Impact of Rainy and Dry Seasons on Eucalypt Fuelwood Quality Logs Stored in Piles

Humberto De Jesus Eufrade-Junior,Sérgio Augusto Rodrigues,Saulo Phillipe Sebastião Guerra,Enzo Dal Pai,Adriano Wagner Ballarin,Emanuel Rangel Spadim

doi:10.5552/crojfe.2021.776

Humberto De Jesus Eufrade-Junior, Sérgio Augusto Rodrigues + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5552/crojfe.2021.776

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Abstract

The natural drying of fuelwood is a common practice to improve its quality and increase the efficiency in the biomass-based energy supply chain. The objective of this work was to analyze the effect of seasons on the physical and chemical properties of wood logs stored in piles for energy purposes. The logs of Eucalyptus urophylla were stored in two periods of 160 days each throughout the year, autumn–winter (dry season) and spring–summer (rainy season). During the 320 days, the moisture content of wood and the weather parameters were measured daily. After the natural drying, the moisture content (wet basis) of wood reached 29.6%, and there was an increase of 47.6% in the low heating value (12.4 MJ kg-1 wet basis) after the storage in the autumn–winter, which is the most suitable period for air–drying of logs. The rainy storage reduced the higher heating value of wood, which suggested a biological degradation of biomass.

Highlights

The lignocellulosic biomass can be converted into a variety of chemicals and energy, including solid, liquid, and gaseous fuel used in processes to produce its thermal, mechanical, and electrical forms (Londo et al 2018)
The main objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of seasons and diameter class of stored long logs overtime on the proximate analysis, basic density, and heating value of wood from Eucalyptus urophylla tree plantation
The diameter classes and storage period had a significant effect on wood water content (Table 6)

Summary

Introduction

The lignocellulosic biomass can be converted into a variety of chemicals and energy, including solid, liquid, and gaseous fuel used in processes to produce its thermal, mechanical, and electrical forms (Londo et al 2018). In the power generation from wood, the knowledge of moisture content, basic density, proximate composition, and heating value is essential; these properties have implications for handling, transportation, drying, biomass storage, energy conversion systems and significantly impact their costs (Sosa et al 2015, Acuna et al 2012, Moskalik and Gendek 2019). The moisture content (MC) is one of the most important forest biomass properties, for its combustion. The lowest value of MC is desirable to increase process efficiency in the energy systems. Eucalyptus logs have high MC (from 50 to 60% – wet basis), at least half of their total weight are represented by water (from 50 to 60% – wet basis) and need to be dried before being submitted to industrial processes.

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