WOOD UTILIZATION FOR ENERGY IN JABOTICABAL-SP

Abstract

Firewood is probably the oldest energy source used by human and still has great importance in the Brazilian Energetic Matrix. Much of the wood produced in Brazil is transformed into charcoal for steel industry, the second largest consumer of wood is the residential sector. In the industrial sector, wood consumers are mainly the ceramics, food and drink industries. The city of Jaboticabal, state of São Paulo, has the largest number of ceramics industries producing water filters in Brazil, in addition to several food and beverage industries. The objective of this study was to determine whether these industries, traditionally consumers of firewood, use this energy source even today. For this a questionnaire was prepared seeking the following information: used firewood volume, wood type, price and origin of firewood. Twenty enterprises participated of the study (ceramics industries, pizzerias and bakeries). Among the participants, 60% use firewood as an energy source; the main wood used is eucalyptus, but it is also used wood from orange tree, guava tree, rubber tree and waste of construction. Prices range from R$15.00/m3 (construction waste) to R$70.00/m3 (eucalyptus). All the firewood is acquired in municipalities located
about 100 km from Jaboticabal in maximum. It has been concluded that, despite the small number of companies surveyed, it is possible to observe that the firewood is still an important source of energy for industries in Jaboticabal.