Treesearch

Removing excess biomass from fire-hazardous forests can serve dual purposes: enhancing the health and sustainability of forest ecosystems and supplying feedstock for energy production. The physical availability of this biomass is fairly well-known, yet availability does not necessarily translate into actual supply. We assess the perception and behavior of private forestland owners in the southern United States with respect to thinning overstocked forests for bioenergy production. Landowner perception is then integrated with the USDA Forest Service’s Fuel Treatment Evaluator to estimate the...

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are reinforcing fillers of emerging interest for polymers due to their high modulus and potential for sustainable production. In this study, CNC-based composites with a waterborne epoxy resin matrix were prepared and characterized to determine morphology, water content, and thermal and mechanical properties. While some CNC aggregation was observed, the glass transition temperature (Tg) and modulus for the composites increased with increasing CNC content. Relative to neat epoxy, at 15 wt.% CNC the storage modulus increased by 100%, the Tg increased from 66.5...

Study assessed the usefulness of various methods for choosing the initial values for the numerical procedures for estimating the parameters of mixture distributions and analysed variety of mixture models to approximate empirical diameter at breast height (dbh) distributions. Two-component mixtures of either the Weibull distribution or the gamma distribution were employed. The study plots, representing two-cohort stands, were located in the Świętokrzyski National Park (central Poland) and in the Southern Appalachian Mountains (eastern USA). A new strategy using three methods for choosing...

To improve the conversion of enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass in an energy-efficient manner, two shorttime ultrasonication strategies were applied on six types of biomass with different structures and components. The strategies include pre-sonication before the hydrolysis and intermittent sonication during the ongoing hydrolysis. The microstructures of each type of biomass were characterized by scanning electron microscopy to investigate the potential correlation between biomass structure and ultrasonicaton. The concentration of resultant reducing sugar was measured to evaluate the efficienc...

Wood char,a by-product from the fast-pyrolysis process of southern yellow pine wood for bio-oil production, was carbonized with Fenano particles (FeNPs) as a catalyst to prepare carbon-encapsulated Fe nanoparticles. A magnetic separation method was tested to isolate carbon-encapsulated Fe nano particles from the carbonized char. X-ray diffraction pattern clearly shows that Fe-containing materials were completely separated from the carbonized wood char mixture using a magnet. The amorphous carbon in the material which adhered to the magnetic bar was significantly decreased in comparison...

Sodium lignosulfonate (LS) from sulfite pulping processing was used as a carbon source to synthesize graphene. LS was mixed with Fe nanoparticles (FeNPs) as a catalyst and thermally treated at 1000 °C for 1 h. The Raman spectrum and X-ray diffraction pattern suggested that graphene sheets were formed in LS thermally treated with FeNPs (Fe-HTLS). Scanning electron microscopy image of Fe-HTLS showed clusters of thin graphene sheets appearing in the form of nanoflowers. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron reflection images provided further evidence of the formation...

A glulam beam is subjected to X-ray computer tomography and acousto-ultrasonic measurements to detect and assess wood decay. A glulam beam without visible indications of wood decay was taken from field use. A modified impulse-echo technique is employed as an inspection method requiring access to only one side of the beam. It is observed that decay-rate analysis of the collected signals allows detection and assessment of wood decay. The decay-rate approach leads to an overall rate of false calls of 7.2%. Considering the variability that exists in wood including the presence of splits,...

This research map describes Puerto Rico's terrestrial protected areas based on natural and anthropogenic elements of the landscape. We used geospatial data, i.e., land cover (Gould et al. 2007); urban, suburban, and rural settlements (Martinuzzi et al. 2008); and physiography to illustrate landscape elements and analyze what and how much is protected in Puerto Rico. Pie and bar charts convey statistics about each landscape element's distribution and level of protection. We also analyzed the landscape context of the protected areas by classifying each one as coastal, forested, herbaceous,...