Exothermic processes in industrial-scale piles of chipped pine-wood are linked to shifts in gamma-, alphaproteobacterial and fungal ascomycete communities

Temperature‐dependent changes in the microbial storage flora of birch and spruce sawdust

“…from decaying sawdust has been previously described [6,20]; thus, bacteria of these species seem to belong to the normal storage flora of sawdust. Also, microbial strains of the genera Luteibacter have been associated with chipped wood piles [21]. P. fragi, the most frequent occurring bacteria in 2…”

Microbial communities in large-scale wood piles and their effects on wood quality and the environment

“…To evaluate storage impact on fuel quality parameters such as heating value, ash composition, moisture content, percentage of fine particles, slagging/fouling indices and the combustion profiles obtained from thermogravimetric analysis were analysed (Casal et al 2010). Factors that alter the energetic quality of stored wood chips have been characterised as (1) particle size and comminution method (Scholz et al 2005;Nati et al 2010;Zamorano et al 2011); (2) tree species composition (Röser et al 2011;Scholz et al 2005); (3) geometries of the piles (Ferrero et al 2011); (4) geographical location (Röser et al 2011); (5) methods for piling such as covered, compacted or ventilated (Jirjis 1995a, b); (6) time of storage (Noll et al 2010b;Ferrero et al 2009); (7) moisture content during piling (Filbakk et al 2011;Bedane et al 2011); (8) storage season (Brand et al 2011); and (9) microbial decomposition of stored wooden biomass (see Table 1). The most important factor affecting the quality of wood as a fuel is mainly attributed to moisture content of wood (Filbakk et al 2011;Bedane et al 2011;Lyons et al 1985;Jirjis 1995c).…”

“…Other factors such as the heating value and ash content of the respective tree species (Röser et al 2011;Scholz et al 2005), the particle size distribution and homogeneity (Jirjis 2005;Scholz et al 2005) and impurities and contaminants (Tame et al 2007) can also to a lesser extent affect fuel quality. Storage of wood chips in piles leads to redistribution of the moisture which results in a wet outer surface and much more drier inner part (Bedane et al 2011;Filbakk et al 2011;Noll et al 2010b), and therefore geometry of the pile with reduced surface area should be preferred to obtain higher wood quality. The storage time of biomass is highly dependent on both supply and utilisation and varies between few days to several months and in few cases up to years.…”

“…Moreover, the published studies of microbial communities in wood chip piles and wood logs can be regarded as case studies rather than large statistical analyses. This is mainly due to their large-scale (Ferrero et al 2009), inadequate sampling strategies (Lindner et al 2011), and the multi-parametric setups (Noll et al 2010b) more likely case studies rather than large statistical analyses. Therefore, universally valid statements of the composition and function of a defined microbial community present in wood chips piles is difficult up to now.…”

“…In addition, the demand of renewable energy sources caused expansion of mainly regional companies and created new jobs mostly in the forest sector (Viana et al 2010). Forest residues and ready-to-use wood chips are piled in large-scale and usually stored outside mostly without any coverage on solid surfaces such as concrete (Noll et al 2010b). In such piles, physical, chemical and microbiological processes that take place can affect fuel quality.…”