Vol.:(0123456789) Wood Science and Technology https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-019-01134-8 1 3 ORIGINAL Impact of carbonization parameters on anatomic aspects and near‑infrared spectra of three species from Mozambique Silvana Nisgoski 1  · Helena Cristina Vieira 2  · Thaís Alves Pereira Gonçalves 3  · Claudio Manuel Afonso 4  · Graciela Inés Bolzon de Muñiz 1 Received: 13 March 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract This study characterizes charcoal from Androstachys johnsonii (Picrodendraceae), Bobgunnia madagascariensis (Fabaceae) and Sterculia quinqueloba (Malvaceae), made by diferent carbonization processes, based on wood anatomy and NIR spec- troscopy to verify the impact of the parameters and contribute to a database for char- coal identifcation and control. In the three species analyzed, changes in anatomi- cal characteristics after carbonization were diferent and formed groups regarding charcoal programs as a result of anatomical and chemical characteristics. In vessel and ray dimensions and frequency, no linear relation to total time or fnal carboniza- tion temperature was observed, although there were some interactions between spe- cies and program conditions. In the near-infrared spectra, the region from 4000 to 5000 cm −1 showed more distinction between the charcoal programs. There was a separation of samples carbonized with lower intensity (400 °C and 40 min), denoting minor chemical degradation of species, from samples submitted to other programs with a fnal temperature of 450 °C and total time between 2 and 6 h. Near-infrared spectroscopy showed potential to discriminate species in diferent carbonization processes. Final temperature had a stronger infuence on species distinction than the total processing time. Introduction Charcoal is mainly used for energy purposes, but other important applications have been studied, such as improving soil properties for agriculture and absorbing pol- lutants, which are infuenced by wood type, carbonization process and temperature, whereby the latter can increase sorption of organic compounds (Hale et al. 2016). A protocol for charcoal identifcation in Central Africa as a function of anatomical * Silvana Nisgoski silvana.ufpr@gmail.com Extended author information available on the last page of the article