Acacia mangium is a fast growing evergreen tree species with average height 30 m, native to the humid tropical forests of Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. In Malaysia, A. mangium is widely propagated for erosion control, fire break and afforestation programs especially in area of degraded forests resulting from logging and shifting agriculture. It is a valuable of tree products namely; timber, pulp, and tannins. The high rate of (LLA) leaf litter accumulation (8,940 kg/ha/yr) serves provides a rich source of crude protein for livestock. However, the high LLA rate results in the deposition of large quantities of lignocellulosic waste materials on the forest floors creating waste disposal management problems. This has been attributed to the increase in forest fires, air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions. Therefore novel techniques are urgently required to manage A. mangium leaf litter (AML2). This is study aimed at characterizing the solid biofuel properties of AML2 as a feedstock for biomass energy conversion systems by determining its calorific value, proximate and ultimate analysis as well as its thermal decomposition behaviour using a thermogravimetric (TG) analysis. The results indicate that the elemental content of C ( > 50 %), H ( > 5 %), O ( > 40 %), N ( < 5 %), S ( < 5 %); proximate analysis was M (< 10 %), VM (> 60 %), FC (< 20 %) and A (< 5 %). The calorific value of AML2 is 21.11 MJ/kg which is higher than A. mangium wood (20.58 MJ/kg). In addition, AML2 completely decomposed under pyrolysis conditions from 30 - 800 °C at 5 °C/min. Overall, AML2 possesses outstanding solid biofuel properties which can be exploited for the production of clean energy fuels for the future.
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