Relationship Between Chemical Composition and User Perception on Wood-Charcoal Species Preference in Bauchi Metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

Urban least well-off and poor households in Bauchi Metropolis face challenge of accessing affordable, reliable and sustainable cooking and heating fuel supplies. As such, the urban least well-off and poor have leveraged their energy demands on use of wood-charcoals, which produced and utilise through mostly informal supply and demand chains that are associated to low efficiency in production methods and ineffective household utilisation factors that contribute to environmental and health dilapidation. This study sought to establish the relationship between physico-chemical characteristics of wood-charcoals commonly produced and utilised and users’ perception on charcoal species preference in Bauchi Metropolis. A laboratory experiment was conducted to determine the physico-chemical characteristics of the wood-charcoals. This was done prior to the field survey on perception preference to users to collaborate their views or otherwise on the burning and fuelling characteristics of the examined wood-charcoal species. A survey was undertaken using questionnaires to assess the users’ perception preference on the commonly used wood-charcoal species in terms of their solidity, ease of ignition, heat output intensity, rate of devolatilisation, burning time, ash generation and smoke. Of all the wood-charcoal species examined, Ficus platyphylla (Ganji) and Anogeissus leiocarpus (Marke) had low moisture contents (4.17, 4.60%, respectively), high calorific value (33.58, 30.09 Mj/kg, respectively) and low ash content (5.35, 6.51%, respectively) together with their glassy index evident by high aluminium, potassium, and silicon contents, indicating that these charcoal species have high-quality combustion and fuel outputs compared to other charcoal species with least combustion and fuel characteristics. Despite these qualities, these species can’t provide cleaner energy that could cut pollutant emissions, and at the same time bring huge environmental quality and health benefits, yet users perceptibly give preference to these charcoal species based on their combustion and fuelling performance impression.