Chemical characterization of wood vinegar from acacia barks

Abstract

The pyrolysis process was conducted into a low heating rate of 400 C using a pyrolysis reactor. It was made of stainless steel, covered by fire clay bricks, and used electrical heating. Acacia barks were pyrolyzed for six hours. The chemical characteristics of wood vinegar produced from Acacia mangium bark were done by means of titration method, UV - VIS spectrophotometer, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. The organic acid and phenol were analyzed to determine the quality of wood vinegar. The chemical components of wood vinegar were identified by GC-MS. The carbonation process produced charcoal, wood vinegar, gas, and tar, i.e., 66.33; 21.45; 12.16, and 0.06%, respectively. Wood vinegar has a brown color, a specific gravity of 1.0064, and a viscosity of 12-49 1 mPa•s at 60 rpm of the spindle. The major components of wood vinegar were acetic acid (47.36%) and phenolic compounds (18.96%), while tar was dominated by pentanoic acid (90.29%).