Journal of Engineering Research

Volume 8 Article 9
Issue 4 issue 4

2024

Review of Wood Drying Technologies

Mohamed Salah Elmetwaly
Mechanical power engineering,Mansoura University, [email protected]

Lotfy Hassan Rabie Saker

Mechanical power engineering,Mansoura University, [email protected]

Mohamed Sameh Salem

Mechanical power engineering,Mansoura University, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation
Elmetwaly, Mohamed Salah; Saker, Lotfy Hassan Rabie; and Salem, Mohamed Sameh (2024) "Review of
Wood Drying Technologies," Journal of Engineering Research: Vol. 8: Iss. 4, Article 9.
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 Elmetwaly et al.: Review of Wood Drying Technologies

Journal of Engineering Research (JER)

ISSN: 2356-9441 Vol. 8 – No. 4, 2024 ©Tanta University, Faculty of Engineering e ISSN: 2735-4873

Review of Wood Drying Technologies

Mohamed S. El Metwaly 1*, LH Rabie Saker2, Mohamed S Salem 3
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
2 Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
3 Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt

*Corresponding author’s email: [email protected]

Abstract- This article provides a comprehensive review of drying E Specific Energy Consumption
optimization in data centers by examining the limitations of dry-
EU Total Energy Consumption
ing methods and discussing advances proposed by scientists
h Heat Transfer Coefficient (W/m2. K)
through whom we can provide a comparison between different
drying systems with an emphasis on improving energy efficiency K Thermal Conductivity (W/m. K)

and thermal performance. Wood drying under atmospheric pres- t Drying time (min)
sure has many advantages, including the ability to dry at lower
L Latent heat (J/kg)
temperatures (by reducing the likelihood of some drying defects),
M Moisture Content (kgwatrer/kgsolid)
significantly reduced drying times, color preservation, increased
energy efficiency, better control of volatile organic compound m Mass of Sample (g)

emissions, and the ability to dry very large cross sections. Previ- P Pressure (mbar)
ous studies have achieved some characteristics that distinguish
Q Heat Quantity (W)
vacuum from traditional drying, which is that the main driving
R Vapor gas constant (J/ kg. K)
force in the vacuum is the total pressure difference, the prevail-
ing moisture transfer mechanisms and the bulk flow of water T Temperature (℃)

vapor. There is also a greater migration of water in the longitu- W Weight loss (kg)
dinal direction and these characteristics distinguish vacuum dry-
Greek letters
ing mechanisms than traditional drying methods. Previous re-
searches had focused on increasing the understanding of the fun- Δ Difference

damental mechanisms of vacuum drying applications for specific 𝛈 Thermal efficiency of dryer
industries materials and species, many efforts have concentrated λ Latent heat of evaporation
for improving existing methods by improving moisture control
ѡ Evaporation rate
and the using of pretreatment to improve energy consumption
Subscripts
and drying quality.
a Ambient
Keywords- Vacuum drying; organic materials; moisture content;
drying rate; Radio frequency; wood, renewable energy; super- ev Evaporation
heated steam. f Final

Nomenclature fg latent heat of evaporation

Symbol Quantity
i Inlet condition
A Surface Area (m2)
m Material
C Specific Heat (kJ/kg. K)
o Outlet
De Drying Efficiency (%)

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 Journal of Engineering Research, Vol. 8 [2024], Iss. 4, Art. 9

Journal of Engineering Research (JER)

ISSN: 2356-9441 Vol. 8 – No. 4, 2024 ©Tanta University, Faculty of Engineering e ISSN: 2735-4873

