Research Articles

Wood-fired small- and medium-scale combined heat and power (CHP) plants are a proven technology for producing domestic, carbon-neutral heat and power. Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is a promising conversion technology for producing an improved, more versatile wood fuel. By integrating the HTC and CHP processes, the HTC process can be notably simplified. This study compares six different integration schemes to non-integrated plants. The overall energy conversion efficiencies were similar in all six schemes, but there were differences in power output and in plant complexity, and thus likely differences in investment cost and operability. The most promising cases were evaluated at varying HTC temperatures. This comparison showed that temperatures over 220 °C became problematic for the simpler heat recovery schemes, which resulted in poor efficiencies.

Specific reliability parameters are used to determine the durability and safety of a furniture structure. An experimental study was conducted to determine the probability of failure free time and compare the reliability and hazard rates of selected joints used in case furniture. The investigations were performed on samples of joints with a connector of the screw, dowel, or eccentric type. Altogether, 600 samples were tested. The reliability tests were conducted on a specially designed laboratory stand. The reliability characteristics of the individual joints were used to designate the most reliable type of joint. The hazard rate of the dowel joint was about 8 times that of the confirmat screw joint. In the case of the eccentric joint, the hazard rate was as much as 57 times higher than it was for the screw joint. The test method presented here for determining the reliability of joints aid in the selection of a connector type during case furniture design.

Samples of Scotch pine sapwood were treated with epoxidized linseed and soybean oils via an empty cell process to improve the hydrophobic properties of wood. Boric acid was included to introduce fungicidal properties into the oils. Two retention levels (80 to 140 kg/m³ and 170 to 270 kg/m³) were targeted for oil treatments. Both an empty cell method and emulsion techniques were used to combine epoxidized oils and boric acid in a one-step treatment. Iodine number changes, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), water absorption (WA), anti-swelling efficiency (ASE), and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) analyses were used to characterize the wood after treatment. High iodine number changes that indicated a reduction the amount of unsaturated double bonds were determined. The FTIR analysis of epoxidized oils revealed a peak at 820 cm^-1, which indicated that epoxide moieties (C-O-C) were present. All of the oil treatments resulted in statistically significant lower water absorptions than the control sample. The lowest water absorption values were obtained from wood treated with epoxidized oils. The highest ASE result (70%) was observed on samples treated with epoxidized soybean oil at low retention (108 kg/m³). It was also determined that most of the latewood tracheids were filled with oils when compared to the earlywood tracheids.

Bamboo fibers exhibit poor solubility and reactivity because of the aggregational structure of cellulose macro-molecules in fiber cell walls. It has been shown that more free hydroxyl groups on cellulose molecules can be exposed via fibrillation of the fiber walls during a PFI beating process. The changes in fiber characteristics, such as the fibrillation degree, water retention value (WRV), and crystallinity, were analyzed. The results showed that the fiber fibrillation increased from 0.781% to 1.072%, and the WRV increased from 112.8% to 213.6% during the beating process, indicating that a fibrillation effect was present in the bamboo fiber walls that corresponded to an incremental change in the degree of mechanical pretreatment. The saturated solubility value of the treated fibers in an alkali/urea solvent system at low temperature increased from 0.22 wt.% to 2.69 wt.% with an incremental change in the degree of mechanical pretreatment. After high-revolution PFI beating, the cellulose crystallinity index of the samples decreased from 66.4% to 50.0%, but the intrinsic viscosity changed only slightly. The oxidation degree of the cellulose in the treated samples increased from 0.85 mol/AGU to 1.03 mol/AGU, which suggested that the reagent accessibility and chemical reaction performance of the bamboo fibers were both improved.

The biomass type is one of the most important factors that affects biochar properties, but the relationship between the major constituents of different biomasses and the properties of the derived biochars, especially the pH, is still unclear. In this study, the cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and ash contents of 30 representative agro-forestry biomasses and the pH, surface acid functional groups, and carbonates of 150 resultant biochars prepared with different heat treatment temperatures (HTTs) were examined. The results showed that the lignin content of the biomass had a strong negative correlation with the biochar pH (r = −0.428, P < 0.01). When the HTT was 300 °C, a high lignin content in the biomass was found to have increased the acid functional groups in the biochar, which resulted in a relatively low pH. When the HTT was greater than or equal to 400 °C, the high lignin content in the biomass negatively correlated to the carbonates, which led to a low biochar pH. It was concluded that the lignin content of agro-forestry biomass affects the biochar pH negatively, and the acid functional groups and carbonates have different effects at different HTTs.

