Durability and Wood Protection Research
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Project Title :
There is a need for improved wood treatments that impart durability to wood products without adversely impacting the environment Project Number : FPL-4723-3 Status : TERMINATED Start Date : 07-23-2007 End Date : 07-23-2012 View the 38 publications associated with this project. |
Principal Investigator: Carol A. Clausen |
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| Non Technical Summary | ||
 Conventional preservative systems, as well as copper-based CCA alternatives, face increasing environmental pressures. Environmental concerns for existing preservatives need to be addressed and their environmental impacts minimized. Due to its ease of treatment, southern pine is the dominant species used for preservative-treated wood. Improving the treatability of species that are difficult to penetrate with preservatives would expand the number of applications for treated wood products. Accelerated methods for evaluating the performance of new preservatives are needed to decrease the time it takes to bring new wood protection systems to the marketplace. | ||
| Objectives Summary | ||
| The objectives of this problem area are to evaluate the treatability and durability of underutilized wood species from the changing forest resource. Recycling methods will be developed for treated wood products to divert this waste material from landfills and enable the recycled/remediated wood fiber to be refabricated into value-added products. We will develop and evaluate methods that accelerate the process of assessing long-term performance of preservative products, develop nondestructive methods for quantitation of decay, and correlate an integrated series of laboratory and field tests. Minimizing leaching of preservative into aquatic environments and from above-ground applications will be assessed to reduce the impact of new wood protection systems. | ||
| Approach Summary | ||
| Efficacy of in-place remedial treatments will be evaluated on in-service wood products. Leaching studies will be conducted on new and existing preservatives in laboratory tests and in-service applications, such as wetland boardwalks. Underutilized wood species will be assessed for penetrability and retention of CCA and CCA-alternative preservatives with laboratory methods. Long-term field performance of the treatments is underway. New methods will be developed to assess penetration of preservative treatments into difficult-to-penetrate wood species. Remediation methods based on chemical leaching with acids and biological leaching with metal tolerant bacteria will be assessed for their ability to separate chemicals from the wood fiber. |
Publications associated with this Project
| Project Summaries last modified: 06-21-2011 |