Wood preservation

Although wood is a perishable material, this can be seen as an advantage, in that wood can be disposed of into the environment at the end of its useful life, where its molecular constituents are broken down by natural processes and assimilated into nutrient cycles. 

However, it is obviously not desirable that this process takes place when wood is used in service situations. 

As the availability of naturally durable species has declined, the industry has turned to softwoods, and increasingly to softwoods from managed forests or plantations. In order to achieve acceptable longevity under service conditions, it has been necessary to use preservatives to prevent biological attack. Such preservatives have tended to rely upon broad-spectmm biocidal activity and have become very common, particularly for exterior applications. 

Although CCA is an exceedingly effective preservative in service, attention has increasingly been focused on the fate of CCA when the treated timber products are disposed of. This has led to concerns especially regarding the ultimate release of arsenic and chromium into the biosphere. 

As a consequence of these concerns, many countries have now either banned the use of CCA outright or have severely limited its use to specific products or market sectors. Even in the latter case, there can be no doubt that an outright ban will follow in time. 

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Constituents. Complex halogenated organic compounds have been widely used in commerce in the last fifty years. A few representative examples are shown in Eigure 9 pentachlorophenol has been widely used as a wood preservative, and also for termite control. 

Approximately 50—55% of the product from a coal-tar refinery is pitch and another 30% is creosote. The remaining 15—20% is the chemical oil, about half of which is naphthalene. Creosote is used as a feedstock for production of carbon black and as a wood preservative. Because of modifications to modem coking processes, tar acids such as phenol and cresyUc acids are contained in coal tar in lower quantity than in the past. To achieve economies of scale, these tar acids are removed from cmde coal tar with a caustic wash and sent to a central processing plant where materials from a number of refiners are combined for recovery. 

Fluoridation of potable water suppHes for the prevention of dental caries is one of the principal uses for sodium fluoride (see Water, municipal WATER treatment). Use rate for this appHcation is on the order of 0.7 to 1.0 mg/L of water as fluoride or 1.5 to 2.2 mg/L as NaF (2). NaF is also appHed topically to teeth as a 2% solution (see Dentifrices). Other uses are as a flux for deoxidiziag (degassiag) rimmed steel (qv), and ia the resmelting of aluminum. NaF is also used ia the manufacture of vitreous enamels, ia pickling stainless steel, ia wood preservation compounds, caseia glues, ia the manufacture of coated papers, ia heat-treating salts, and as a component of laundry sours. 

Large-scale recovery of light oil was commercialized in England, Germany, and the United States toward the end of the nineteenth century (151). Industrial coal-tar production dates from the earliest operation of coal-gas faciUties. The principal bulk commodities derived from coal tar are wood-preserving oils, road tars, industrial pitches, and coke. Naphthalene is obtained from tar oils by crystallization, tar acids are derived by extraction of tar oils with caustic, and tar bases by extraction with sulfuric acid. Coal tars generally contain less than 1% benzene and toluene, and may contain up to 1% xylene. The total U.S. production of BTX from coke-oven operations is insignificant compared to petroleum product consumptions. 

Phenolics. Phenol (qv) and the chlotinated phenoHcs formerly comprised the largest class of iadustrial antimicrobials (see Chlorophenols). Table 5 shows the remaining phenoHcs of importance. Use of pentachlorophenol has been severely restricted only one manufacturer suppHes product for the wood preservation market. 

Table 13 shows some of the developmental products that have EPA appHcations pending and may be available in the near future. Sea Nine is a variation on the very successflil isothiazolone chemistry. It is claimed to be an improvement over metallic actives used for antifouling paint and wood preservation (46,47). Decylthioethylamine and its water-soluble hydrochloride are claimed to be especially effective at controlling biofilm in cooling water appHcations (48—50). The hydroxymethylpyra2ole shown is also suggested to have properties that are well suited to the protection of aqueous products or emulsions (51,52). 

X5lenol is an important starting material for insecticides, xylenol—formaldehyde resins, disinfectants, wood preservatives, and for synthesis of a-tocopherol (vitamin E) (258) and i7/-a-tocopherol acetate (USP 34-50/kg, October 1994). The Bayer insecticide Methiocarb is manufactured by reaction of 3,5-x5lenol with methylsulfenyl chloride to yield 4-methylmercapto-3,5-xylenol, followed by reaction with methyl isocyanate (257). Disinfectants and preservatives are produced by chlorination to 4-chloro- and 2,4-dich1oro-3,5-dimethylpheno1 (251). 

More than two-thirds of the naphthenic acid produced is used to make metal salts, with the largest volume being used for copper naphthenate, consumed in the wood preservative industry (see Wood). Metal salts used as paint driers accounted for only 16% of the naphthenic acid market in 1993 (see Paint). This is a dramatic contrast with 1977 usage, when 75% of the naphthenates went into the paint drier market. An overall view of the 1993 naphthenic acid market in North America shows the following uses ... 

Wood Preservation constmction lumber, fence posts, railroad ties, utility poles... 