p Particle materials in solution from the drying perspective it is consid-

ered to be plain water. The water or moisture content (MC)
q Heat
of wood is expressed in percent as the weight of water pre-
s Surface or Sample sent in the wood divided by the weight of dry wood sub-
stance. Green (freshly cut) wood may have an MC as low as
t Time 30% to as high as 250%. Sapwood usually has a higher MC
v Vacuum
than heartwood. Average greenwood MCs may vary consid-
erably from one tree to another among boards cut from the
Abbreviations same tree and with the time of cutting tree.
DMC Dimensionless Moisture Content a. Macroscopic and Microstructure characteristics
Two types of wood characteristics are discussed (I) macro-
DR Drying Rate scopic and (II) microstructure characteristics. Macroscopic
MC Moisture Content characteristics are those features visible with naked eye or
with magnificent lens. A cross section of wood consists of
three distinguishable parts: pith, wood and bark. Pith is nor-
I. INTRODUCTION mally located at the center of the stem of a tree. It varies in
Drying of organic materials is considered one of the sizes and colors from black to whitish and its structure may
most complex processes encountered in engineering, the be solid porous chambered or hollow. Trees grown in sea-
drying of wood has a vital role in wood industry. The kiln sonal area consist of concentric layer of tissues called growth
drying of wood produces huge amounts of vapour. The va- ring which comprises of wood produced by cambium in a
pour is released to the environment when the process purges single season [1]. In tropical species, growth rings are not
some of the saturated hot air. To overcome long drying time, always distinct especially in areas with fairly uniform rain-
low energy efficiency and poor product quality associated fall. The inner portion of the cross section of wood is usually
with conventional drying, a Conductive Heating Vacuum darker in color than the outer layer. This portion is called
Drying technology is proposed for drying wood Current vac- heartwood and it normally consists of older cells that no
uum drying technology has its beginning in 1962. Vacuum longer takes part in translocation and storage of food but pro-
drying is not a new technology, and its use for drying wood vides mechanical rigidity to the steam and support to the
has been suggested since the early 1900s, although extensive canopy [2]. The peripheral portion is called sapwood and it is
research on this drying approach has only been conducted the growing and youngest cell of tree and function as sap
since the mid-1980s. In vacuum drying, wood is placed in an conductor and wood storage of tree. Under microscopic ob-
airtight vessel under less than atmospheric pressure, while servation, wood composed of cells that connected together in
heat is transferred to the material using one of several meth- various ways. Cells of softwood are mainly long and narrow
ods. Generally, wood vacuum drying methods were grouped tubes like with closed and pointed or blunt ends and the cells
into four categories based on the heating method used: con- of hardwood consist mainly long and narrow with closed or
ductive heating vacuum drying (or hot plate vacuum), cyclic pointed end.
vacuum drying (or "convective" vacuum) superheated steam Generally, there are three types of cells vessel members,
vacuum drying, and dielectric vacuum (which in turn can be fibers and parenchyma cells [3]. Vessels are a pipe like struc-
classified into radio frequency vacuum drying and micro- ture of indeterminate length formed by individual vessel cells
wave vacuum drying). Some characteristics that differentiate or element and it appears as solitary pores or in multiple
vacuum from conventional drying are that in vacuum the chains or cluster in a wood cross section. In addition to, its
primary driving force is total pressure difference, the prevail- size greatly varies within growth ring and between species
ing moisture transfer mechanism is water vapour bulk flow, where the average ranges of vessel elements length from 0.2
and there is greater water migration in the longitudinal direc- to 0.5 mm and 20 to 400μm in diameter. Parenchyma per-
tion. forms the function as storage tissues in wood. Under micro-
A. Properties of wood scope observation parenchyma cells are typically prismatic in
All parts of a living tree contain water. Water is a critical shape and have simple pits. Fibers are long narrows cells
component in the process of photosynthesis leading to the with closed and mostly pointed ends. Its average length var-
formation of new tree cells and subsequent growth. Water ies from 1 to 2 mm and its diameter ranges from 0.01mm to
often makes up over half the total weight of the wood in a 0.05 mm. There are mainly two types of pits simple pit and
tree. This water in the tree is sometimes referred to “sap.” bordered pit as shown in figure (1). Pits in hardwood are of-
Although the sap contains a variety of minerals and other ten bordered, the opening of pits is called pit aperture and the

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 Elmetwaly et al.: Review of Wood Drying Technologies

Journal of Engineering Research (JER)

ISSN: 2356-9441 Vol. 8 – No. 4, 2024 ©Tanta University, Faculty of Engineering e ISSN: 2735-4873

