Estimated VOC losses during the drying of five northeastern species

During the past decade, Federal and State officials have increasingly focus ed their attention on point sources of emission from wood-processing operat ions. Among those sources, dry kilns have been highlighted as a potential s ource of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. Unfortunately, few data are available that quantify the magnitude of the emissions arising from dr ying either hardwoods or softwoods. Although the industry has been generall y cooperative and several attempts have been made to measure the emission l evels from operating dry kilns, the complexity of the drying process combin ed with the myriad variables that are related to the species and provenance combine to make the measurements a daunting task. This paper reports the r esults of experiments that were designed to approximate the VOC release lev els during the drying of five common northeastern species. The results indi cate that the average VOC release levels for each of the species tested wer e under 1.4 pounds per thousand board feet. Although done under laboratory conditions, the results are a reasonable estimate of the VOC emission level s from dry kilns drying green wood fi om the species tested.