Shredded wood and products made from it. Wood chips - waste or valuable product What can be made from birch chips

In this article we will talk about various ways getting rid of sawdust , their uses and compare them with each other.

In some cases you have to pay for someone to take it out and one way or another disposed of the sawdust, in others they are taken away by interested persons or organizations, and it happens that they are created by processing this material.

Sawdust is a unique material with many properties of wood. Therefore, such material is in great demand in:

• fuel production;
• production of building materials;
• home and agriculture;
• repair and construction work Oh.

Fuel production

From sawdust it is obtained different kinds fuels, among which the most famous are pellets and briquettes.

These types of fuel can be used for conventional boilers, stoves or fireplaces, but the maximum effect is achieved only in automatic heating devices.

After all, all elements of one batch are identical in size and shape, thanks to which automatic fuel supply systems can dose them more accurately. Read more about these types of fuel.

Another popular look fuel – mixture of different alcohols, which is obtained from fermented sawdust.

This material is mixed with a sulfuric acid solution and heated under pressure, causing the cellulose to break down into simple sugars that can be fermented.

After fermentation is complete, the mass is passed through a distiller, resulting in alcohols various quality.

Read more about this use of sawdust in a separate section.

Also obtained from sawdust pyrolysis gas, suitable for use in heating and kitchen ovens, as well as in hot water boilers and another working for natural gas technology.

In terms of calorific value, pyrolysis gas is much inferior to natural gas, but, due to the minimal cost of its production, heating with pyrolysis gas is often cheaper than with natural gas.

Read more about this gas, the method of its production and use.

Manufacturing of building materials

Sawdust is used to produce building materials such as sawdust concrete.

Compared to conventional concrete, this material is noticeably lighter, and also has lower thermal conductivity, therefore, a house built from it loses less heat, which means you will have to spend less on additional insulation.

In addition, wood in concrete improves the vapor permeability of walls, thanks to which such houses always have optimal humidity, because its excess goes through the walls to the street.

Another popular material made from sawdust is wood concrete. In many ways it is similar to sawdust concrete, but it also has differences. After all, the mixture for pouring wood concrete is prepared without adding sand, that is, by mixing cement, sawdust and water.

Besides, this material lighter and stronger sawdust concrete, although it is much more expensive. You can read in more detail about the production and use of wood concrete in.

Sawdust makes good ones insulation and finishing materials:

• Fiberboard (fibreboard);
• Chipboard (chipboard);
• organic insulation.

Fiberboard is used for finishing walls, ceilings and floors, a t also forinterior lining cabinet space.

Popular fiberboard is used to make finishing material– hardboard, which differs from fiberboard by the presence of a decoratively treated side. Chipboard is used for creating furniture and many other works.

Organic insulation is only slightly inferior to mineral wool, but environmentally friendly, because its basis is paper obtained from sawdust.

Household and Agriculture

Sawdust is an excellent material for feeding various animals. This applies to both pets, such as hamsters, parrots or cats, and various livestock.

The material for bedding is chosen based on many factors, one of which is smell, because fresh sawdust They smell strong, and not everyone likes it.

For more information on how to choose bedding, read the article (Sawdust for pets).

Another use for this material is in the soil around plants.

Bare soil quickly loses moisture, overheats and cools, causing plant roots to suffer. By filling the soil around the plant with waste from sawing wood, you will protect the roots, which will make the plant better able to withstand winter cold and summer heat, and it will also be possible to water it less often.

Wood sawing waste is an excellent material for growing mushrooms and creating quality fertilizer. Mushrooms receive enough nutrition from them to multiply quickly, and the cost of such food is low, and you can often get it for free.

Sawdust also makes good humus, saturating the soil with nutrients and increasing plant productivity.

To learn more about this method of using wood sawing waste, read the article (Sawdust fertilizer).
It is also very convenient to cover paths between beds in fields, vegetable gardens or greenhouses with sawmill waste.

Even after heavy rains, it will be possible to walk along such paths. walk without getting muddy, so you can check your plants after a rainstorm.

Once every few years it will be necessary plow a garden or field so that the sawdust is evenly distributed over the ground and fertilizes it.

Repair and construction work

The main use of sawdust during repair and construction work is various insulations.

They are placed between thin wooden walls, due to which, at minimal cost, the thermal conductivity of such a wall is comparable to the same parameter of a wall made of timber of equal width.

