Air emission from timber drying: high temperature drying and re-drying of CCA treated timber

The nature and mass flows of atmospheric emissions from an industrial kiln, drying radiata pine (Pinus radiata D.Don) timber at 140°C dry bulb and 90°C wet bulb, which was subsequently copper-chrome-arsenic (CCA) treated and redried at 90°C dry bulb and 60°C wet bulb, were assessed by measuring the concentration of chemical components in the kiln atmosphere at regular time intervals and determining air-flows and temperature differentials across the stack. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted were trapped and analyzed by GC-MS. The two major VOCs found during high temperature pre-drying and CCA re-drying were α-pinene and β-pinene, which made up 87% and 60% of the total discharge (2433 and 145 g/m³ wood), respectively. Most of the VOC fraction was released during the early stages of drying. The polar compounds were trapped in water. Total combined amount of methanol, ethanol, acetic acid and formic acid released over the two runs were 283, 281, 117, and 260 g/m³ wood, respectively. The aldehydes were trapped in 2,4-dinitrophenyl-hydrazine solution and the aldehyde derivatives analysed by HPLC. The total release of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde during the high temperature pre-drying run were 13 and 15 g/m³ wood and the CCA re-drying run were 14 and 4 g/m³ wood, respectively.