Energy potential of wood waste from a tropical urban forest

Debora Klingenberg,Annie Karoline Lima Cavalcante,Elias Costa De Souza,Ananias Francisco Dias Júnior,Luana Candaten,Adriana Maria Nolasco

doi:10.33448/rsd-v9i9.7478

Debora Klingenberg, Annie Karoline Lima Cavalcante + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v9i9.7478

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Abstract

Urban tropical forest species generate large amounts of wood waste by pruning and removing urban trees, which can be an accessible source of biomass that could be used to generate energy instead of being disposed of irregularly. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential for energy production of the wood residue of seven species most used in urban forestry in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, by determining the physical, chemical and energetic characteristics. Wood waste of 7 common urban forests species in the State of São Paulo were collected in the city of Piracicaba, characterized (humidity, basic density and bulk density), chemically (extract content, volatile materials, fixed carbon and ash content) and energetically (higher, lower, useful calorific power, density energy and thermogravimetric analysis). The highest value of basic density was found in the species Cenostigma pluviosum (653.76 kg/m³), all species had higher calorific values greater than 19 MJ/kg and the energy density of the species varied between 4.45 to 10,80 GJ/m³. The use of these wood residues for direct combustion is a viable alternative and can be considered as a solution to replace the incorrect disposal, which is still a common practice in many cities in developing countries.

Highlights

The tropical urban forest in Brazilian Southeastern cities provides many benefits; trees require regular pruning and occasionally removal when diseased, producing a large amount of waste (Shi et al, 2013)
The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential for energy production of the wood residue of seven species most used in urban forestry in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, by determining the physical, chemical and energetic characteristics
The humidity values determined for each species were 13.01% for Cenostigma pluviosum, 37.75% for Delonix regia, 33.09% for Ficus benjamina, 17.53% for Licania tomentosa, 12.33% for Nectandra megapotamica, 18.31% for Terminalia catappa and 18.26% for Tipuana tipu

Summary

Introduction

The tropical urban forest in Brazilian Southeastern cities provides many benefits; trees require regular pruning and occasionally removal when diseased, producing a large amount of waste (Shi et al, 2013). Replacing a share of fossil fuels, the use of urban forestry wood waste as a source of bioenergy could reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to open air burning and mitigate environmental impacts of carbon dioxide in climate change (Timilsina et al, 2014; Wolf et al, 2016) and that can present 80% reduction in the carbon footprint (Araújo et al, 2018). The specific objective was to determine the physical, chemical and energetic characteristics of the wood residues of pruning from the city of Piracicaba, São Paulo

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