Industrial waste water for biotechnological reduction of aldehyde emissions from wood products.

Pine wood particles were treated with effluents from the wood-board manufacturing industry or from a communal clarification plant, and the effect of these treatments on aldehyde emissions of wood material was tested. Pine wood strands were treated in the same manner and strand boards were produced from the treated material on a laboratory scale. The 28-day volatile organic compound emissions of the boards were determined in a microchamber using Tenax-TDAS/GC-MS analytics. Boards made from treated strands exhibited significantly lower aldehyde emissions compared to control boards. Analyses of microflora and of wood extractives confirmed that microbial metabolism in industrial effluents consumed unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) present in wood. As UFAs are the source of aldehyde emissions due to auto-oxidation, the aldehyde emission was consequently reduced. A routine treatment of wood raw material with properly chosen industrial effluents may therefore be regarded as a cost-reducing and efficient method for the utilisation of industrial waste waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]