IFEATWORLD July 2022

WORLD 41
STEAM DISTILLATION
The sawdust is put into the steam distillation device by the conveyor belt, heated for steam
distillation. The essential oil is brought out with the steam, and the oil is obtained by cooling
and oil-water separation.
BIO-GRANULAR FUEL PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT
been used as a raw material for aroma
chemical production in China.
Since the early 2000s, due to the
highly increased price of cedarwood
oil, more and more firwood oil is gradually
being used to replace cedarwood
oil as a raw material for aroma
chemicals and a fragrance ingredient.
Firwood oil is processed in the same
way as cedarwood oil, from fir tree
roots, having the same components of
cedarwood oil, alpha + beta cedrene,
cedrol and thujopsene though the
percentage of each component is different
compared with cedarwood oil.
Firwood oil has a higher percentage
of alpha and beta cedrene, a similar
proportion of cedrol, but a much
lower percentage content of thujopsene.
In the past 10 to 15 years firwood
oil’s usage has increased very quickly,
which has also pushed up its price a
lot, though it is still lower than cedarwood
oil. Up until now, the usage ratio
between cedarwood oil and firwood
oil in China is about 1:4.
Firwood, botanical name Cunninghamia
lanceolata, is an important
cultivated tree species in China with a
2,000-year cultivation history. It is also
an evergreen tree with a height up to
30 metres, fast growth, wide use, and
high output. According to the statistics,
in 1993 the area of China fir forest
reached 911 million ha., accounting
for one-third of the forest area in
southern China, and the annual output
of wood accounted for one-fifth of
the country’s commodity wood. It is
widely located in about 17 provinces,
like Jiangxi, Fujian, Anhui, and Hunan
etc. especially in the southern collective
forest area, where people have a
long-term management history and
cultivation experience of fir.
Chinese fir has the characteristic of
rapid growth, about 15 to 20 years
to reach maturity or even seven to
eight years in some places. Fir trunks,
straight, insect resistant and corrosion
resistant, are very practical, so fir is
widely used in construction, furniture,
utensils, shipbuilding, and other
sectors. Similarly, the root, bark and
fruit of fir have high value in medicinal
and other areas. According to Chinese
statistics 25% of all the trees used
for construction are firwood, so fir
cultivation is of great importance and
significance for people’s livelihoods in
China.
MY FAVOURITE • CHINESE CEDARWOOD OIL AND FIRWOOD OIL