Abstract
Brazil stands out internationally in the production and commercialization of wood products. Although the external and internal demand for these products is met by the Brazilian forestry sector, challenges related to the internal management of lignocellulosic waste are evident, as the country has structural difficulties in the sector of solid waste management. Therefore, the objective was to comparatively analyze the performance of the most abundant lignocellulosic materials in the Brazilian market, regarding energy recovery at the end of their life cycles. Pine wood treated with chromed copper arsenate (CCA), untreated pine wood, eucalypt wood treated with CCA, untreated eucalypt wood, uncoated medium density fiberboard panel (MDF), and MDF panel with melamine coating were sampled. The characterization included thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDXA), and elementary analysis (EA). The presence of the CCA salts and the melamine coating reduced the energy potential of the biomass, altering the burning behavior and significantly increasing the amount of generated ashes. They also caused an increase in the concentrations of copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), arsenic (As), and cadmium (Cd) in the wood ashes as well as lead (Pb) and chromium in the panel ashes.
Highlights
As a world leader in wood productivity, Brazil is a major producer, consumer, and generator of wood waste
The treatments were characterized by materials commonly found on the market for timber products and derivatives, such as untreated pine wood; pine wood impregnated with chromed copper arsenate (CCA); untreated eucalypt wood; eucalypt wood impregnated with CCA; uncoated medium density fiberboard panel (MDF) panels; MDF panels with melamine coating; and a mix, which consisted of a mixture of all materials in equal proportions
Despite the early onset of degradation, the treated pine showed a lower maximum degradation rate of 27%·min−1 at 329 ◦ C, against values of 30%·min−1 at 347 ◦ C for untreated pine. These results demonstrate that the treatment made the pine wood more reactive
Summary
As a world leader in wood productivity, Brazil is a major producer, consumer, and generator of wood waste. It is possible to see that in Brazil, despite the slowdown in the market, the domestic consumption of timber products is still significantly higher than the amount exported. With regard to treated wood products, in 2012, in the Latin American scenario, Brazil was already a leader in consumption, with approximately 700 thousand m3 ·year−1. The treated wood from the eucalypts (93.5%) and pine (6.5%) forests was intended to pro-duce fence posts (62%), posts (30%), sleepers (5%), and products of civil construction (3%) [2]. Due to the wide development of the wood product markets, it is possible to infer how significant these materials are for the fulfillment of the established objectives for a more efficient management of solid waste in the country. For a long time, legislative gaps related to waste management produced a context whereby regulation was not sufficient to guarantee an efficient environmental management process
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