Decay resistance of thermally-modified Eucalyptus grandis wood at 140 °C, 160 °C, 180 °C, 200 °C and 220 °C

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of thermal treatment on the biological resistance of Eucalyptus grandis wood to the decay fungus Picnoporus sanguineus. Boards from 5 years and 11 months old E. grandis trees, taken from the stock possessed by the Duratex-SA company, were thermally-modified at 140 °C, 160 °C, 180 °C, 200 °C and 220 °C in the Laboratory of Wood Drying and Preservation from UNESP, Botucatu, SP, Brazil. Samples of each treatment were treated according to ASTM D-2017 (1994). The experiment tested the accelerated decay caused by the decay fungus P. sanguineus on a system of soil-block wood. The results of thermal treatment showed that an increase of temperature of 180–220 °C caused reductions of between 15.7% and 82.4% in the weight loss in the samples from E. grandis incubated with P. sanguineus.