Thermo-hydro and thermo-hydro-mechanical wood processing: An opportunity for future environmentally friendly wood products

Abstract

This state-of-the-art report presents the basic concepts of some of the thermo-hydro (TH) and thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) wood processes that are in use today, i.e. heat treatment, compression of wood in the longitudinal or transverse direction and wood welding. The reasons for the growing interest in TH and THM techniques are discussed, and the development of the different concepts, from first ideas to current status, is briefly presented. The physical and chemical changes that occur in wood during TH and THM processing according to the latest research are also presented. Finally, developments that are close to or already have an industrial application are presented, and the challenges for further development of the heat treatment, compression and wood welding processes are discussed. The TH processing of wood is based entirely on water and heat, and a THM process incorporates an additional mechanical force. The purpose of wood transformation by a TH or a THM process is to improve the intrinsic wood properties, to acquire a form and functionality desired by engineers without changing its eco-friendly characteristics or hindering its further use in the total material life cycle. Only a few of the recently developed techniques, e.g. heat treatment, wood welding and various densification applications, have been industrialized to some extent. There are many reasons for this relatively low transfer of the research results to a full up-scaled industrial production. Some of them are related to unsolved problems at the laboratory level on small-sized samples and others are related to the scaling-up processes in industry. Furthermore, the ageing of heated wood leads to deterioration with time, in some cases there is an unpleasant odour, the strength of the wood decreases substantially and the wood becomes more brittle. These are new challenges which need to be resolved by the collaboration of researchers from the different scientific domains of academia, research institutes and industry.