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Quest 4 - Materials

Section outline

  • Quest 4 - Materials

    The fourth part of the BRIT quests is based on the material’s section. In this section you’re going to learn more about composition of materials, which can be expressed with different types of analyses📊. For example, we can look at the macro components of a material, such as bark and twigs from tree prunings🪵 but we could also go all the way to the chemical elements🧑‍🔬, like carbon and nitrogen. In this part you are going to dig deeper and deeper, looking at different ways of describing the tree parts, such as chemical elements or biochemical composition in order to analyse the composition of pruned material coming from the roadside trees. Having this analysis, we know if it’s possible to get any other high value product from the pruned material except from compost or biogas. There are even models that can predict the biomethane potential⛽💚 of a material based on the presence of chemical elements.

    • Let's have a quick crossward puzzle to begin with!👾

      Tree parts by Ewa Wronka and Phillipp Lüssenhop (CC BY)

       

       

    • Quiz 1 by Ewa Wronka and Phillipp Lüssenhop (CC BY)
      Quiz 2 by Ewa Wronka and Phillipp Lüssenhop (CC BY)
      Quiz 3 by Ewa Wronka and Phillipp Lüssenhop (CC BY)
      Instruction for materials section by Ewa Wronka and Phillipp Lüssenhop (CC BY)

    • remarks

      You can see that water content💧 in materials can vary a lot. Sometimes it is the largest component of the material composition (like in food waste or lawn clippings) and sometimes it is present in smaller amounts. (e.g. wood chips). Statistics about water content in specific materials is especially important in effective management of wastes - to avoid wasting energy on the transport of water🚛 and to minimise waste decomposition during transport.

    • Task 1 - Calculate water content in food waste!

      Imagine you need to transport 2 tonnes of food waste to the nearest biogas plant. How much of that transport is actually water?

      Instruction for task 1 by Ewa Wronka and Phillipp Lüssenhop (CC BY)

    • Reflect whether or not biodegradable plastic bags should be recommended or forbidden?

      Ok… you’ve had a nice overview of the water content in different materials, mixtures, etc.. Now, Let’s get to the valuable stuff!😉

    • What you need to keep in mind is that the valuables are always in the total solids (e.g. wood chips contain 24.7% of water and the rest is total solids), so remember! Further you’re going to work with a deeper chemical analysis such as biochemical composition or chemical elements - those are referring to the total solids, not the fresh matter (total material)! But let’s have a quick exercise to help you understand it better.

    • Task 2 - Calculate carbon and nitrogen content in wood chips

      I suggest, for this exercise we focus on maple wood chips.

      💡The task for you is to calculate the amount of carbon and nitrogen in a 1 tonne pile of the maple wood chips. 

      (check the instructions for an answer)

      Instruction for task 2 by Ewa Wronka and Phillipp Lüssenhop (CC BY)

      In the total material - 100% is fresh matter. Fresh matter is divided into water and total solids (TS). When the material is dried out - all that is left is total solids. On The BRIT, You can see the percentage of different chemical elements. On the bottom of the table there is a note: Shares of: Total Solids (TS), it means that all the percentages of chemical elements are referring to total solids only. 

      Lab info 🔬 - how the percentage of total solids is measured in a laboratory?

      When having a sample of the material, you’d like to measure the total solids percentage. First, you need to weigh your sample, put the sample into the oven at 105°C and wait until all the water evaporates. After that measure the sample - what is left is the amount of total solids.

    • Spatial distribution of biowaste.

      In the next task we’re going to take a look at the biochemical composition of the pruned wood. Biochemical composition divides the material into ashes and organic solids. Ashes are all the minerals. Organics are everything else, organics visible here, in the biochemical composition table are carbohydrates, lignin and cellulose.

    • Task 3 - Organic matter calculations

      In this task, you’re going to use the sample of “Roadside tree pruning wood”. It is not visible on the main materials page (Hint: On the materials page, below the section’s description click on the “see as list”, then click on the id number of the “Roadside tree pruning wood”).

      Roadside tree pruning wood sample is a mixture of different pruned material - wood chips, bark, leaves etc. you can see the exact macro components of the mixture in the third table.

      Calculate the amount of the organic matter in 1 tonne of pruned material.

      Instruction for task 3 by Ewa Wronka and Phillipp Lüssenhop (CC BY)

      Organic matter can be also called loss of ignition or volatile solids. To understand this naming, read how the organic matter is measured in a lab.

      Lab info 🔬 - measuring the organic matter/volatile solids/ignition loss.

      When you’ve put your sample into the oven at 105°C , you’ve got the total solids. Now, having those total solids, You need to put them into the furnace at 500°C, slowly heat it up. This will burn off all the organic matter, which will turn into gases, leaving only the minerals - ashes.

      That’s why organic matter can be also called volatile solids (they transform from solids to vapour phase) or ignition loss (they go to the air and what’s left is ashes).

    • Take a look at the maps...

      Ok… you’ve learned a bit about different types of analysing material composition that are available on the BRIT, such as water/total solids, biochemical composition - ash and organics or chemical elements. Now it’s your turn to find your own database and later on put the data into the BRIT website. However, before that you need to know one more thing…

       

    • Some measurements measure components that carry part of the weight of the material. For example, of 1 kg wood chips, 550 g are water, which can also be said as the water content of wood chips is 55%. These are weight-based measurements. If you measure all components of a composition, you can add them all together to 100%. However, there are some measurements that can also be used to describe a material that are independent of weight. For example, the pH value or electric conductivity do not add to the weight of a material. They are non-weight-based and are nor part of a description of a composition.

    • Task 4 - Analyse your own material composition data.

      In the fourth task you are asked to analyse data about material composition. First, you need to find the data from TUHH website (The link: https://doi.org/10.15480/336.3380, we are going to work with excel) and then analyse their physico-chemical characteristics, Basic elementary composition and Nutritional elements. Check if you can find all the characteristics that were mentioned in the previous tasks in the table. If not, feel free to check the instructions.

      Instruction for task 4 by Ewa Wronka and Phillipp Lüssenhop (CC BY)

    • Remarks about avoidable food waste and recycling of residual waste.

      Now, after you’ve analysed material composition of your choice from the table. you will add the material and its composition to the BRIT. That way you can create your own database and save it on your account to use it later on. It works similarly as when you were defining your own region in the 2nd task of Quest 1 (at the beginning of your journey in this module).

    • Task 5 - Add new material to the BRIT!

      In the last task, you’re going to add a material composition to the BRIT from the table you have studied in the 4th task (or your own material if you have the data). Remember, this option is available only when you are logged in to your account. Play around with it and try to add material composition from the table on your own. If you encounter any problems, there are instructions below. Remember to check what data is available for the specific material to choose it wisely.

      Instruction for task 5 by Ewa Wronka and Phillipp Lüssenhop (CC BY)

    • Remarks about avoidable food waste and recycling of residual waste.

      Ok, you’ve added Your first material to the database of the BRIT. For now it is private, so it is your own material, with which you can work later on. Contact us if you want to contribute to the public database of the BRIT. Remember that you can add more materials and choose from many more, different characteristics than the ones you’ve learned in this quest. You have learned all the basics to go on by yourself from here and you are not limited to the examples we gave you.