The use of forest biomass is an important alternative of renewable energy source, economic, technical and environmentally viable, fighting for space with other energy sources, more expensive or non-renewable, such as natural gas, electricity, diesel and LPG. Within the industrial sector, biggest consumer of biomass energy, the segment of red ceramics represents a traditional consumer of wood for the production of energy. A considerable number of companies in this sector has recently started to use, as alternative for energy production, chips made from several different wood wastes. The choice for such biomass alternative is due to four main reasons: high availability of material on the market; positive environmental advantage since it is a recycled material; higher uniformity during combustion, compared with firewood; and the possibility of implementation of automatic processing for furnace feeding. This material, however, has high heterogeneity in its composition which affects the majority of its properties. The chips were sampled in ceramics, sorted and grouped by similarity resulting in 10 different types, whose composition could contain solid materials from sawmill processing of pine and eucalyptus logs, wood waste from the recycling of various materials in urban centers, joinery waste and other compounds mixing the other materials. Laboratory analysis enabled a more complete classification of the materials by similar groups: Group A materials containing types 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 consists of larger particles and low sawdust. This group showed higher humidity, higher bulk density, lower calorific value and lower ash content; Group B, containing materials of the type 9 and 10, which contained a higher quantity of small particles and mostly sawdust, with lower humidity, lower bulk density, higher calorific value and higher ash content; Group C, focusing on the types 2, 4 and 8, which had a more proportionate mix of larger and smaller particles presenting intermediate results between Groups A and B for the variables analyzed. The obtained ratings open up possibilities for the proposal of criteria for the improvement of the acquisition and use of wood waste by the sector. When considered the specific results of each material, types 1 and 6 were the most frequent, being present in most samples, occurring in the majority of the sampled ceramics and throughout the full period of sampling. The chip type 1, composed primarily of pine sawmill residues, was considered the most frequent and preferred by the ceramic industry. This aspect should be weighed against the trend of scarcity of the product, given the downward trend in the plantations of the tree species in the country. The bulk density had direct correlation with moisture, a result of the fact that this evaluation was carried out with material in its “in natura” state. This aspect is relevant, because the marketing chips for energy is carried out based on volume.
