Increased dimensional stability of Eucalyptus grandis × Eucalyptus urophylla ‘GLGU9’ wood through palm oil thermal treatment

Abstract

Eucalyptus grandis × Eucalyptus urophylla ‘GLGU9’ is one of the most commonly planted tree species in South China. It is a new variety created by Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Forestry Research Institute. As a fast-growing species, the poor dimensional stability is one of its main drawbacks, which restricts its applications. Thermal treatment is one of the effective methods to improve the dimensional stability of wood. GLGU9 wood was treated using thermal modification with palm oil. The oil was used as a heating medium and a shielding material at temperatures of 150, 170, 190, 200, and 210 °C, at various treatment durations of 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6 h. To investigate the effect of palm oil thermal treatment on dimensional stability, the anti-shrink efficiency (ASE1) and anti-swelling efficiency (ASE2) were examined. The results indicated that the ASE1 and ASE2 were increased by 62.8% and 56.6% at 210 °C for 6 h treatment, respectively.

Dimensional stability and equilibrium moisture content of thermally modified hardwoods

“…Based on the results of Table 2, the data shows the ASHE of 41.6 for YP, 40.9 for red oak, 65.6 for ash, 23.5 for red maple, 34.2 for hickory and 51.2 for cherry. This result is in accordance with the findings of Cao et al (2023), in which they modified Eucalyptus wood at different temperatures (150 to 210 °C) and reported that thermal modification at elevated temperature increases the ASHE. The shrinkage and swelling values of wood increase with higher density because of having thicker cell walls (Tsoumis 1991;Ling et al 2016).…”