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Abstract
High temperature steam treatment of wood fiber in a closed press during fiberboard pressing and then cooling the fiberboard while still under pressure to below the glass transition temperature of lignin, greatly increased the dimensional stability and decreased the hemicellulose content of the fiberboards produced. For example, after pressing aspen fiber four minutes at 200 C under steam pressure, the resulting fiberboards show less than 10 percent thickness swelling after two-hour water soak as compared to over 40 percent for non-steamed fiberboards. The addition of ferric chloride to the process greatly increases dimensional stability and reduces the hemicellulose content lower than control fiberboards.
Keywords
Steam,
aspen,
fiberboard,
dimensional stability,
thickness swelling,
furan,
sugar analysis,
hemicellulose,
ferric chloride,
lignin,
heat treatment,
wood fibers,
swelling,
modified wood,
hygroscopicity,
moisture content
Citation
Rowell, Roger; Lange, Sandra; McSweeny, Jim; Davis, Mark. 2002. Modification of wood fiber using steam. Proceedings of the 6th Pacific Rim Bio-Based Composites Symposium & Workshop on the Chemical Modification of Cellulosics, Portland, Oregon, USA, 2002, Volume 2. Corvallis, Or. : Wood Science and Engineering Dept., Oregon State University, c2002: pages 606-615.
