Effect of diameter at breast height of leucaena leucocephala on bio char production in tube furnace pyrolysis

Renewable energy produced from biomass is a green way to reduce the greenhouse effect. fast-growing wood species,as the energy source,create independent and fast harvesting cycle for energy fuel stock. the aim of this study was to determine the effect of tree diameter at breast height (dbh) of a local wood species i.e. leucaena leucocephala,on char yield during pyrolysis. the calorific value (cv) of bio char was also determined in order to analyse the bio char product produced by pyrolysis process. the tree samples were classified into three dbh i.e. 4,8 and 12 cm and only tree stem was selected for pelletization. the wood pellets were pyrolyzed at 300,400,500,600 and 700 °c with 40 °c/min of heating rate and holding time of 30 min in inert condition. the largest difference percentage of bio char yield production is only 1 % while the largest difference of cv is 0.7 mj/kg which happened at temperature 300 °c. in this study,it was found that any dbh does not give any significant effect to the production of bio char as well as its cv. © 2015 penerbit utm press. all rights reserved.