Science Fair Project

Introduction

The most common form of biomass is wood. For thousand of years people have burned

wood for heating and cooking. Woods are the main source of energy in the United States and the

rest of the world until the mid-1800s. Wood continues to be a major source of energy in much of the

developing world.

In the United States, wood and wood waste (bark, sawdust, wood chips, wood scrap, and

paper mill residues) provide about 2% of the energy we use today.

About 80% of the wood and wood waste fuel used in the United States is consumed by

industry, electric power producers, and commercial businesses. The rest, mainly wood, is used in

homes for heating and cooking.

Many manufacturing plants in the wood and paper products industry use wood waste to

produce their own steam and electricity. This save the companies money because they don't have to

dispose their waste products and they don't have to use much electricity.

There are many types of biomass: plants, wood, corn, hemp, surgarcane and more. Our

production of Biomass Wood Energy does not disturb the demand for food consumption like corn

and sugarcane, it does not take from an existing consumer market, it is merely material that would

otherwise be laid to waste & decompose in our forests.

Manipulated Variable

The manipulated variable was the size of the wood. The size of the woods are not actually

the same size so the experiment can change its response. Even though we measure the size of the

wood but something might changed, such as the affect of wood and the burning time.

Vanda, Lalita, Napassorn, Sasirada

Science Fair Project

Responding Variable

The responding variable was the time that the wood was burned into ashes. The time

measured which wood produce more heat and make more amount of fire. To measure the

responding variable we used the stopwatch.

Hypothesis

The hardwood gave out more heat because it’s denser and can hold the heat for much longer

time.

With the rising prices of electrical heating, oil and gas, the use of firewood for burning is an

alternative source of cheaper energy. However overuse of firewood for burning will lead to

pollution and deforestation. In addition, the carbon dioxide gases released into the atmosphere from

an open fire contribute to global warming and ocean acidification.

Materials:

・ 1 big piece of hard woods

・ 1big piece of soft woods

・ Picnic gas

・ Fire

・ Stopwatch

・ Camera

Vanda, Lalita, Napassorn, Sasirada

Science Fair Project

Steps:

1. Cut the woods into 3 pieces.

2. Measure the length, height, and weight.

3. Light the fire up.

4. Put one kind of wood (any) into the picnic gas.

5. Start the stopwatch.

6. Wait until it have burned all and left as a coal.

7. Stop the stopwatch.

8. Repeat step 4-7 again with another type of wood.

9. Compare the result.

Experiment:

Type Length Width

Softwood 10.5 cm. 3 cm.

Hardwood 10.5 cm. 3 cm.

Width & Length (used in experiment)

Vanda, Lalita, Napassorn, Sasirada

Science Fair Project

Result:

# Soft Wood Hard Wood

Experiment 1 1.29 min. 5.30 min.
Experiment 2 1.43 min. 5.28 min.
Experiment 3 1.38 min. 5.51 min.
Total Average 1.36 min. 5.36 min.

Findings

What this data has shown us is the burning time of each kind of wood based on minutes and

seconds measurement. Our finding based on this data is that hardwood produces almost two times

much longer burning time than softwood does.

Conclusion:

The hypothesis that hardwoods produce longer burning time compared to soft wood is

proven to be true. Hardwoods have a very high density. The amount of potential thermal energy

stored per unit volume of hardwood is high and therefore hardwoods have higher BTUs. These

woods are difficult to ignite but once they start burning, they will burn for a long period of time,

giving out less intense heat.

Vanda, Lalita, Napassorn, Sasirada