INDUSTRY NEWS
Research equipment moves to new facilities at Creswick From Page 1
which saw the closure of the CRC. However, inquiries have revealed that research into wood treatment and microwave processing is still alive and well at the School of Forest and Ecosystem Science at the University of Melbourne. T&F enews talked with Professors Peter Vinden and Grigori Torgovnikov on forest products research post-CRC. “Closure of the CRC but more particularly the loss of the facilities housed in the Centre for Advanced Wood Processing was a blow for research into wood processing for the Australian forest industries,” Prof. Vinden said. “However, in the last few years we have been able to reestablish research capability by moving key equipment into new facilities located on the Creswick campus of the University of Melbourne. ‘Clearly in a country like Australia where labour costs are high, we have to look at technology and design to provide clean automated technologies to ensure that we remain competitive’ – Prof. Grigori Torgovnikov “Pilot industrial microwave processing and a Unitreat pilot plant are now operational again. Pilot plant developed for the fast low temperature pyrolysis of wood will also be operating shortly.” Prof. Grigori Torgovnikov said the developments in microwave processing in Europe and the US were not surprising given the natural fit that microwaves have for processing wood, changing batch processes such as timber and veneer drying, preservative treatment,
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Professors Grigori Torgovnikov and Peter Vinden .. relocated with their microwave and treatment infrastructure at the School of Forest and Ecosystem Science, Creswick, Vic.
dimensional stabilisation, wood bending and pulping into conveyor belt processes. “Clearly in a country like Australia where labour costs are high, we have to look at technology and design to provide clean automated technologies to ensure that we remain competitive,” Prof Torgovnikov said. “The comparative advantages of microwave processing don’t just include speed heating. The process also delivers rapid drying, moisture levelling and conditioning without stress development, conditioning to specific wood moisture contents, low environmental impacts (water pollution) greater energy efficiency through targeted heating, just in time conveyor belt processing, reduced drying defects and much lower strength losses than is associated with pressure steaming preservative treatment technologies.” Prof. Vinden said undertaking research into microwave technology and scaling up potential technologies before commercial application were two quite different things and underpinned why the Centre for Advanced Wood Processing was so unique. “Essentially,
scaling up the technology enabled us to identify potential teething problems before they arose commercially; it takes the technical risk out of adopting new technology. ‘To a greater extent it [microwave technology] reduces financial risk because industry will be able to make much more accurate estimates of total processing costs’ “To a greater extent it also reduces financial risk because industry will be able to make much more accurate estimates of total processing costs. “Examples of this include the scaling up of railway sleeper treatment. And standing trees of radiata pine could be processed into railway sleepers, power poles, horticultural posts or any ground contact commodity and installed in less than half an hour using microwave processing and Unitreat technology. This arises from the conveyor belt microwave conditioning of green wood in two minutes, rather than the 12-24 hours needed for pressure steam conditioning and then 2-10 minutes using conveyor belt
Unitreat technology rather than conventional wood treatment technologies. “Unitreat facilitates the CCA treatment of hot wood without causing preservative precipitation, but at the same time provides very rapid curing of the preservative in the wood.” The Unitreat technology was tested (early on in the CRC) following pressure steaming at a commercial plant in South Australia. The sawmill that tested and adopted the technology concerned estimated that the savings from environmental problems (having clean CCA) were about $250,000 a year just for one plant. A grant from the FWPRDC (now FWPA) partially funded the building of the Unitreat pilot plant at Creswick. This led to the successful adoption of conveyor belt Unitreat technology that is now being used in New Zealand. Prof Vinden added: “Scaling up of microwave conditioning of green wood was carried out at the Centre for Advanced Wood Processing where we microwaved, conditioned and preservative treated 3500 radiata pine railway sleepers. “The railway sleepers were incorporated into a five-mile rail track and are assessed periodically for performance. In scaling up and undertaking a semi-commercial run of microwave and preservative treatment we identified a problem that we had not encountered or anticipated in small scale testing, namely the build up of wood resins within the microwave applicator. “This then became a major focus for research. It took us Cont Page 9
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