Article from Green Building Product Dealer Magazine… This is a very informative web resource with many relevant articles and links to products and ideas.
Green Building Product Dealer is a national magazine dedicated to informing the construction and remodeling supply channel about a new generation of high performance green products which are destined to become the standards in the building community.
accoya wood is the new contender to replace CCA pressure treated wood
Ever since the CCA lumber panic, many Americans have been leery about what might be lurking in their backyard decks, fences, and outdoor furnishings. The arsenic may be gone, but some replacement materials include heavy metals and biocides, while others rely on energy-intensive thermal treatments. It’s enough to make some folks conclude that plastic composites are a more sustainable alternative for outdoor use.
A new technology may change that perception. Acetylation is a treatment technology that, in laboratory trials, had proven to toughen up wood fibers and protect woods from harsh outdoor conditions. The process uses a chemical that, in its diluted form, is basically household vinegar, but
for decades nobody knew how to apply that knowledge in a commercially useful way. “Ten years ago, our company figured out how to do that, and started slowly ramping up from what was initially not much bigger than a test tube to treating a railroad car’s worth of wood at a time,” said Hal Stebbins of Titan Wood.
In their own testing process, Titan determined that the acetylation process took the free hydroxils in the wood, which are ready to bind with water, and changed them to something that insects and fungus can’t recognize as food. That change also made the wood harder and stopped it from shrinking and swelling.
Titan envisioned a wide range of applications for their new technology. “We knew that if we could keep the molecules of wood from absorbing water, then the wood would not shrink and swell, and you wouldn’t have the sticking that happens with wood windows and doors,” said Stebbins. Not absorbing water might also eliminate risk of rotting, which occurs when water-soaked wood becomes a feeding ground for fungus and cellulose-eating insects.
“Another thing that happens when you stabilize the molecules in the wood like we’re doing is you make it UV resistant,” Stebbins pointed out. “Therefore, you can get a much larger palette of viable stains to choose from.” Titan has tested an interesting palette of stain colors from ivory to ebony to demonstrate the wood’s enhanced dimensional stability.
While the process is compatible with most wood species, the finished product, dubbed accoya wood,’ is initially showing up as an FSC certified radiata pine variety. Titan has determined that accoya can perform for 50 years above ground, and 20 years in-ground or in fresh water. “There is not another technology, toxic or non-toxic, that meets our standards in terms of dimensional stability and durability,” Stebbins asserts, “for the markets we intend to serve.”
Stebbins emphasized that accoya is a product of sustainable technology. “This is a non-toxic process and it’s not just the product itself that’s non-toxic, we view the manufacturing process as very environmentally responsible,” he said. “When we get done, we’re selling some by-products like turpenes that can be used for fragrances, and the water we flush out of the wood is clean enough to safely go into the sewage system.”
Titan is looking to bring accoya to market through partnerships with manufacturers of outdoor lumber, decking, doors, and windows.
Link to Green Building Product Dealer web site
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