That is, with a wall width of 20–30 cm, insulation will be required only in the northern regions.

In addition, wood sawing waste mixed with clay and the resulting solution is used to insulate ceilings, floors and brick walls.

The effectiveness of such insulation is much lower than that achieved by using mineral wool or polystyrene foam, but you can increase the thickness of the layer, due to which significant savings are achieved.

The same compositions are made on the basis of lime or cement, which act as a binder. Read more about all the methods of insulation using wood sawing waste here ().

Processing business

If there is a constant supply of sawdust or the ability to get it for free or very cheap, then you can start a business processing it. The final product can be anything, so it is necessary to focus on the demand for a particular product.

For example, if gas is bad in a region, but people there is an opportunity to buy automatic boilers , then high-quality pellets and briquettes will be in good demand. Read about choosing such a boiler or burner.

After all, access to free or very cheap sawdust allows you to produce products whose price will be lower than the market average for similar products.

If you are interested in such a business, then read more about it.

Another promising direction is the production of sawdust for cats or hamsters.

For this purpose, wood sawing waste dried, treated with deodorants, giving a pleasant smell to the material, and are packaged in paper or plastic bags.

No less interesting can be the sale of sawdust in bags for smoking.

After all, each product uses its own combination of wood species, providing best taste and smell, so packaged sawdust of various types of wood will be in demand.

Responsibility for disposal of waste from the wood processing industry

Despite the fact that sawdust is classified as Hazard class 5 According to the federal catalog of waste classification, that is, practically safe, they still need to be disposed of in any available way.

In addition, dried sawdust is very flammable material, which is difficult to extinguish if the fire has gained strength. Therefore, wood sawing waste can be disposed of in any available way:

• dispose of in a landfill;
• bury in the ground;
• distribute to people and businesses;
• sell to any buyers;
• use for heating in winter;
• use in a subsidiary farm for any needs;
• used to produce pyrolysis gas and use it in any way;
• hand over to the nearest pulp and paper or chemical plant that processes wood;
• process in any way (a license may be required for the production of some products).

If the sawdust for a long time they don't clean and there is a fire threat or someone else's territory is littered, then questions may arise from various regulatory organizations.

In Russia, the disposal of any waste, including sawdust, is regulated the federal law N 89-FZ dated June 24, 1998 “On production and consumption waste”, which you can read by following this link.

Another document regulating the disposal of any waste, including sawdust, is the federal law of March 30, 1999 N 52-FZ “On the sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population.”

Everything is in it waste storage and disposal issues considered in terms of the impact on the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of people.

Therefore, any disposal method must comply with the laws adopted in Russia.

No permits are required for one-time burning of small amounts of sawdust, but for regular burning of large volumes, not only permits for the burning itself are required, but also final product disposal solution– ash or soot.

The same applies to burying sawdust in the ground. In some regions, claims may be made by officials in connection with formal violations of some points of the law, but in reality, such quibbles may be lobbying the interests of landfill owners.

Advantages and disadvantages of various processing methods

Any owner of a woodworking enterprise or sawmill wants to get rid of sawdust from maximum benefit, however, there are situations when we're talking about It’s no longer about profit, but about minimizing the costs of disposing of this waste.

Recycling is the most profitable, but it all comes down to difficulties in selling finished goods and high cost of equipment.

To transport sawdust to a landfill, you need to obtain permission from Rosprirodnadzor (RPN) and buy quotas, and these are all considerable expenses.

After all, the amount of payment depends on the volume of material transported to the landfill. It is possible to bury sawdust in the ground if we are talking about a small batch, but when tens or hundreds of cubic meters of waste are received monthly, then it is no longer possible to bury them.

In addition, there is a high probability that burying large volumes of sawdust in the ground will arouse the interest of RPN officials, who will immediately begin issuing fines, because such work must be coordinated with them.

Wood sawing waste can be give to people for free, however, it is necessary to conclude an agreement with them on the free transfer of tangible assets.

Otherwise, questions may arise from the tax office.

Such an agreement can be concluded in simple written form.

Wood sawing waste can be sold in any volume if there are buyers, but it also needs to be dealt with enter into a formal agreement and issue a receipt, otherwise the tax office will have questions. The same situation applies to the delivery of waste to recycling plants.

Selling sawdust may be in great demand in bags with delivery, even if you don’t make money from it, you can get rid of some of the accumulated waste. Stores take this product for sale at a low price and sell it as cat litter.

