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Does the Segregation of Wood Waste from Amazonia Improve the Quality of Charcoal Produced in Brick Kilns?

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Abstract

The multiple-species raw material and the poorly controlled carbonization in brick kilns are drawbacks for producing homogeneous and high-quality charcoal with the wood wastes derived from the sustainable forest management plans in Amazon. How much improvement is possible with the previous grouping of woods with similar properties is still unknown. Thus, the objective of this work was to compare the quality of charcoals derived from previously segregated into four distinct groups and non-segregated (traditional carbonization) wood wastes of 23 Amazon species carbonized in brick kilns. Charcoals were characterized by apparent relative density (ARD), moisture content (MC), friability (F), fixed carbon content (FC), volatile matter content (VM), ash content (AC), higher heating value (HHV), and energy density (ED). The group formed by the species Dinizia excelsa provided charcoals with the best quality (ARD = 0.737 g/cm3, AC = 1.20%, HHV = 28.9 MJ/kg, and ED = 21.3 MJ/m3). In contrast, traditional carbonization generated highly heterogeneous and friable charcoals. The segregation promoted average improvements of 22.0, 9.4, 2.0, 2.3, 1.0, and 23.6% in ARD, AC, FC, F, HHV, and ED of the charcoals, respectively. These results encourage the steel industry since it requires high-quality charcoal from legal sources for iron ore reduction.

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Datasets related to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/rhznzkmb5z.1, an open-source online data repository hosted by Mendeley Data.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support of the Laboratory for Technology of Forest Products of the Federal Rural University of Amazonia (UFRA, Brazil), the Multiuser Laboratory of Biomaterials and Biomass Energy of the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA, Brazil), and Embrapa Eastern Amazon. We would like to especially thank the following people who played an important role in the laboratory stages of this project: Eidy Regina Oliveira da Silva, Eliana Martins de Sousa, Sindy Daniela Ferreira Sozinho, and Raimunda Marcia Souza dos Santos.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq—process no. 306793/2019–9), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES—finance code 001), Banco da Amazonia (financial support contract no. 2018/193), and Keilla Group.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal Rural University of Amazonia–UFRA, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Belém, Pará, 66077-901, Brazil

    Denes de Souza Barros, Michael Douglas Roque Lima, Lina Bufalino & Francisco de Assis Oliveira

  2. Federal University of Espírito Santo–UFES, Wood and Forestry Science Department, Jerônimo Monteiro, Espírito Santo, 29550-000, Brazil

    Ananias Francisco Dias Junior

  3. Faculty of Agrarian Sciences, Lúrio University, 3300, Campus Universitário de Unango Km 62, Sanga District, Mozambique

    Jonas Massuque

  4. Federal University of Lavras–UFLA, Department of Forest Science, Lavras, Minas Gerais, 37200-900, Brazil

    Elvis Vieira dos Santos & Paulo Fernando Trugilho

  5. Federal Rural University of Amazonia–UFRA, Parauapebas, Pará, 68515-000, Brazil

    Thiago de Paula Protásio

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  1. Denes de Souza Barros
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Correspondence to Michael Douglas Roque Lima.

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Barros, D.d., Lima, M.D.R., Dias Junior, A.F. et al. Does the Segregation of Wood Waste from Amazonia Improve the Quality of Charcoal Produced in Brick Kilns?. Bioenerg. Res. 16, 1604–1617 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-022-10551-w

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