Downed timber (DT) is a common description of uprooted and splinted trees left by the winds after a hurricane or tropical storm hits. In the US, this is a recurrent risk for southeast states, the economic impact for forest landowners can reach billions of dollars. Handling DT implies fast recovery and intense use of labor. In this work, we aim to derivate some of these overflow inputs into the newest alternative markets of natural polymers recovery, biorefineries and utilization into value-added applications. Moreover, we propose that for some of these applications the degradation of DT is not that critical to justify a short window for recovery.<br/>In this work, we analyze on-site the degradation incurred by downed timber using two techniques that can be easily applied on the field before loading DT for transportation. Three sites of known ages of loblolly pine were selected and trees were cut and laid down. Sound wave propagation measurements and core samples were collected over a period of one year. Stump samples were collected at 0, 6, and 12 months. Sound wave propagation measurements were correlated to near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to detect fundamental changes in the wood properties over time when subject to natural weather conditions. Principal component analysis of NIR measurements was used to evaluate the spectral variation of the samples over. The Box-Behnken design was used to select 16 samples from a 3-dimensional PC space that maximized spectral variability, producing better statistical models during prediction. Co-solvent enhanced lignocellulosic fractionation (CELF) pretreatment, employing acidic aqueous tetrahydrofuran (THF) mixture, was applied to effectively break down the lignin-carbohydrate matrix and promote extraction of lignin from lignocellulosic biomass. Lignin was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

Co-solvent enhanced lignocellulosic fractionation (CELF) from loblolly pine downed timber at different stages of natural degradation

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