Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
6-30-1957
Degree Name
Master of Science in Chemical Engineering - (M.S.)
Department
Chemical Engineering
First Advisor
John W. Axelson
Second Advisor
C. L. Mantell
Third Advisor
Joseph Joffe
Abstract
An investigation was made to determine what portion of wood is responsible for the self-heating of wood fiber, where self-heating is defined as the increase in temperature of a material above the temperature of its surroundings due to an exothermic reaction occurring within the material. The phenomenon of self-heating of wood fiberboard has long been known, but very little has been done to discover the particular part of the wood which generates the heat.
Wood fiberboard was tested for self-heating by placing a. cubical sample in a specially constructed furnace and heating it to a uniform temperature of 325?F. As the temperature of the wood fiber increased because of self-heating, the temperature of the surrounding air was maintained at a temperature 0.5?F below that of the sample to prevent the loss of any of the generated heat from the sample. The rate of the temperature rise of the sample was taken as its reaction rate. The extractable content of the wood fiber was analytically determined by an accepted TAPPI method in which an alcohol-benzene solvent is used.
The basic experiments disclosed that the alcohol-benzene extractable portion of the wood was apparently responsible for the exothermic reaction, and the reaction rate increased with an increase in the amount of extractables present. Ten species of hardwoods and softwoods were tested for reaction rate and benzene-alcohol extractable content. They represented a wide range of extractables, and two correlations were found; one for the hardwoods and northern softwoods, and one for the southern softwood.
Supplementary study showed that the particular component causing self-heating is not volatile at temperatures used in drying insulating board, nor at low pressure. The fiber size has some influence on the reaction rate, but this effect is not significant in commercial practice.
Recommended Citation
Smith, Kenneth Norman, "Self-heating of wood fiber" (1957). Theses. 2615.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/2615