space between aperture and membrane is called pit cavity. Figure 2. Water in wood cell [6]
For hardwood the cavity of bordered pits is narrow and ab- Water in wood present in two conditions:
rupt toward the cell lumen. The center of pit membrane is 1) Bulk of water that contained in the cell cavities of
called torus and it is thickened for the softwood. wood is called “free” water. This water are free from
intermolecular attraction of cells walls however, it is
subjected to capillary force and therefore is not in the
same thermodynamic state of ordinary liquid water in
wide container. Furthermore, cell cavity water may
also contain water soluble materials which reduce its
thermodynamics state [7].
2) Liquid water in cell walls is called “bound” water. Water
held in wood is by the attraction of water molecules by
the hydroxyls (-OH) of its chemical constituents. The
bound water is contained in the void of cell walls of
wood [3].
Also, water may present in form of vapor contained in cell
cavities. Normally these vapor constitutes only a small amount
of total weight and negligible at normal temperature and mois-
ture content. Moisture presented in a converted wood varies
appreciably in different circumstance but the dry weight of
Figure 1. A) pit in opened state; B) closing of the pit during drying:
Structure of the typical pit in early wood: 1 cell wall (secondary), 2 mid- wood substance in a given sample is constant. Moisture pre-
dle lamella (and primary wall), 3 margo, 4 torus, 5 porus, 6 inside area of sented in a converted wood varies appreciably in different
the pit (after Petty 1970)[4]. circumstance but the dry weight of wood substance in a given
B. Water in Wood sample is constant. Moisture content of a sample can be ex-
Living trees and freshly felled timber contain high pressed by the amounts of water presented in wood. It changes
amount of water which may constitutes greater proportion by constantly according to the ambient condition and it may ap-
weight than the solid wood as shown in figure (2). The water pear in three general forms:
in wood influences strength properties, shrinkage, weight, (a) Free water in cell cavities.
hardness, abrasion, machine ability, heat value, thermal con- (b) Hygroscopic bound water in void of cell walls.
ductivity, insect, fungi attack resistance and resistance of (c) Vapor in cell cavities.
wood against decay[5]. Moisture moves through many types of passageways such
as cavities of the vessels, fibers and pit chamber. Moisture
presented in a converted wood varies appreciably in different
circumstance but the dry weight of wood substance in a given
sample is constant [8]. The performance of wood is influenced
by the amount of moisture which is expressed as a percentage
of the weight of the dry wood substance.

𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 − 𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒

𝑀=
𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒
C. Mechanisms of Moisture Movement under Vacuum Dry-
ing
Technology
We can define the energy state of moisture in wood as Po-
tential and Kinetic energy. Since the flow of water within the
wood is very slow, the potential for kinetic energy is typical-
ly very low [9]. Water flows continuously towards a decreas-
ing potential energy. The moving force that creates moisture
is created by the decrease in potential energy with increasing
distance during the drying process. The wood is flooded with

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 Journal of Engineering Research, Vol. 8 [2024], Iss. 4, Art. 9

Journal of Engineering Research (JER)

ISSN: 2356-9441 Vol. 8 – No. 4, 2024 ©Tanta University, Faculty of Engineering e ISSN: 2735-4873

