The Value Addition of Wood Vinegar as a Community Product of Sufficient Agriculture Knowledge Center at Ban Nong Sai, Pa sak Sub-district, Muang District, Lamphun Province

Abstract

For sustainable development, it is very essential to utilize resources that already exist in the community to develop community products. The development products of sufficient agriculture knowledge center at Ban Nong Sai, Pa sak Sub-district, Muang District, Lamphun Province, where longan is widely grow, supports people in the community to recycle wood waste from longan. The main activity is to produce charcoal from longan wood using the existing original kiln and the 200 L charcoal kiln where the wood vinegar is collected as the by-product. The charcoal and the wood vinegar production efficiency are about 16% and 5%, respectively. This research project aims to enhance the wood vinegar production efficiency using a condenser system. It was found that the wood vinegar collecting efficiency was raised to 8 % using the modified system. For product development, a 5% by weight of the wood vinegar is blended with various antibacterial agents such as soap, hand washing gel and shampoo. Moreover, several products, such as charcoal briquettes and odor absorbing charcoal, can be manufactured using the low grade longan wood charcoal. Workshops were then organized in order to transfer the knowledge and to encourage people in Ban Nong Sai to further develop the wood vinegar products as the community product.