Solid Bioenergy Properties of Paulownia tomentosa Grown in Korea

Abstract

Paulownia tomentosa is one of fast-growing wood species in Korea. In order to evaluate the solid bioenergy properties of Paulownia tree, this study examined the heating value, moisture content (MC), pH and proximate analysis of stem, branch, root, bark and leaf. The heating values of wood parts were slightly higher than those of bark and leaf, and that of branch was the highest among all the samples. The higher moisture content of bark and leaf referred to their lower heating value. Also, the pH of stem, branch and root was similar and lower than those of bark and leaf. The ash content of bark and leaf was much higher than that of wood parts, which is the one of the reasons for effect on the lower heating value and higher pH. While, the volatile matter content (VMC) of bark and leaf was lower than those of wood parts. The bark showed the highest fixed carbon content (FCC), while the FCC of stem was the lowest among all the samples. The obtained results are encouraging that the Paulownia tree could be totally utilized as alternative fuels for bioenergy production.

Pressurized Solvent Extraction of Paulownia Bark Phenolics

“…Ethanol extractives accounted for 21%, whereas protein and ash represented a lower fraction. Qi et al [ 20 ] reported a similar ash content (2.8%) for Paulownia tomentosa bark, with 80% volatile matter content and 17% fixed carbon content.…”

Comparative Study of Biochemical Composition of Paulownia tomentosa (Thunb.) Steud. Genotypes

“…According to Al-Sagheer et al ( 2019), paulownia leaf meal had 8.85% of ash which was close to our results related to f. PSA and f. PN. Qi et al (2016) determined ash content in leaves and barks of 6.0 and 2.89%, respectively. As reported Ganchev et al (2019), the ash content of the leaves of P. elongata was 14.94% which was higher than in the leaves of P. tomentosa in our study.…”

Oxytree Pruned Biomass Torrefaction: Process Kinetics

“…For example, in the case of willow and poplar, ash accounts for 0.5–1.2% [37]. Previous research showed that Paulownia tomentosa has a 0.19–6% ash content depending on the plant part, with 6% in the leaves and 0.23% in the wood [38]. High ash content in the tested Oxytree material can be caused by a high leaf content of 66% compared to 34% being shoots.…”

“…The examined pruned biomass of Oxytree had about 4% more combustibles, compared to the Paulownia tomentosa wood from a research forest of Kangwon National University, Republic of Korea [38]. The mean HHV was 18,295 ± 31; slightly below values in the literature.…”