruning work.
Would you like to identify the Schliesing wood chipper best suited to your worksites, the volume of branches you handle and the type of chipped material you want to produce?
Discover the Schliesing range and request a demonstration in real working conditions. Request your demonstration from the Schliesing sales representative for your region https://www.schliesing.com/en/schliesing-distribution-network