For such a sale you will also need enter into an agreement with the store, and also attach receipts confirming payment for the goods by the store. The disadvantage of this method is high transportation costs and the inability to accommodate large volumes of material. After all, even hypermarket chains will be able to take only a few tens of cubic meters of such material per month.

The easiest way is to use sawdust for heating your own premises in winter– this method of disposal does not require any documents.

However, even in this case one cannot do without bureaucracy, After all, during the combustion of wood, soot and ash are formed, which also need to be disposed of somehow. Otherwise, questions arise for the RPN and the fire department. After all, according to their logic, soot and ash are simply thrown into a landfill without paying a disposal fee for it.

Additionally, in the event of a fire at a landfill or any nearby waste storage area enterprises producing ash or soot will be under suspicion, but refused to enter into an agreement for their disposal.

The situation is the same with the production of pyrolysis gas: permits for the process itself and the use of gas on the territory of the enterprise are not required, but it is still necessary to conclude agreement for the disposal of soot and coal.

There are situations when sawdust lies for a long time and begins to rot, as a result of which the cellulose breaks down into carbon dioxide and various sugars.

It’s difficult to get rid of such sawdust, because no one wants to take it even for free, so the easiest way is to bury it in the ground, having received this on-load tap-changer approval. This will cost less than purchasing quotas required for disposal of solid household waste to a landfill.

If the nearest on-load tap-changer is several hundred kilometers away, then sawdust can be bury without their consent.

In contact with

Chips are particles made by grinding wood raw materials. The production of this material is carried out by both large specialized enterprises and small private workshops. The cost of wood chips is low, which determines the feasibility of its use primarily as alternative type fuel. Wood chips can also be used in other areas of the national economy.

Scope of use

Wood chips are used mainly in domestic (and sometimes industrial) boiler houses. The use of this type is considered the most economically justified in populated areas remote forest areas of the Urals, Siberia and the European part of Russia. Especially where there is widespread production. Boilers for wood chips are structurally practically no different from equipment that uses coal. And therefore special costs switching to heating with this type of fuel does not cause. All that needs to be done in this case is to install a special supply line.

Wood chips can also be used in the production of furniture, as decorative element when arranging parks and gardens, when smoking products, making wood concrete blocks, etc. However, its main purpose is still the heating of domestic and industrial premises.

general description

Wood chips, the most appropriate use of which as fuel, have both their advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of this material include primarily:

low production costs;

a sufficient amount of raw materials used in production;

relatively low ash content;

possibility of year-round production.

The disadvantages of wood chips are: fuel material are considered:

not too high energy value;

low material density;

high humidity, and therefore the need for drying;

instability to rotting;

difficulties during storage due to the tendency to spontaneous combustion.

Equipment for the production of

Wood chips are produced either on special machines, or using modern combines. The first type of equipment is usually used by small production workshops. Harvesters produce wood chips directly at logging sites and in much larger quantities. Such equipment is purchased by large specialized companies.

Threshing or chipping machines can be used to produce chips. The latter are used more often. Threshing equipment is more suitable for the production of fuel pellets and fine wood fractions for briquettes.

Chippers can be used for the production of both fuel and technological (intended for chipboard manufacturing or composite) chips. In turn, the latter are divided into screw, disk and drum. The first two varieties are usually used for processing whole trunks and long material. Drum machines are more suitable for producing chips from heterogeneous wood (logging waste). Chippers can operate from their own engine or from the power take-off mechanism of a truck or tractor.

In addition to the actual chipping machines, today entire complexes are produced, supplemented by feed lines, receiving hoppers, and sometimes drying machines. The production of decorative wood chips also involves the use of special equipment designed for coloring.

Harvesters

This modern technology can perform the following operations:

felling of thin-trunked (and sometimes regular) timber;

feeding it into the chopping hole;

quick chopping into chips;

feeding the latter into the receiving container via a scraper conveyor.

Types of material

There are several types of alternative fuel such as wood chips. The most popular is the so-called stem chips. Its advantages include, first of all, a low bark content, high energy value, low ash content.

Less valuable is wood chips produced from waste from wood processing and timber processing, as well as from logging residues.

Price

The price of this material depends both on its purpose and variety, and on what kind of wood was used in its manufacture. The cost of fuel chips may depend on the ash content, percentage of bark content, particle size, etc. The price for this type of material usually ranges from 300-700 rubles. per cubic meter. Decorative wood chips are much more expensive. The price for this material is 200-400 rubles per bag. The cost is even higher for wood chips intended for smoking sausages, lard, etc. Apple, pear, alder, cherry, etc. material can be purchased for 100-400 rubles per kilogram.

