Pyrolysis of blended and non-blended residues of pine and eucalyptus forestry woods
Abstract
254 words
Over 11% of the 241551 sq. km of total land in Uganda is under forestry and woodland
producing over 34.4 million tonnes of wood resource. However, about 65% of this resource
remains as wood waste in form of saw dust, chips and offcuts of which 90% is unutilized,
i.e., left to rot or burnt in the open at saw mills posing environmental and health issues. The
main objective of this research is to assess the potential of pine and eucalyptus forestry
wood wastes in the production of bio-fuels, that is, vinegar, bio-ethanol, bio-char and tar by
pyrolysis that can be used as alternative sources of energy. Two (2) kilograms of wood
wastes of each pine, eucalyptus and a blended mixture of pine and eucalyptus were fed in a
0.0376 m3 batch reactor initially at 270C and heated at a rate of 100C/min. to 4000C and held
for 45 minutes. Chemical analysis of the obtained wood vinegar and tar samples was
conducted using a gas chromatograph (GC) model 7820A equipped with a flame ionization
detector (FID). Results showed that pine, eucalyptus, and a blended of the two produced
vinegar that contained 15, 9 and 11 notable components, respectively. The principle
components of wood vinegar were determined to beacetic acid, acetaldehyde, furfural,
methyl-propyl-ketone (MPK), propanoic acid, acetone, and 3-hexanone. The tar made from
pine, eucalyptus, and blended of the two contained 12, 9 and 11 notable components,
respectively. The presence of the oxygenated aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons make
the bio-oils a potential source of transportation fuels.
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