Alternative wood treatment with blends of linseed oil, alcohols and pyrolysis oil

Abstract

Linseed oil is a common wood treatment agent, which is often blended with naphthenic oil during its application. In this study, we developed new types of linseed oil blends, where the naphthenic oil was substituted with alcohols and pyrolysis oil. As miscibility tests revealed, linseed oil can be blended indefinitely with primary alcohols containing three carbon atoms or more. In addition, kinetic stability of three-component-mixtures was found, which comprised linseed oil, alcohol and pyrolysis oil. The developed blends were further tested for their viscosity and rate of solvent evaporation. At last, trial impregnations of wood were done to test this new treatment agent. The uptake of treatment oil and the effect on water repellency varied, and substituting white spirit with propanol and pyrolysis oil showed potential. The latter were miscible with 50% (wt) linseed oil at concentrations of 37.5% 1- or 2-propanol and 12.5% pyrolysis oil. Compared with the reference case, treatment with this agent markedly decreased the water-uptake of the wood. Our study hence attributes great potential to the newly developed linseed oil blends, which may introduce additional product characteristics and generate value to byproducts via pyrolysis.