Wood chips for wood concrete are the main component of the material (from 75% to 90% of the total volume). The selection and preparation of wood filler is an important step that directly affects the structural and thermal insulation characteristics of wood concrete.

Almost any wood is suitable for wood concrete. The best option would be to use coniferous species(for example, pine, spruce) or hardwood (for example, birch, oak, poplar, aspen). It is strictly forbidden to use larch, beech (due to the increased content of substances harmful to cement - sugars), and you also cannot use freshly cut wood; it must lie down for 3-4 months.

To produce wood chips, any logging waste (twigs, branches, tree tops), woodworking waste (slabs, rounding residues), and secondary waste ( wooden furniture, pallets, etc.). The volume of wood filler should contain no more than 10% bark admixture, no more than 5% pine needles and leaves by weight of the dry filler.

Why is pine needles better? Wood contains substances that adversely affect the characteristics of wood concrete, especially strength: various groups sugars, starch, extractives. Their content in coniferous trees is less than in hardwood and other species. In any case, aggregate produced from the above rocks requires further preparation and processing. It’s just that removing sugars from the filler of hardwood trees, unlike coniferous trees, requires a little more effort and components.

Chemical composition of wood species

Wood chips: shape and size

The geometry and size of wood chips for preparing the wood concrete mixture is determined by GOST 19222 for wood concrete.

Wood chips

Firstly, according to GOST 19222, the wood fraction must have a needle-like shape to create a reinforcing effect and increase the strength of the material. Secondly, the best wood chips for wood concrete must meet the following requirements:

• length should not exceed 30 mm (optimal length 20 mm)
• the width should be no more than 10 mm (the best option is 5 mm)
• thickness 5 mm

Machine for making wood concrete chips

The correct geometry and size of aggregate fractions can be obtained by manufacturing it on chipping and chipping machines. Great option To obtain the correct needle shape and size of the chips is to use wood shredders. However, a wood shredder is a very expensive machine. Chip cutters for wood concrete (hammer crushers) will give no worse results. It is also possible to produce large size fractions on rotary chippers and then re-grind in a chip crusher.

Wood shredder

If you buy one of the machines described above, you can easily make wood chips with your own hands. But most often, wood filler is easier to purchase from forestry enterprises.

Preparing wood chips for wood concrete

Harmful substances contained in wood filler negatively affect the strength of wood concrete. Therefore, an important step before producing a wood concrete mixture is the preparation and processing of wood filler.

Exist following methods preparation of aggregate:

Physical way

It involves treating wood with water, which washes out a significant portion of water-soluble substances. This is why freshly cut wood contains more water-soluble sugars than driftwood. Wood that is stored under cover will contain more water-soluble substances than wood that has been left out in the rain. A great effect can be achieved by soaking wood chips for a long time in a pool, but this requires space. It is enough to soak for a day in ordinary water or 2-3 hours in a warm place.

Chemical method

The easiest way: oxidation of tannins with atmospheric oxygen. To do this, the wood is kept in the air, and preferably under the sun.

Chemical reactions that occur during woodchip processing chemicals, convert sugars into insoluble and harmless compounds, and also create an impermeable film. For enveloping wood waste Urea-formaldehyde resin (KS-11 or KF-MT-P) is used as an impermeable film. To reduce the influence of sugars harmful to cement before creating cement mixture wood chips are impregnated with a mineralizer (4 - 10% bleach solution). The impregnation process is called mineralization.

In practice, it is popular to treat wood filler with solutions of calcium chloride, liquid glass and alumina sulfate to eliminate the effect of harmful sugars on cement. Calcium chloride should only be used on seasoned softwood wood chips. When using liquid glass and alumina sulfate, the type of wood and its curing time are not important, however, when using them, the strength of wood concrete decreases by almost half.

Calcium chloride or calcium chloride CaCl2

Biological method

Elimination of wood poisons is carried out using catalysts, which can be bacteria. This method includes simply heating the wood. It activates biological processes that will lead to partial fermentation and oxidation of water-soluble sugars. During the drying process, sugars become insoluble: they vitrify and crystallize.

Combined method

This method combines the above-described chemical and physical methods. However, it must be admitted that the combined method is labor-intensive.

