Low VOC drying of lumber and wood panel products. Progress report number 9
- Inst. of Paper Science and Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
- Mississippi State Univ., MS (United States)
This project is based on the finding that brief microwave or RF-treatment of wood under low-headspace conditions leads to the release of VOCs. On occasion the authors have found that prolonged irradiation increases turpentine yield much more than anticipated from a simple mass balance; i.e., more pinene appeared to be released than was present in the wood in the first place. If taken at face value, this suggests that brief low-headspace irradiation removes VOCs, while prolonged exposure creates it. While seemingly improbable, this could follow if dielectric heating exposed regions of wood that were otherwise inaccessible to the solvent used for extraction (unlikely), or if the irradiation induced depolymerization of terpene dimers or higher polymers. In this report the authors attempt to identify the conditions that lead to this apparent enhancement of terpene yield, by constructing relationships between yield and irradiation parameters. The tentative conclusions are that this enhancement only occurs with relatively wet heartwood, and only under prolonged irradiation. An additional conclusion is that continuing analyses of twelve trees in the MSU forest confirm that the absence of a significant seasonal influence on turpentine content. An apparatus for permeability testing has been constructed, and work is underway.
- Research Organization:
- Inst. of Paper Science and Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC07-96ID13439
- OSTI ID:
- 665996
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ID/13439-T8; ON: DE99000081; TRN: AHC29819%%151
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Oct 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Low VOC drying of lumber and wood panel products. Progress report No. 4, annual summary
Low VOC drying of lumber and wood panel products. Progress report Number 9 [January 1999]