Changes of air permeability and moisture absorption capability of the wood by organosolv pretreatment

The air permeability of yellow poplar log cross section before and after organosolv pretreatment was investigated, and the moisture absorption of control and organosolv pretreated rectangular parallelepiped specimens was investigated in this study. It was revealed that the diameters of through pores were enlarged and the number of bigger pore was increased by the organosolv pretreatment. The air permeabilities of the cross sections of yellow poplar log were changed from 1.61 darcy to 23.30 darcy, but their weights were reduced by 5 percent. The equilibrium moisture content of control wood specimen at the exposed relative humidity were 5.9 % at 32 %, 9.7 % at 58 %, 14.8 % at 80.5 %, 19.7 % at 90 %, 25.7 % at 95 % and 29.9 % at 100%. The equilibrium moisture content of the specimens pretreated with the parameter of sulfuric acid catalyst of 0.5 % (w/w) were 19.5 % at 32 %, 29.3 % at 58 %, 39.6 % at 80.5 %, 59 % at 90 %, 111.3 % at 95 % and 111.3 % at 100 %, while those pretreated with the parameter of sulfuric acid catalyst of 1.0 % (w/w) were 17.4 % at 32 %, 23.9 % at 58 %, 27.7 % at 80.5 %, 40.6 % at 90 %, 68.8 % at 95 % and 110.0 % at 100 %. The moisture absorption of organosolv pretreated rectangular parallelepiped specimens was higher than that of control specimen.