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Main Article Content
Appraisal of the Conversion Rate of Selected Wood Species and Economic Efficiency of Activated Charcoal Production Using Locally Fabricated Pyrolyser in Nigeria
Abstract
Locally fabricated pyrolyzer(LFP) usage has become an alternative to the conventional charcoal production. Despite this, there has been inadequate information on LFP. Given this, there is a need to conduct some empirical investigation into the economic viability of the production of activated charcoal through the LFP approach. This therefore necessitated this study, to investigate the relative mass loss (RML) and conversion efficiency (time taken) for randomly selected wood species to produce activated charcoal using LFP. The selected wood species are Azadirachtaindica, Daniella oliveri, Mahogany, Parkia biglobosa, Cassia sieberiana, Milicia excelsa, Annogeissus leiocarpus, Albizia zygia, Vitellaria paradoxum, Terminalia schimperiana, Mangifera indica, and Erythropleum suavolens. These species were identified through indigenous knowledge, but were later taken to the taxonomy department of the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria for confirmation of the names. The tree species were then sundried and converted to chips, and then taken to the wood laboratory of FRIN to determine the weights before and after pyrolysis. To determine the economic efficiency and worthiness of the project, the Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) and Net Present Value (NPV) approaches were used, respectively. Findings showed that Mahogany took the highest time to get carbonized, while Terminalia schimperiana took the least time. In addition, the relative mass loss (RML) and conversion efficiency showed that Terminalia schimperiana had the highest relative mass loss per minute (68.18g/min), while Annogeissus leiocarpus had the least (41.36g/min). Furthermore, a positive value of NPV and a ratio of greater than one of BCR indicate that investment in activated charcoal production using the LFP method is a profitable venture, and therefore it is an economically viable business.
