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Chemical and physical properties of wood chips

Chemical and physical properties of wood chips. For concentrations of metals, link here.

Link to this table

Property Range found in literature1 Median value from literature
Total phosphorus (mg/kg) 0.027 - 0.24 0.13
Total nitrogen (mg/kg) 0.31 – 1.8 0.38
Total potassium (mg/kg) 100-1600 709
Total carbon (mg/kg) 434-498 47.1
pH 3.34-5.07 3.47
Cation exchange capacity (cmol/kg)1
  • bark: 57-92
  • wood: 30-46
Total calcium (mg/kg) 600-6200 1190
Total magnesium (%) 60-6200 189
Bulk density (g/cm3) 0.138 - 0.422 0.293
Water holding capacity (% by wt) 58.5
Total pore space (%) 60-63 61.5

Primary references for this data:

  • Ima and Mann, 2007
  • Hamid et al., 2016
  • Pintor-Ibarra et al., 2016
  • Kim et al., 2016
  • Chandrasekaran et al., 2012
  • Venner et al., 2011
  • New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, 2013
  • Warner, 1976

1CEC increased as chip size decreased