moisture as bound water in the cell wall capillary, water in ing force and mechanisms of moisture movement during the
liquid form, and water in gas form in the voids of wood as vacuum drying process that do not obey Fick's law[11]. The
shown in figure (3). Capillary water bulk flow is a reference effect of pressure on drying was not taken into account in
to the movement of liquid through the interconnected voids early studies. By increasing the permeability of the wood
and across the top of a hard surface because of molecules of using a steam explosion, the vacuum drying rate of this treat-
attraction that bind the liquid. In wood that is saturated, it has ed wood was higher than the drying rate of the sample with-
equilibrium with the capillary water at the same altitude. out such treatment at all moisture contents [12]. Permeability
of wood is the dominant factor in controlling moisture
movement in vacuum drying and bulk flow is thought to be
the way by which most moisture is removed from wood.
A vacuum dryer has recently relied on the use of total
pressure changes to determine the importance of the bulk
flow mass transfer mechanism in pasta at temperatures above
the boiling point of water [13]. Moisture transfer within hot
concrete at high temperature is called pressure driven flow.
Espinoza et al. [14] measured stresses within the wood dur-
ing radio frequency vacuum drying. They drilled holes in the
wood and inserted glass tubes connected to pressure gauges.
In addition to, they found that there was a difference in pres-
sure along the length and width while they were measuring
the pressure distribution. They were not able to compare the
pressure with the saturation pressure because they did not
measure the temperatures. Liu et al. [15] studied the drying
characteristics of thick lumber in a laboratory radio frequen-
cy vacuum dryer, they concluded that the temperature inside
each board is higher than its surface. Furthermore, they in-
Figure 3. Free Water Bulk Flow (Movement of Liquid Water) [10]
vestigated that appositive temperature gradient thus exists
The pressure is actually atmospheric and the suction power mostly along the length of the material and as a result, mois-
does not change. Untreated wood is subjected to suction or ture transfer from the central parts of the board is increased.
negative pressure, which corresponds to the negative pressure Most studies support the concept of a mechanism of moisture
potential. Water loss can occur up to a certain threshold when evaporation in wood during the drying process where the
larger pores begin to empty. The crucial section in soil sci- boiling temperature is reduced by vacuum. During the drying
ence is known as air quantity. As the suction power increas- process using radio frequency vacuum drying technology, the
es, more water will be absorbed from the wood. These en- temperature of the wood reaches the boiling point in a very
larged pores which cannot retain water drain through absorp- short time [16].
tion. Gradually increasing the suction power will empty the Chen and Lamb [17] proposed the concept of boiling front.
small pores. At temperatures near or above the boiling point They achieved that boiling not only occurs inside the wood,
of water, rapid steam production can lead to large gradients but there is also a boiling front. They found that the pressure
in total pressure, as well as partial gradients in vapor pres- is less than the saturation pressure and moisture evaporates in
sure. Water vapor moves between low and high pressure are- the region of the boiling front to the surface of the wood.
as with a difference in total pressure. It is like the free circu- Also, boiling does not occur through the boiling front to the
lation of large amounts of water. Gas permeability is the pri- center of the wood because the pressure inside the wood is
mary consideration in the mass flux of water vapor. Although higher than the saturation pressure. In addition to, they no-
the density of water vapor may be negligible, its volumetric ticed that the boiling front retreats from the surface towards
flow rate can be high at certain pressure ranges. A large the center as the drying process continues, and the speed of
amount of moisture can be transferred by increasing the flow retreat depends on the heat source and the properties of the
of water vapor. During vacuum drying, fluctuations in overall wood such as permeability and conductivity. Avramidis et al.
pressure within the wood cause large amounts of water vapor [15] found that the internal pressure gradient is also im-
to escape. There is a continuous flow of water vapor towards portant along the longitudinal direction during radio frequen-
the boiling zone due to the process of water evaporation. Re- cy vacuum drying. They concluded that moisture evaporates
cent work has focused on the theoretical aspects of the driv- from the end grains as a result of the large permeability in the

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 Elmetwaly et al.: Review of Wood Drying Technologies

Journal of Engineering Research (JER)

ISSN: 2356-9441 Vol. 8 – No. 4, 2024 ©Tanta University, Faculty of Engineering e ISSN: 2735-4873