The pretreatment of biomass materials is critical for improvement of the overall production process and product quality. In this work, a dilute zinc chloride (ZnCl₂) solution was used to pretreat bamboo chips, followed by defiberization (mechanical pulping). Compared to the results from the traditional chemi-thermomechanical pulping process, the results from this study showed that the refining energy consumption of the modified process was lowered 27%, and the tensile and burst index of the resultant pulp increased 22% and 82%, respectively. The morphological changes on the fiber surface, functional groups, and crystallinity of resultant pulps due to the ZnCl₂ treatment were also analyzed.

Withdrawal strengths of commercially available hardwood dowels were examined in this work. Multi-grooved dowels with a straight surface pattern and with pre-glued polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) were tested. Additionally, standard dowels with different single- and multi-grooved surface patterns were also tested, which were not pre-glued. Standard dowels were bonded with two types of PVAc and one type of polyurethane (PUR) adhesive. The influence of the type of dowel, the surface pattern, the dowel diameter, and the type of adhesive used on the dowel joint strength were investigated. Lower average strengths were observed for single-grooved dowels with a spiral pattern (4.9 MPa); failures generally occurred at the first or second thread of the spiral groove. For the pre-glued dowels, there were differences in the observed strengths, which depended upon how the PVAc adhesive was activated. Lower withdrawal strengths were noted for the pre-glued dowels when they were activated by dipping them in water (3.0 MPa) versus adding water directly to the pre-drilled holes (4.7 MPa to 5.4 MPa).

An attempt to correlate biomass characteristics to its susceptibility to enzymes is often inconclusive via investigation of the variables of hydrothermal pretreatment. Based on an integrated analysis of physicochemical properties, cellulose bioconversion, loss of pentose sugars, formation of inhibitory products, and the cost of energy, the optimal hydrothermal operation for wheat straw (1:20 w/v%) was found. This optimal operation involved cooling the hydrolysates as soon as the temperature reached 180 °C. Finally, a total of 40.7% glucose and 70.3% sugars were recovered during subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. Although treatment at a noticeably increased severity with a long incubation time could lead to almost 100% conversion of cellulose, the weight losses (mainly sugars) and inhibitors in the process liquid were not well suited for an industrial scale operation.

High specific surface area activated carbon was prepared by improving the process conditions of phosphoric acid activation and hulless barley straw and plain wheat straw as raw materials. The effects of the activation time on the pore structure and specific surface area of two types of activated carbon were investigated. The results revealed that soaking straws in the high concentrations of H3PO4 for 0.5 h to ensure complete soaking and then removing the straws from H3PO4 solution to activate was beneficial to the infiltration of H3PO4 in the raw material, and there was an increase in the surface area of activated carbon. The largest specific surface area of activated carbon prepared from plain wheat straw and hulless barley straw was 1524 m2/g and 1885 m2/g, respectively. Thermogravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscopy showed that the higher cellulose content, higher hemicellulose content, and smaller fiber morphology in hulless barley straw compared with wheat straw were the main reasons for the more abundant pore structure and higher specific surface area of the activated carbon.

A cellulase-free, degumming crude enzyme was produced by Bacillus cereus HDYM-02, using konjaku flour as an inexpensive substrate. After 48 h fermentation, this crude enzyme consisted of pectinase and mannanase, whose maximum activity was 756.7 U/mL and 2967.3 U/mL, respectively. This crude enzyme exhibited considerable stability under the conditions resembling industrial flax retting. After 120 h incubation, more than 50% of the maximum activity of both pectinase and mannanase was retained at pH value 4.0 to 7.0, and at least 70% of the maximum activity was detected at 25 °C to 40 °C. The degumming liquid retted by this crude enzyme contained more galacturonic acid and reducing sugar than those in the degumming liquid retted by commercial pectinase. The application of B. cereus HDYM-02 crude enzyme resulted in higher weight loss of flax stems, better properties, higher productivities, and smoother surfaces of flax fibres. This study showed promise for the use of B. cereus HDYM-02 crude enzyme for flax retting in the textile industry.