Production of wood vinegar from woodchips

Abstract

Woodchips waste could be converted into wood vinegar through pyrolysis process. Wood vinegar is a type of liquid oil used by the industry as growth catalyze, disease control agent for plant and etc. It is a great challenge to convert woodchips into liquid product which is wood vinegar in an effective way. Therefore, this study was conducted to produce wood vinegar from woodchips by pyrolysis process using a fixed bed reactor. The optimization process parameters such as pyrolysis temperature (A) holding time (B) and nitrogen flow rate (C) were investigated through central composite design (CCD) with wood vinegar considered as the response. The pyrolysis temperature (A) was considered as the most significant parameter followed by holding time (B). From the optimization study, an optimum pyrolysis temperature of 509 °C, holding time of 54 minutes and nitrogen flow rate of 181 cc/min produced 41.2% of wood vinegar. The proximate analysis results of woodchips contains high percentage of volatile content which was about 71.51% moderate percentage of moisture content and fixed carbon which are 9.84% and 10.34%. The ash content was low compared to others which is 8.31%. The pH of wood vinegar obtained from the pyrolysis process varies from pH 2.4 to pH 3.1 while the acetic acid in wood vinegar is 4.35%. Therefore the acidity of wood vinegar was verified. The wood vinegar obtained was then used onto crickets as bio pesticide to determine the time taken for the crickets to die. The effect was shown in less than 30 minutes.