Calculations of the quantities of carbon stored by trees requires a knowledge, not only of their growth rates, but also of the proportions of carbon contributing to their chemical make-up. This Technical Paper presents the results of a search of the literature for reported values for carbon contents and results of estimations of carbon contents from reported analyses for cellulose and other constituents by solvent extraction, and data from destructive distillation experiments.
It is concluded that the commonly assumed value of 50% for the carbon content of dry wood is satisfactory for most purposes, but appropriate allowances should be made for any water present.
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