Industrial wood residuals: experimental property characterization and lab-scale burning tests

Abstract

Referring to the industrial wood waste category (as relevant in the provincial furniture district of Pesaro-Urbino, Italy), this paper deals with the experimental characterization and the carrying out of lab-scale non-controlled burning tests for selected "raw" and primarily "engineered" wood residuals. The property characterization has primarily revealed the following aspects: potential influence on moisture content of local weather conditions at outdoor wood residual storage sites; generally, higher ash contents in "engineered" wood residuals as compared with "raw" wood residuals; higher energy content values in fiber-wood as compared with particle-wood typologies. The smoke qualitative analysis for noncontrolled lab-scale burning tests has primarily revealed: the presence of specific organic compounds indicative of incomplete wood combustion; the presence exclusively in "engineered" wood burning tests of pyrroles and amines, as well as the additional presence (as compared with "raw" wood burning) of further phenolic and containing nitrogen compounds; the potential impact of incomplete industrial wood burning on the photochemical smog phenomenon.