There is an example of a combined method used in England. Boil the wood filler for 10 minutes and then rinse it in water. This partially removes water-soluble sugars. Then it is boiled in a 20% solution of iron sulfate to precipitate tannins.

Another recipe for the combined method: the wood chips are soaked in liquid glass from 5 hours to 24 hours, then it is washed and dried.

The section of GOST 19222 “Determining the suitability of wood filler” describes a method by which you can check the effectiveness of a particular method.

Everyone knows that starting from the stage of timber harvesting and at all stages of wood processing, a colossal amount of waste remains. Among them are tree branches, tops, twigs, stumps, slabs, substandard fraction, sawdust and trimmings. Available various methods reducing the volume of wood waste. The simplest is combustion, but this method is ineffective and does not bring profit. Another method is the processing of wood waste to create wood chips.

Wood chips

Wood chips are created in a variety of wood chipping machines, which make it possible to crush large volumes of wood waste in a short time, resulting in high-quality process chips. Chip production facilities are a fairly profitable business that can regularly generate profits.

What is made from wood chips? Today, wood chips have a wide range of uses. It is used as fuel to operate gas generating equipment. Wood chip boilers provide buildings and businesses with steam and heat. Gas generators can operate on wood waste and are economical. If for the production of wood chips you use not just one wood chipper, but a full-fledged production line, which includes a chip cutter, a drum dryer, a gas generator, a sorting and packaging plant, conveyors and bunkers for the supply of raw materials, then the final product will be chips for smoking with low humidity. As a result, the shelf life and quality of the product increase.

Process chips are excellent for use as fuel in universal solid fuel boilers, due to efficiency and high level efficiency. Boiler rooms of both private houses and individual areas are increasingly being equipped with such boilers. major cities. Fuel chips are in great demand today.

Chip brands

Chip brand	Purpose
	Sulphite pulp and wood pulp intended for the production of regulated paper
	Sulfite cellulose and wood pulp intended for the production of paper and cardboard with non-regulated contamination, sulfate and bisulfite cellulose intended for the production of paper and cardboard with regulated contamination
	Sulphate cellulose and various types of semi-cellulose intended for the production of paper and cardboard with unregulated contamination
	Alcohol, yeast, glucose and furfural
	Food Grade Crystal Xylitol T
	Furfural and yeast in two-phase hydrolysis
	Fiberboards
	Particle boards

Requirements for wood chips

Indicator name	Standard for brands
Mass fraction of bark, no more
Mass fraction of rot, no more
Mass fraction of mineral impurities, no more	Not allowed				Not allowed
Mass fraction of residues on sieves with holes diameter:
30 mm, no more
20 and 10 mm, no less
5 mm, no more
on a pallet, no more
Carbonized particles and metal inclusions	Not allowed

Wood species for making chips

Purpose of wood chips	Mass fraction of wood species in chips, %
	conifers 100	deciduous 100	in the mixture
			coniferous	deciduous
Production of cellulose: sulfite and bisulfite	Spruce, fir		Not less than 90	No more than 10
		Birch, aspen poplar, alder, beech, hornbeam	No more than 10	Not less than 90
sulfate	All species, larch separately		Not less than 90	No more than 10
		All breeds	No more than 10	Not less than 90
neutral sulfite	Not allowed	All breeds	Not allowed
Semi-cellulose production	All breeds		Not less than 90	No more than 10
		All breeds	No more than 10	Not less than 90
Wood pulp production	Spruce, fir	Not allowed	Not allowed
Hydrolysis production: yeast	All breeds	All breeds	Allowed in any ratio
alcohol	All breeds	All breeds	Not less than 70	No more than 30
glucose	All breeds	Not allowed	Not allowed
furfural	Not allowed	All breeds	No more than 5	Not less than 95
Xylitol production	Not allowed	Birch, aspen admixture no more than 10	Not allowed
Production of furfural and yeast by two-phase hydrolysis	Not allowed	Birch, beech, maple, oak, hornbeam, aspen admixture no more than 10	Not allowed
Production of fiberboard and chipboard	All breeds	All breeds	Allowed by agreement with the consumer

Woodchip production

When producing wood chips of a specific size, in order to calibrate the raw materials, drum chippers are used, which are equipped with removable meshes with a given mesh size. In such installations, wood chips of any given parameters are created. For example, if your specialty is the production of wood chips for smoking, then it is important to use wood chips of the same size in the smokers. If you use chips of the same size, you will never encounter the problem of small particles causing flames. Technological chips of the same caliber are an excellent material for creating building materials, for example, wood concrete. Due to the homogeneous mass, a high quality of the final product is achieved. Wood chip plants equipped with sizing grids significantly increase production capabilities.

