Determination of the oxidation characteristics of FIR (Abies bornmulleriana) wood

Introduction About 90% of the energy used by humankind is based on combustion – mainly combustion of fossil fuels (oil, coal, and natural gas), with a relatively small contribution from the combustion of biomass (wood). The main exceptions to combustion are nuclear fission and hydro for the generation of electricity. Energy conversion by combustion has a significant impact on the planet's atmosphere by means of ground-level air pollution (photochemical smog,, acid rain, global climate change, and stratosphere particulate matter, SO2, CO, toxic organic gases and vapors and toxic metals), acid rain, global climate change, and stratosphere ozone depletion. Although energy production from biomass residues is limited due to availability and high cost compared to fossil fuels 1,2 , biomass provides a renewable source of energy on a scale sufficient to play a significant role in the development of sustainable energy programmes, so vital if we are to create a greener, more ecologically sensitive society 3,4 . By optimal utilization of biomass resources and development of new technical advances, biomass will become more efficient and competitive as an energy source. In order to consider the optimum conditions for biomass utilization one should start investigating the combustion characteristics of the biomass. In this study we aimed to find the combustion characteristics of wood samples as the starting point for the evaluation of to use as an energy source. Experimental The wood sample used in this work was a bark-free fir (Abies bornmulleriana) sawdust sample obtained from Bolu forests (northwest Anatolia) in Turkey. The proximate and elemental analyses of the wood sample were done at the Instrumental Analysis Laboratory of the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, Ankara, is given in Table 1. The sawdust was ground and sieved to below 175 µm (–80 mesh) size.