Wood consumption for the production of shingles, root tiles and hollow bricks in the district of Tobatí, Paraguay

Abstract

In this research we evaluated the amount of firewood required in the production of ceramics, to provide necessary information for the planning of management and sustainable exploitation of the wood energy resources used in the ceramic industries. The methodology presented two stages, the first was the application of a survey to 50 ceramic industries out of 78 registered by the municipality of Tobati, Department of Cordillera, Paraguay. The industries that underwent surveys were randomly selected, then the consumption of firewood for cooking and the occurrence of this process for two months were measured, from three ceramic industries, with an error of 20% and a confidence level of 80% A projection of the demand for firewood was made for the next 10 years. The consumption of firewood had an average value between 29 and 39 m3 (45 to 60 stereo meters) for each burn, the average production of tiles, tiles and hollow bricks was 35 000 stereo meters/burn equivalent to 22 750 m3/burn, distributed as follows: 13 000 m3/tile burning (20 000 stereo meters/burn), 2 600 to 3 250 m3/tile burning (between 4 000 and 5 000 stereo meters/burn) and 5 00 to 5 850 m3/hollow brick burning (of 8 000 to 9 000 stereo meters/burn). The fuelwood used in the burning generally comes from the forest species Peltophorum dubium (Spreng.) Taub., Parapiptadenia rigida (Benth.) Brenan, Handroanthus heptaphyllus (Vell.) Mattos, Pterogyne nitens Tu l . Helietta apiculata Benth. y Eucalyptus spp. With the consumption of each cubic meter of firewood, 3 153 units of tiles, tiles and hollow bricks are produced, with the average annual consumption of firewood of 31 668 m3 (48 720 stereo meters) and a demand of 316 680 m3 (487 200 stereo meters) for the next 10 years.