What Species of Trees Are Hardest to Run Through a Chipper?
Although fibrous trees such as palm trees or trees heavily saturated with water, resin or pitch are difficult to process with a chipper, virtually any type of vegetative growth can be reduced to sawdust or chips with the right size and type of wood chipper. Unwanted vegetative waste is rendered into material suitable for adding to the compost pile or for use as landscape mulch. Efficiency of the chipper is dependent on the size of the material ground or chipped, the size of the engine, the volume capacity of the chipper, and the angle, sharpness and thickness of the knives or blades. Does this Spark an idea?
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Palm Trees
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Fibrous palm trees trunks and fronds are one of the toughest vegetative materials to process with a wood chipper. Wood chippers allow loggers and landscapers to convert messy debris into a valuable resource. Wood chippers are available in a variety of sizes, from small hand-feed chippers to whole tree chippers. Both disc style and drum style are widely used in the forestry industry.
Eucalyptus Trees
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There are more than 700 species of eucalyptus trees found worldwide. Eucalyptus is the predominant tree species in Australia. Many species of eucalyptus present stringy, very tough bark and tough, difficult-to-grind leaves and limbs. The oil contained in the tree is highly flammable. Burning of eucalyptus is dangerous work, and loggers and landscapers prefer to chip or grind eucalyptus tree waste. Chipping eucalyptus requires large-capacity, heavy-duty industrial chip grinders. Eucalyptus trees are some of the tallest trees in the world, making them large and cumbersome to handle. Eucalyptus camaldulensis, a variety of eucalyptus that grows extensively in Vietnam, provides the primary type of wood chips used in Vietnam for paper production and export.
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Bamboo
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A new biomass-run power plant in Romblon, in the Philippines, uses bamboo wood chips as feedstock. Both bamboo and coconut palm wood chips are used a the fuel source. Green bamboo is extremely heavy and requires a heavy-duty commercial drum chipper to reduce it to usable fiber. Chipper knives vary is style, size and thickness. The knife blades are typically 4 to 6 inches long and rectangular in shape. The thickness of the blade varies from 1/2 inches to 2 inches. The blades are manufactured from high test steel and may contain chromium for durability and hardness.
Melaleuca Trees
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More than 200 different species of melaleuca (Melaleuca quinquenervia) trees (also known as punk trees, tea trees or honey mytle) are found in warm climates worldwide. The majority of melaleuca trees are endemic to Australia, although some are native to Malaysia. Since its introduction to Florida, the invasive tree has invaded thousands of acres of Florida forests. Fast-growing, the oil-saturated trees are highly volatile. Burning actually helps spread the invasive malaleuca tree seeds. Chipping is the preferred method of disposal of fallen branches, trunks and root balls.
Melaleuca wood chips are one of the most termite-resistant mulches available. Although melaleuca wood is difficult to process without the aid of a heavy-duty, large-capacity commercial chipper, the chips are processed for the lucrative landscape market.
In Florida, melaleuca wood chips are converted to energy as the primary fuel at the nation's largest woody biomass energy plant, the Okeelanta Cogeneration Facility near Lake Okeechobee.
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References
- Tree Care Industry Association; Chipping Away at Chipper Safety; Rich Howland
- University of Florida; Melaleuca -- An Invasive Tree of Florida; B.J. Jarvis
- United States Department of Agriculture: How To Prune Trees
- University of Florida Extension; Wood To Energy; September 2007; Martha C. Monroe et al.
- World Rainforest Movement; Gobalization of the Pulp and Paper Industry; Chris Lang
- Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation: First Bamboo Biomass Power Plant Piloted in Romblon;Melody M. Aguiba; June 2010
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
