Agricultural commodity
WOOD CHIPS
Biomass has been used as a source of energy for centuries. Although its consumption has declined over the years, in Brazil the expectation is that its share in the energy matrix will grow due to its high consumption, as it is a low-cost renewable energy source.
In a company that trades this fuel, its quality analysis is of fundamental importance for pricing and quality assurance for consumers. The objective of this work was to calculate the Fuel Value Index (FVI) of three different types of wood chips: wood chips with bark, wood chips without bark, and wood chips from sawmills. Density, moisture content, ash content, and calorific value were analyzed according to the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT). The Fuel Value Index is a parameter for measuring fuel quality. In this research, the results showed that the fuel with the highest FVI was the bark-free wood chip, with a determined average value of 440. The sawmill and bark wood chips obtained similar values, with average values of 100 and 114, respectively.
(Text by Jéssica Machado Soares)
The bark-free wood chip comes from eucalyptus wood that undergoes harvesting with the removal of bark (there is an admissible percentage of bark that is pre-established during harvesting). The bark-free chip may have a higher price due to production costs; the harvesting of bark-free wood can be more expensive than harvesting wood with bark, and it often needs to pass through a sieve after being chopped, which also increases production costs. The particle size varies according to the consumer's requirement, which as mentioned earlier, is different for each type of boiler.
(Text by Jéssica Machado Soares)
