Constellation, le dépôt institutionnel de l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi

Résumé

The thermal treatment of wood at high temperatures is an environment friendly and commercially viable alternative wood modification technology. In this process, wood is heated to temperatures above 200ºC. This modifies the structure of wood and improves its hardness, dimensional stability, and resistance to biological attacks compared to those of the untreated wood. Its color also becomes darker and more attractive. However, this treatment may cause a decrease in wood elasticity. Therefore, optimization of the treatment parameters is necessary for a quality product. In addition, the high temperature heat-treatment processes for wood were first developed in Europe, and the recipes used for the European species were not necessarily applicable to the North American species. Thus, adaptation of the technologies to the latter species was necessary. The industrialists in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region of Quebec brought two heat treatment technologies (Bois Perdure from France and Thermowood from Finland) to Canada. The adaptation of the technology is a very costly procedure at industrial scale. The Research Group on the Thermotransformation of Wood (GRTB – Groupe de recherche sur la thermotransformation du bois) at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi (UQAC) which works closely with these industries developed a method for adapting the existing recipes to the North American species as well as for developing new ones for other species. UQAC is the first North American university which has such a unique research structure to carry out this type of research. The recipe development starts in a laboratory scale furnace. The high temperature heat-treatment experiments are carried out in a thermogravimetric system under different conditions until a promising set of conditions is identified for the properties sought by the industry. Consequently, the trends are identified for a given species. To determine the properties, various characterization tests (bending, dimensional stability, screw withdrawal, etc.) are done. Then, the heat treatment trials in a prototype furnace are carried out to finalize the recipe. This is followed by trials in an industrial-scale furnace for validation of the results.