Actual water treatment challenges are multicomponent. For example, contamination of groundwater by creosote [8021-39-4], a wood (qv) preservative, is a recurring problem in the vicinity of wood-preserving faciUties. Creosote is a complex mixture of 85 wt % polycycHc aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) 10 wt % phenohc compounds, including methylated phenols and the remaining 5 wt % N—, S—, and O— heterocycHcs (38). Aqueous solutions of creosote are therefore, in many ways, typical of the multicomponent samples found in polluted aquifers. 

In addition to conventional pesticides such as insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides, there are other chemicals classified as pesticides and regulated under FIFRA. These chemicals include wood preservatives, disinfectants (excluding chlorine), and sulfur. In the United States these chemicals have aimual usage of about 500,000 t, which is equal to conventional pesticides. 

Until the end of World War II, coal tar was the main source of these aromatic chemicals. However, the enormously increased demands by the rapidly expanding plastics and synthetic-fiber industries have greatly outstripped the potential supply from coal carbonization. This situation was exacerbated by the cessation of the manufacture in Europe of town gas from coal in the eady 1970s, a process carried out preponderantly in the continuous vertical retorts (CVRs), which has led to production from petroleum. Over 90% of the world production of aromatic chemicals in the 1990s is derived from the petrochemical industry, whereas coal tar is chiefly a source of anticorrosion coatings, wood preservatives, feedstocks for carbon-black manufacture, and binders for road surfacings and electrodes. 

In the case of low temperature tar, the aqueous Hquor that accompanies the cmde tar contains between 1 and 1.5% by weight of soluble tar acids, eg, phenol, cresols, and dihydroxybenzenes. Both for the sake of economics and effluent purification, it is necessary to recover these, usually by the Lurgi Phenosolvan process based on the selective extraction of the tar acids with butyl or isobutyl acetate. The recovered phenols are separated by fractional distillation into monohydroxybenzenes, mainly phenol and cresols, and dihydroxybenzenes, mainly (9-dihydroxybenzene (catechol), methyl (9-dihydtoxybenzene, (methyl catechol), and y -dihydroxybenzene (resorcinol). The monohydric phenol fraction is added to the cmde tar acids extracted from the tar for further refining, whereas the dihydric phenol fraction is incorporated in wood-preservation creosote or sold to adhesive manufacturers. Naphthalene Oils. Naphthalene is the principal component of coke-oven tats and the only component that can be concentrated to a reasonably high content on primary distillation. Naphthalene oils from coke-oven tars distilled in a modem pipe stiU generally contain 60—65% of naphthalene. They are further upgraded by a number of methods. 

Specifications. Tar bulk products are covered by both national specifications and those formulated by the user. For instance, creosote for timber preservation is covered by the American Wood Preserving Association Standards (AWPA) and ASTM D350. 

In the United States creosote specification AWPA PI/89 is intended for the treatment of timber for land and fresh-water use, and the heavier grade AWPA P13/89 for the preservation of marine piling and timber. In the United Kingdom a British Standard Specification, BS. 144/90, Part 1, specifies three grades of creosote two for pressure impregnation and one for bmshing appHcation. The standards of the West European Institute for Wood Preservation (WEI) are often used in Europe. 

The market for tar-based road binders has declined considerably for a variety of reasons. Less cmde tar is available and the profits from the sales of electrode pitch and wood-preservation creosote or creosote as carbon-black feedstock are higher than those from road tar. In most industrial countries, road constmction in more recent years has been concentrated on high speed motorways. Concrete, petroleum bitumen, or lake asphalt are used in the constmction of these motorways. In the United Kingdom, for example, the use of tar products in road making and maintenance had fallen from 330,000 t in 1960 to 100,000 t in 1975 and is less than 100 t in 1994, mainly based on low temperature pitch which is not suitable for electrode or briquetting binders, but which is perfectly satisfactory as the basis for road binders. 

Wood preservatives ate appHed either from an oil system, such as creosote, petroleum solutions of pentachlorophenol, or copper naphthanate, or a water system. Oil treatments ate relatively inert with wood material, and thus, have Htde effect on mechanical properties. However, most oil treatments require simultaneous thermal treatments, which ate specifically limited in treating standards to preclude strength losses (24). 

AWPA Book of Standards, American Wood-Preservers Association, Woodstock, Md., 1997. 

J. E. Wiaandy, "Effects of Waterborne Preservative Treatment on Mechanical Properties A Review," ia Proceedings of the 91 st Annual Meeting of the American Wood-Preservers Association, New York, May 21—24, 1995, Vol. 91, AWPA, Woodstock, Md., 1995, pp. 17—33. 

Wood Preservation Treating Practices, Pederal Specification TT-W-5711, U.S. General Services Administration, Washington, D.C. 

L. E. Gjovik and H. L. Davidson, Comparison of Wood Preservatives in Stake Pests, Research Note EPL 02, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Eorest Service, Eorest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wise., 1979. 

The largest use of zinc chloride in the United States is in wood preservation, fluxes, and batteries (see Batteries). Zinc chloride solution dissolves vegetable fiber and is widely used in mercerizing cotton (qv), swelling fibers, as a mordant in dyeing, parchmentizing paper, etc (see Fibers, vegetable ... 

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