Process wood chips are used to create cellulose, wood boards, and products from wood chemical and hydrolysis industries. It is created from thin round wood raw materials with a cross-section of 2-6 cm and a length of 1.0-3.0 m with a gradation of 0.5 m and maximum deviations in length of ±5 cm.

Creation of wood concrete

From wood chips they create modern high-tech wall blocks. Arbolite blocks produced on the basis of wood chips and a cement component. This produces a building material that is not hazardous to human health. It is lightweight, retains heat well, does not freeze, does not rot, and does not burn. Wood concrete panels are used for the construction country cottages, as well as courtyard buildings, bathhouses, garages, warehouses, cowsheds and poultry houses. Projects of arbolite buildings are almost similar to buildings made of brick or other materials. Wood concrete houses are an excellent replacement log houses. Today, high-quality wood concrete blocks are quite popular on the market, this makes it possible to erect a building in a short time.

Creation of building materials

Wood chips are actively used to create chipboard, fiberboard, cardboard and paper, plywood, briquettes for heating, wood pellets and pellets, and drywall. For these purposes, it is necessary to additionally grind the wood chips in wood chippers to obtain a finer fraction. The use of wood chips for the manufacture of building materials used in Everyday life, makes it possible to significantly reduce tree cutting and reduce the amount of wood waste.

Substandard timber and industrial chips can accumulate as dead weight on the territory of forestry enterprises, but they can be given a second life, thereby saving the environment.

Any owner country house wants to make it unique and beautiful. Decorative wood chips can help with this, as they are an attractive product that is at the same time beneficial for the soil.

Decorative wood chips are used for mulching, that is, covering the soil in the process of growing both agricultural and ornamental plants. The main task of mulching is to prevent erosive destruction of the soil, suppress the development of weeds, and optimize water regime soil and improve soil nutrition of plants.

At the same time, today wood chip mulch is often used as a decorative element in landscape architecture and gardening. She complements perfectly decorative properties any plants, adds variety to the design of flower beds, gardens, squares and parks.

Despite the fact that marble chips, calibrated pine bark, gravel, and crushed stone can serve as decorative mulch, decorative chips are very popular today. The main advantages of wood chips:

• environmental Safety
• ease of disposal
• softness (it’s even pleasant to walk on it)
• excellent aesthetic characteristics.

Decorative wood chips can be colored in a variety of shades. It is used as a background for landscaping elements, as well as as an independent decorative element. Mulch from this wood chips stylistically combines parts of the composition into one complete one, visually divides the area into zones and replaces the lawn, thereby creating enormous opportunities for creating unusual landscape design projects.

Mulching with decorative wood chips is an excellent way to enrich poor soil. Wood stimulates the reproduction of earthworms and beneficial microflora in the soil, protects it from drying out and has high heat-protective parameters.

Mulch is placed on warm and moist soil. In conditions middle zone In Russia this is done in May - June, after the threat of frost. The area needs to be cleared of perennial weeds, because they can grow through the wood chips. If you need to plant plants in mulched soil, the mulch layer will have to be removed. Decorative wood chips, or bark, must be added every year in the spring to maintain an attractive appearance, layer 1 - 2 cm.

Alder and oak chips

Oak chips perfectly “ennoble” the taste of an alcoholic drink. This is the most common use of oak chips. It is added at various stages of wine production, both at the very beginning of fermentation and during the process of filling industrial containers with wine.

Oak chips brought to wine production are first “fried” over a fire and then saturated with water. Under the influence of flame and smoke, the wood chips become saturated with a persistent smoky smell, the aroma of smoked meats and caramel.

The use of wood chips in wine production can significantly increase the area of ​​contact between wine and wood, which significantly speeds up the aging process, and saturation with water reduces the concentration of tannins.

Alder chips are an excellent material for smoking a wide variety of products. It is alder chips - perfect option for preparing smoked dishes at home. During combustion, alder does not emit acrid toxic smoke, nor does it form a layer of soot on the surface. Alder chips can be used in any smokehouse: both factory-produced and self-designed.

