Evaluation of the calorific values of wastes from some tropical wood species

Aurel Lunguleasa,Octavia Zeleniuc,Cosmin Spirchez

doi:10.4067/s0718-221x2020005000302

Aurel Lunguleasa, Octavia Zeleniuc + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-221x2020005000302

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Abstract

The paper aims to analyze and classified some exotic wood species from tropical Africa, on regard to calorific features, in order to view the ability of their biomass to be a solid, natural and renewable fuel. The calorific values of wood wastes of eight tropical species were determined using an oxygen bomb calorim-eter. The tested specimens were conditioned at a moisture content of 10%, 20%, and 50%. The influence of moisture content on calorific value and density, heat release rate and calorific efficiency were also ana-lyzed. The biggest high calorific value and low calorific value were obtained by Guaiac and Rose species (21200-20700 kJ/kg). Acajou had the lowest values of high calorific value and low calorific value (18929 and 18456 kJ/kg, respectively). For higher wood density (Guaiac) the higher calorific density was obtained. The moisture content of specimens had negatively influenced the calorific efficiency and rate of energy release. The ash content was below 4% with highest values for Guaiac (3,6%) and the lowest for Acajou (0,5%). The results showed that the analyzed tropical wood species had a forest calorific capacity with 23-47% higher than of European beech, thus can be considered a good potential as renewable energy resources

Highlights

Wood biomass represents a great potential for the energy production and consumption all over of the world
About moisture content influence on the calorific values (HCV and low calorific value (LCV)) The solid fuels contain some moisture as free water in large pores and bound water inside of cell wall
The tropical wood species contain around 43,5% cellulose, 65,5% hemicellulose and 30,36% lignin, as reported by Acuña-Alegria et al (2018)

Summary

Introduction

Wood biomass represents a great potential for the energy production and consumption all over of the world. There are many wood biomass sources (Adam et al 2018, Barro et al 2020, Ozyuguran et al 2018, Perez-Arevalo and Velaszquez-Marti 2018), starting with forestry operations, forest residues, byproducts from wood processing, wood from demolition sites and even municipal wastes. The wood industry provides a wide range of wood wastes from primary processing of logs to veneers, plywood, panelboards, Oriented Strand Board (OSB), Medium Density Fiberboard (Adam et al 2018) and furniture manufacturing. Wooden biomass has a great advantage because it can be used individually, or in combination with fossil coal (Adam et al 2018)

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