Measuring Wood Quality of Paulownia Tomentosa Harvested in West Delta of Egypt for Effective Utilization and Potentiality for Afforestation

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Forestry and Wood Technology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.

2 Forestry and Timber Trees Research Department, Horticulture Research Institute, Agricultural Research Centre, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate different properties of paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa) wood so that decision makers in Egypt could use such information in relation to effective decision making for afforestation projects. Paulownia trees with an average age of 7 years old in West Delta, Egypt (30°16'14.94' N 30°52'6.85'' E) harvested for the experiments. Properties of various imported and local species including beech (Fagus sylvatica) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), white she-oak (Casuarina glauca) and black poplar (Populus nigra) were tested for comparative purposes. Physical, chemical and mechanical properties of samples were evaluated based on the international standards. The results showed that paulownia wood had a low-density 266 kg.m-3, with a total volumetric shrinkage of 8.73%, having cellulose and hemicellulose contents of 51.2% and 25.1%, respectively. It appears that paulownia samples had relatively low mechanical properties in bending strength of 49.8 MPa, and compressive strength of 21.6 MPa. Janka hardness values of the samples were 1.08% and 1.33% in radial and tangential grain orientations, respectively. Based the findings in this work it seems that paulownia wood has a great potential with accepted properties to be used for different applications as well as having significant potential for afforestation in Egypt.

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