The production of wood chips, despite the simplicity of the product, is quite profitable business. Especially considering that in our country there are very few enterprises that produce wood chips. Mainly, it is created in workshops based on other wood processing industries. In this article we will tell you how to make wood chips with your own hands and why it is profitable to engage in such a business.

08 February

The woodworking industry is an industry where, at all stages, colossal amount of waste.

Among them are branches, twigs, sawdust, trimmings, shavings, and wood chips.

Burning these materials is not profitable.

Wood chips - specially ground wood - is a valuable material that can be used in a variety of ways.

Moreover, the effectiveness of this or that application depends on these parameters wood chips like:

• breed;
• size;
• form;
• humidity.

In this article we will talk about what can be made from this material, as well as what kind of wood chips to choose for a particular application and how to determine The best way use for available shredded wood.

Here are the main ways to use wood chips:

• decorative and agrotechnical mulching;
• wood concrete production;
• production of woodchip cement boards (CPC);
• fuel for some types of boilers and furnaces;
• infusion of alcoholic beverages;
• smoking of various products;
• making crafts.

Decorative and agrotechnical mulching

In terms of its effect on the soil and plants, mulch from woodchips is completely similar to mulch from sawdust or shavings, because the basis of the material is the same– wood.

After rotting, such mulch turns into humus and fills the soil with nutrients.

This process is the result of the vital activity of bifidobacteria and some types of fungi, which actively consume cellulose and secrete substances that form humus.

In addition to cellulose, these microorganisms actively consume nitrogen, so the soil on which mulch from crushed wood has been poured loses some amount of this element and must be replenished.

The decay time depends on the size of the chopped wood and its moisture content: the smaller the chip fraction, the faster microorganisms can process it.

By changing the size of the chopped wood, you can adjust the speed of rotting, this is especially true for those areas where wood chips are used as decorative mulch without undergoing additional processing.

In addition, increasing the fraction of this material increases the permeability of air through the mulch layer, so that the earth can receive part of the nitrogen from the air. However, the larger the wood is chopped, the worse the mulch protects the soil from frost and overheating, as well as moisture loss increases caused by evaporation.

Mulch from pine chips, as well as from other wood processing wastes of these species, in addition to extracting nitrogen from the soil, changes the acid-base balance of the soil.

This effect can be used to acidify overly alkaline soils, but on soil with normal acidity it is necessary neutralize by treating with ash or lime.

To obtain decorative mulch, wood chips are painted with various paints, some of which greatly slow down the process of decay or stop it completely.

This decorative mulch does not turn into fertilizer, but is only a decoration for paths and flower beds. Therefore, to plant plants in an area covered with it, all decorative mulch will need to be removed first.

More information about regular and decorative mulch you will find in these articles:

Making abrolite

The constant increase in the cost of structural and insulating building materials forces many to look for less expensive analogues.

One of these analogues is wood concrete - wood concrete with good thermal insulation properties and load-bearing capacity sufficient for the construction of low-rise buildings with wooden floors.

However, to obtain high-quality wood concrete, special needle-shaped chips are needed, which can only be obtained using a rotary hammer crusher.

The type of wood from which the wood chips were made does not matter much. Coniferous wood is a little better because it contains more natural resins that perform the function of bioprotection, but even such crushed wood must be additionally treated with aseptic materials.

In addition, the high sugar content of cellulose prevents normal hardening of cement stone Therefore, crushed wood is treated with special reagents that break down free sugars.

Another problem that equals all types of wood is that the pores actively absorb water, so the chips during concrete pouring acquire maximum dimensions, then, as liquid is lost, they shrink and tear away from the cement stone.

This problem is inherent in wood of any species, so the crushed material pre-soaked in reagents, which fill wood pores, but do not lead to swelling, and after crystallization seal them.

As a result, water can no longer fill the pores and increase the size of the chips, which increases the water resistance and strength of the wood concrete blocks.

For more detailed information on everything related to wood chips, go to.

Production of woodchip cement slabs

Not only structural blocks are made from wood concrete, but also finishing slabs that are used as permanent formwork or thermal insulation element. They are also used to make interior walls and non-load-bearing partitions.

In terms of thermal conductivity, they are only slightly superior to traditional insulating materials such as polystyrene foam or mineral wool, so 40 mm thick alkaline fiber is comparable to a layer modern insulation 20–30 mm thick.

The combination of permanent formwork made of sparged concrete and light foam concrete allows erect low-rise buildings with very low level heat loss at minimal cost.

