Abstract
This report illustrates the sulphur cycle in forest fuel and in the forest ecosystem. The hypothesis is that sulphur dioxide from combustion of forest fuel is not more acidifying than sulphur that is mineralized from tree biomass if it is left in the forest instead of being burnt. The report gives an overview of the sulphur cycle in general together with the acidifying effect of sulphur. The sulphur content in wood biomass is about 1 mg/g in the needles and 0.2-0.3 mg/g in wood. Chipped forest fuel contains 0.2-0.5 mg S/g. A removal of 40 tonnes of felling residues per hectare may contain about 8-30 kg S. The sulphur occurs both in organic, often reduced, form and as sulphate. In situations of high availability to sulphur there will be an increased proportion of sulphate. After combustion some, perhaps half, of the sulphur is left in the ashes, most of which appears to be sulphate. In mineralisation of reduced organic sulphur, of type R-SH, the sulphur is released in the form of sulphide. Hydrogen sulphide, H2S, can be oxidised by microbes to sulphate, which should be acidifying (2 H+ will remain). A very rough estimate suggests that emissions of sulphur dioxide
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Citation Formats
Lundborg, A.
Forest fuel and sulphur; Skogsbraensle och svavel.
Sweden: N. p.,
1994.
Web.
Lundborg, A.
Forest fuel and sulphur; Skogsbraensle och svavel.
Sweden.
Lundborg, A.
1994.
"Forest fuel and sulphur; Skogsbraensle och svavel."
Sweden.
@misc{etde_10105792,
title = {Forest fuel and sulphur; Skogsbraensle och svavel}
author = {Lundborg, A}
abstractNote = {This report illustrates the sulphur cycle in forest fuel and in the forest ecosystem. The hypothesis is that sulphur dioxide from combustion of forest fuel is not more acidifying than sulphur that is mineralized from tree biomass if it is left in the forest instead of being burnt. The report gives an overview of the sulphur cycle in general together with the acidifying effect of sulphur. The sulphur content in wood biomass is about 1 mg/g in the needles and 0.2-0.3 mg/g in wood. Chipped forest fuel contains 0.2-0.5 mg S/g. A removal of 40 tonnes of felling residues per hectare may contain about 8-30 kg S. The sulphur occurs both in organic, often reduced, form and as sulphate. In situations of high availability to sulphur there will be an increased proportion of sulphate. After combustion some, perhaps half, of the sulphur is left in the ashes, most of which appears to be sulphate. In mineralisation of reduced organic sulphur, of type R-SH, the sulphur is released in the form of sulphide. Hydrogen sulphide, H2S, can be oxidised by microbes to sulphate, which should be acidifying (2 H+ will remain). A very rough estimate suggests that emissions of sulphur dioxide from forest fuel, spread over the period the trees are growing, and on the area from which the trees are taken, corresponds to 0.5% of the sulphur deposition in southern Sweden. Sulphur emissions from biofuel combustion are much lower than Sweden`s and the EU`s most stringent emission limits for coal. Whole-tree removal with return of ashes will theoretically give a considerable reduction in soil acidity since large quantities of nitrogen are removed and thus the acidifying effect of nitrogen will not occur. This should be of greater importance for forest acidification than the effect of biomass sulphur. 80 refs, numerous tabs}
place = {Sweden}
year = {1994}
month = {Oct}
}
title = {Forest fuel and sulphur; Skogsbraensle och svavel}
author = {Lundborg, A}
abstractNote = {This report illustrates the sulphur cycle in forest fuel and in the forest ecosystem. The hypothesis is that sulphur dioxide from combustion of forest fuel is not more acidifying than sulphur that is mineralized from tree biomass if it is left in the forest instead of being burnt. The report gives an overview of the sulphur cycle in general together with the acidifying effect of sulphur. The sulphur content in wood biomass is about 1 mg/g in the needles and 0.2-0.3 mg/g in wood. Chipped forest fuel contains 0.2-0.5 mg S/g. A removal of 40 tonnes of felling residues per hectare may contain about 8-30 kg S. The sulphur occurs both in organic, often reduced, form and as sulphate. In situations of high availability to sulphur there will be an increased proportion of sulphate. After combustion some, perhaps half, of the sulphur is left in the ashes, most of which appears to be sulphate. In mineralisation of reduced organic sulphur, of type R-SH, the sulphur is released in the form of sulphide. Hydrogen sulphide, H2S, can be oxidised by microbes to sulphate, which should be acidifying (2 H+ will remain). A very rough estimate suggests that emissions of sulphur dioxide from forest fuel, spread over the period the trees are growing, and on the area from which the trees are taken, corresponds to 0.5% of the sulphur deposition in southern Sweden. Sulphur emissions from biofuel combustion are much lower than Sweden`s and the EU`s most stringent emission limits for coal. Whole-tree removal with return of ashes will theoretically give a considerable reduction in soil acidity since large quantities of nitrogen are removed and thus the acidifying effect of nitrogen will not occur. This should be of greater importance for forest acidification than the effect of biomass sulphur. 80 refs, numerous tabs}
place = {Sweden}
year = {1994}
month = {Oct}
}