THE CHEMISTRY OF DECAYED ASPEN WOOD AND PERSPECTIVES ON ITS UTILIZATION

The objectives of this research were to investigate the proportion of decayed wood in mature aspen stems, its chemical composition and its p otential utility as a fuel or as a substrate for conversion to fine ch emicals as part of an integrated utilization scheme. Three sound and t en decayed aspen stems were sampled from a boreal forest site. Stem an alysis indicate that on average, 20% of the merchantable stem volume w as in advanced decay and that considerable sound wood recovery was pos sible. Wood specific gravity and chemical composition were determined. The holocellulose content (volumetric basis) in advanced decayed wood was reduced by 67%. Thermal analysis of the wood using a differential scanning calorimeter provided graphical evidence of a different seque nce of events occurring during the combustion of decayed wood and a re sulting heat content per unit weight that was 40% higher than that of sound aspen wood. A higher degree of enzymatic hydrolysis was attainab le with white-rotted aspen wood. Approximately 62% of the theoretical glucose yield was obtained from decayed aspen wood after alkali-peroxi de pretreatment followed by a 12 hour hydrolysis using technical grade enzymes. The above information is used to elucidate future opportunit ies for wood recovery and energy production from decayed wood resource s.