Summary
The objectives of this research were to investigate the proportion of decayed wood in mature aspen stems, its chemical composition and its potential utility as a fuel or as a substrate for conversion to fine chemicals as part of an integrated utilization scheme. Three sound and ten decayed aspen stems were sampled from a boreal forest site. Stem analysis indicate that on average, 20% of the merchantable stem volume was in advanced decay and that considerable sound wood recovery was possible. Wood specific gravity and chemical composition were determined. The holocellulose content (volumetric basis) in advanced decayed wood was reduced by 67%. Thermal analysis of the wood using a differential scanning calorimeter provided graphical evidence of a different sequence of events occurring during the combustion of decayed wood and a resulting heat content per unit weight that was 40% higher than that of sound aspen wood. A higher degree of enzymatic hydrolysis was attainable with white-rotted aspen wood. Approximately 62% of the theoretical glucose yield was obtained from decayed aspen wood after alkali-peroxide pretreatment followed by a 12 hour hydrolysis using technical grade enzymes. The above information is used to elucidate future opportunities for wood recovery and energy production from decayed wood resources.
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The authors would like to thank the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Kirkland Lake for their cooperation; and for the technical assistance by Sally Krigstin, John Leigh, Samir Konar, Ganesh Deka and Doug Charles. We would also like to thank Dr. Morris Wayman, University of Toronto, for his advice and inspiration. We are especially grateful to the following persons and companies for supplying us with enzymes and their associated technical literature: Mr. John Bayard of Van Waters & Rogers Ltee, Canada, representing NOVO Industri, Denmark; Mr. Ian Hodge representing the Miles Biotechnology Group, Canada; and Dr. Gunther Eckert, B.A.S.F., Germany for obtaining and forwarding the products and information of Rohm GmbH, Germany. This work has been partially funded by the Edward Johnson Fellowship, University of Toronto
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Knoll, C.S., Wong, B.M. & Roy, D.N. The chemistry of decayed aspen wood and perspectives on its utilization. Wood Sci.Technol. 27, 439–448 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00193867
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00193867