Heating Value and Ash Content of Downy Birch Forest Biomass

Abstract

Biomass from forestry sector provides an important contribution to meet the government's targets for increasing bioenergy production and utilization. Characterization of forest residues is critical for exploiting and utilizing them for energy production purpose. In present work, stem wood, stem bark, branches, top of trees from downy birch forest were sampled from different sites in South Norway and subjected to heating value and ash content measurement. Properties of different parts of trees vertically along the tree trunk and radially along the branch and crown level were assessed via the statistical model. The heating value of stem wood was in range 18.14-18.57 MJ/kg, of stem bark 18.50-18.72 MJ/kg and of branch wood 18.21-18.50 MJ/kg. The vertical dependence of heating value of downy birch stem wood was similar to that of stem bark. Regular decreasing of heating value towards the tree top was observed. Significantly higher heating value at level p<0.05* of stem bark than the one of stem wood was observed. The ash content of downy birch branch wood did vary axially along the branch whereas there are only slight differences of ash content of branch within the crown. The stem bark has the highest ash content in range 2.0-2.5%, followed by branch wood in range of 1.0-1.6% and the lowest for stem wood in range of 0.3-0.5%.