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Title: Characterization of emissions of aliphatic aldehydes and monoterpenes from wood-based building materials using small dynamic environmental test chamber

Conference ·
OSTI ID:20003305

Aliphatic aldehydes and monoterpenes are the two major classes of volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in wood and engineered wood products. In this investigation of VOC emissions from building materials, the authors have measured emissions of chemicals of these two classes from various wood related products including engineered woods such as particleboard, oriented strand board and plywood, and natural solid woods such as pine, oak and maple. These products are widely used in building construction. Aldehyde and monoterpene emissions from these products may have an impact on concentrations of these chemicals in indoor air. Chamber conditions used in the tests were similar to those recommended in the ASTM practice D 6330-98 (23 degrees C temperature, 50% relative humidity, and 1 h-1 air change rate). An in-house sample holder was used to seal sample edges and allow only the top surface to be exposed in a test chamber of 0.05 m3. Chamber air was collected in multi-sorbent tubes that were analyzed using a thermal desorption apparatus coupled with GC/MS or GC/FID. Identification of emissions indicated that monoterpenes were the major VOCs emitted from the pine sample while the maple sample emitted mainly the aldehydes. Three samples of each of the engineered wood product were tested for emissions of selected major chemicals and total VOCs. Emission data of these chemicals are reported in this paper. Initial emission factors and decay constants were calculated using a method that is recommended in ASTM D 6330-98. The results show that particleboard has higher initial emission factors than plywood or oriented strand board. A comparison of first order decay and power law decay models are examined with the emission data obtained from chamber tests.

Research Organization:
National Research Council Canada, Ottawa, Ontario (CA)
OSTI ID:
20003305
Report Number(s):
CONF-990608-; TRN: IM200003%%140
Resource Relation:
Conference: Air and Waste 92nd Annual Meeting and Exhibition, St. Louis, MO (US), 06/20/1999--06/24/1999; Other Information: 1 CD-ROM. Operating Systems: Windows 3.1, '95, '98 and NT; Macintosh; and UNIX; PBD: 1999; Related Information: In: Air and Waste 92nd annual meeting and exhibition proceedings, [9500] pages.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English