Low VOC drying of lumber and wood panel products. Progress report No. 8

This study was initiated by an Institute of Paper Science and Technology finding that heating softwood in a low-headspace environment removed much of the VOCs without removing the water. This offered the possibility of removing VOCs from wet wood, capturing them as a product, and then drying the VOC-depleted wood conventionally with little or no VOC controls. Two means of low-headspace heating were explored: steam and radiofrequency (RF). It was found in the previous year, that while both steam and RF were able to drive out VOCs, steam was impracticably slow for lumber. Hence the effect of RF or microwave on wood was the principal focus of the work reported here. Finally, in order to understand the mechanism of VOC release, the transport of the VOCs in wood was studied, together with the seasonal effects that influence VOC concentration in trees