ABSTRACT
The organic components of vegetable materials constitute a large reservoir of raw materials available for limited exploitation. According to Burwell, 1 the annual biomass production for food, lumber, and paper in the U.S. would furnish 25% of the present energy requirements. For the most part, the collection of all this material is difficult and expensive and is most often considered to be a scavanging operation which uses raw materials having no value for conventional end uses. 2 Those that do arrive at a mill, are frequently burned. The lignin and extractives components of this waste have the greatest heat content. It is estimated that the calorific content of lignin is 6.0 kcal/g, whereas that of the polysaccharides is only 4.2 kcal/g. 3 Because of their greater abundance, however, polysaccharides contribute 60 to 70% of the heat value of the vegetable material.
