Comparison of the Physical and Chemical Properties of Briquette and Wood Charcoal in Khammouane Province, Lao PDR

Abstract

The economy of Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (PDR) has been expanding with substantial dependence on natural resources. Forests are continuously depleted to meet industrial demands for wood and furniture. In Khammouane Province where many wood processing industries are located, one of the problems from wood processing industries is the pollution of the near environment through saw dust disposal. On the other hand, the entire communities who live in this area use wood charcoal as a main source of fuel. An alternative to saw dust dumping will therefore be its conversion to briquette charcoal. However, the suitability of the wood charcoal for cooking has not been fully determined. This research seeks to determine this suitability by comparing the physical and chemical characteristics of briquette and wood charcoal. Six samples of wood charcoal from different tree species namely Cratoxylum cochinchinense, Pterocarpus marcocapus, Pinus merkusii, Sindora siamensis, Ketepeleeria davidiana and Pettophorum dasylachis and one sample of briquette charcoal were obtained and taken to the laboratory to determined the physical property (gross calorific value) and the chemical properties (moisture, volatile, ash and fixed carbon content). Results show that briquette charcoal is a quality charcoal in terms of high gross calorific value and high fixed carbon with 7,595 cal/g and 78.68%. Conversely, it had low moisture and ash content of 1.88% and 3.79%, respectively, comparing with the other wood charcoals. Results from this research leave the conclusion that briquette charcoal is an alternative source of fuel for consumption. Therefore the government of Khammouane province should encourage and increase the investment in briquette charcoal production to subsidize fuel consumption. In addition, enormous quantity of sawdust utilized also reduces environmental impacts from saw dust dumping.