Comparison of combustion properties of native wood species used for fire pots in Korea

In Korean rural homes, wood is used as a fuel in fire pots for cooking and heating. The process of combustion generates products which may be harmful to occupants. This paper investigates the combustion characteristics of four species of Korean native wood using the cone calorimeter (ISO 5660-1). The peak HRR of the Oak at 50 kW/m2 was 375.7 kW/m2 in comparison with 287.7, 370.5 and 193.7 kW/m2 for the Pitch Pine, Chestnut Tree and Zelkova, respectively. In addition, Oak has low COpeak yield (0.0581 kg/kg) compared to that of Pitch Pine and Chestnut Tree except for Zelkova and lower CO/CO2 yield (0.013144) than Chestnut Tree and Zelkova except for Pitch Pine which had for 0.000012. Also, the Oak relatively has the low specific extinction area (SEApeak, 79.80 m2/kg) except for Chestnut Tree. With respect to the reduction of incidents of gaseous poisoning cause headache and sickness attributed to CO production, Oak showed excellent properties compared with that of Pitch Pine, Chestnut Tree and Zelkova.