When producing SCP, one has to overcome the same difficulties that arise during the production of wood concrete.

After all, the basis of SCP is crushed wood and cement, so it is necessary to eliminate excess sugars and clog open pores.

Due to the small thickness of the slab, as well as the high requirements for strength and thermal insulation properties, after pouring into the mold and compacting it by vibration placed in a special chamber and heated with steam, which reduces the time it takes for cement stone to gain basic strength by tens of times.

If you are interested in more detailed information about the production of wood chips and the requirements for wood chips, then go through.

Fuel for boilers and furnaces

Chips after grinding retain calorific value original wood, so it can be used as fuel. However, traditional heating devices, designed for combustion solid fuel, cannot work normally on wood chips due to huge differences in combustion mode.

Therefore, it is necessary to use special heating devices that differ in the fuel loading system.

Fuel chips are presented whole line various requirements, on which the amount of heat released as a result of combustion and the condition of the chimney ducts depend.

Such requirements include:

• size;
• humidity;
• wood species

The finer the wood chip fraction, the faster it burns out, although it produces more heat. However, very small, which is closer in size to sawdust, can no longer pass air through itself, so the amount of fuel has to be reduced, which limits the heat generation.

The optimal size of fuel chips is 1–4 cm, while the shape can be any.

Using material that is too large will result in the auger mechanism not being able to move it towards the firebox.

Also Possible jamming of the screw mechanism and damage to the gearbox or electric motor.

Therefore, the size of the chips must be large enough to create an optimal combustion mode, but not exceed the capabilities of the screw mechanism.

The higher the humidity of the crushed wood, the more steam will be released during its combustion, which leads to a decrease in flame temperature. After all, part of the thermal energy is spent on converting water into steam, after which it displaces part of the oxygen, due to which the efficiency of fuel combustion decreases.

You will find more detailed information about fuel chips.

In addition, wood chips are good fuel for samovars and small portable ones.

Smoking products

Smoking is not only changes the taste and smell of any food, but also preserves them.

This effect is achieved by treating products with wood smoke that burns in conditions of a slight lack of oxygen and the absence of open fire.

In this combustion mode, wood produces a lot of carbon monoxide (carbon monoxide), which acts as a preservative. A change in taste and smell occurs thanks to heat treatment and exposure to other smoke components, especially partially burnt resins and oils.

In order for the smoking result to meet your expectations, it is necessary to select the correct wood chips by type and size.

The wrong choice of breed can lead not only to taste or smell not meeting expectations, but also to changes that make the product unsuitable for consumption.

This is especially true for softwood chips, which contain a lot of resins, giving smoked products a bitter taste.

However, there are known cases of successful smoking of products on pine chips, but very complex technology was used for this.

The moisture content of the wood chips also plays an important role, because dry crushed wood quickly flares up, burning with the appearance of an open flame.

Reducing the air supply too much will disrupt the chemical composition of the smoke and create soot, which will spoil the taste and appearance of the product.

That's why The combustion mode is regulated by humidity, for which part of the wood chips is pre-soaked in water.

You will find more detailed information about smoking various products and the requirements for wood chips in.

Alcohol infusion

Infusing alcohol on wood has been known since the Middle Ages. As a result chemical interaction An alcoholic drink receives various substances from wood that change its color, taste and smell.

The main components affecting alcohol are are resins and free sugars. After the cessation of sap flow caused by in winter or by felling a tree, the water, which is the main part of the sap, evaporates, and the remaining elements remain in the wood, gradually turning into resin.

After grinding wood into chips, the percentage, as well as the chemical composition of the resin in it, does not change, so the effect of infusing on chips is no different from aging alcohol in wooden barrels.

To achieve the greatest effect It is necessary to use wood chips not only of a specific species, but also those obtained from trees that grew in a certain place.

This allows you to select wood with a certain chemical composition of resin as accurately as possible, as well as predict its effect on an alcoholic drink.

Often, to enhance the taste of the drink, wood chips are fired, which causes part of the cellulose to break down into simple sugars, which give alcoholic drink sweetness.

You will find more detailed information about everything related to infusing alcohol on wood chips.

Conclusion

Chips (shredded wood) – this is a valuable product, which can be applied in various ways.

After reading the article, you learned:

• what are wood chips used for?
• how shredded wood is selected for a particular application;
• what types of wood chips are best for in various ways use.