HAPs release from wood drying

Abstract

Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP) profiles from drying softwood and hardwood flakes (for the manufacture of oriented strand board) are very similar, indicating that they originate through a common mechanism, the breakdown of wood tissue. Hence, the strategies employed to reduce VOC (volatile organic compound) emissions from hardwood can also be extended to decreasing HAPs from softwood. Drying aspen flakes in the field and in the laboratory gives rise to different VOC species, and direct extension of laboratory data to the field may prove difficult. Formaldehyde emissions from drying fresh aspen flakes are lower than those from stored material; the opposite effect occurs for methanol and the other aldehydes. HAPs evolved from drying pine flakes surge sharply at 5-10% moisture content during drying at 130-160 °C. Emissions of methanol, formaldehyde, pentanal, and hexanal all begin simultaneously, with the release of methanol and formaldehyde being the most sensitive to dryer temperature. Hence, the nature of the VOC mix is partly governed by the dryer temperature. Pine and aspen give rise to similar HAPs profiles during either drying or pressing flakes that are already dried.