longitudinal direction. This phenomenon also results in a es below fiber saturation point, capillary action will be cease
large temperature gradient along the longitudinal direction. and moisture movement is driven by diffusion of bound wa-
This may cause faster drying rates during the vacuum drying ter within cell walls. Diffusion is described as the random
technique. Sasaki et al. [18] They conducted a study on the molecular motion of single molecules in response to concen-
process of pressure change inside wood as the drying process tration gradient. Movement of water vapor is possible for
continues. They concluded that the pressure and time curves both above and below fiber saturation point and in accord-
are divided into three periods: In the initial period of the dry- ance to diffusion law where vapor partial pressure gradient is
ing process, the pressure drops rapidly depending on the the driving force.
permeability and location in the plate. In the second period of a. Reasons for drying wood
the compression process, the pressure remains almost con- There are two main reasons for drying wood:
stant. While in the third period, the pressure begins to de- Woodworking: when wood is used as a construction mate-
crease again approaching the low pressure in the room when rial whether as a structural support in a building or in wood
the moisture content is less than the fiber saturation point. In working objects it will absorb or desorb moisture until it is in
vacuum drying, the total pressure gradient within the wood is equilibrium with its surroundings. Equilibration too rapidly
a more important drying force than diffusion, unlike during (usually drying) causes unequal shrinkage and damage in the
the drying process using the conventional kiln technique. wood. So, the equilibration must be controlled to prevent
Srikiatden and Roberts [19]. They studied vacuum drying of wood damage.
foodstuffs at temperatures above the boiling point of water Wood burning: when wood is burned it is usually best to
and used total pressure differences within a porous medium dry it first. Damage from shrinkage is not a problem here and
to determine the importance of the bulk flow mass transfer the drying may proceed more rapidly than in the case of dry-
mechanism. The expected results were consistent with the ing for woodworking purposes. Moisture affects the burning
experimental results. Liu et al. [20] concluded that during the process with unburned hydrocarbons going up the chimney.
vacuum drying process moisture migrates in a gaseous (va- If a 50% wet log is burnt at high temperature with good heat
por) state when wood is dried under fiber saturation point and extraction from the exhaust gas leading to a 100 °C exhaust
they achieved that the drying force is the pressure difference temperature and about 5% of the energy of the log is wasted
between the vapor pressure in the Lumina and the ambient through evaporating and heating the water vapor. With con-
pressure. Moen and Martin [18] concluded that during the densers, the efficiency can be further increased but for the
drying process of hot wood under vacuum, the drying rate is normal stove the key to burning wet wood is to burn it very
accelerated due to the pressure-driven flow and the wood hot perhaps starting fire with dries wood [22].
surface releases significant heat through the evaporation of In general, wood should be dried to moisture content with-
water within the porous structure when it is exposed to low in two percent of its in use MC. For furniture, cabinetry,
pressure while at high temperatures, the pressure driven flow millwork and other products used in homes or offices the in
becomes a prevalent. use MC is 6% to 8 % (equivalent to 30% to 45% relative
D. Drying of wood humidity which is the typical range for interior climates in
In wood industry, drying of wood is the most energy ex- North America) [23]. Adjustments have to be made for drier
tensive process that incurs a lot of cost and time, enhances humidity such as occur during the winter in heated buildings
the mechanical properties and protects the wood against fun- that are not humidified and for wetter humidity such as along
gal attack. Drying of wood has been a major part of wood the Southern and West coast.
industry for many years. Freshly felled trees have relatively Usually no fungal attack occurs when wood MC is 20% or
high moisture content and they should be dried to a desirable less. Infected wood is sterilized at 65.56℃ or greater. Wood
level of moisture content usually below 20% [21]. Due to can be re-infected if rewetted. No insect attack at10% MC or
increasing of demand in quantity and quality of wood in re- less. Exceptions are dry wood termites and some beetles.
cent years, industries are starting to investigate the alternative Wood needs to be stress free with no checks or splits.
to improve production and quality of their products. So, it is Examples with target MCs:
important to study and understand the moisture movement - Laminated timber: (10-12) % MC
from the core of wet wood to the surface and the mechanism - Softwood plywood: (3-5) % MC
of vapor removal from surface of wood. Drying will remove - Furniture, interior millwork: (6-8) % MC
firstly unbound water because the weaker capillary force The relationship between humidity and wood moisture
holds unbound water. The moisture content at which all un- content is the critical factor in determining in use MCs. Tem-
bound water has been removed from cell cavities is called perature has no important effect. Based on spruce the follow-
fiber saturation point. When moisture content of wood reach- ing values were established:

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 Journal of Engineering Research, Vol. 8 [2024], Iss. 4, Art. 9

Journal of Engineering Research (JER)

ISSN: 2356-9441 Vol. 8 – No. 4, 2024 ©Tanta University, Faculty of Engineering e ISSN: 2735-4873

be divided into two categories: the commonly used proce-

dures of conventional kiln dryers and vacuum dryers. Alt-
hough the primary objective of all drying methods is to re-
move water from wood, the selection of a particular proce-
dure will depend on several other factors such as capital in-
Table 1. Approximate relationship between φ and EMC at room tem- vestment, energy sources, production capacity, drying effi-
perature ciency, and end product. The special drying techniques are
usually expensive and oriented to particular high-value end
Φ EMC products. Some of the more common methods of drying pro-
cesses are presented here.
a. Conventional kiln drying
-%- -%- A drying kiln is a room or chamber that provides an artifi-
cial environment which optimizes the drying process. Woods
0 0 are stacked in the same way as air drying but sometimes,
spring clamps or heavy weights are placed on the wood stack
to prevent drying defect. Throughout the drying process, a
15 3.5 sample of wood would be weighted to determine its moisture
content. Inside a conventional kiln, a recirculation system is
30 6 used to provide effective airflow. Heat is provided either
directly, using energy provided by fossil fuel or wood waste
50 9 or indirectly, using electrical heating element or using heat
from heated water or steam running through a heat exchanger
as shown in figure (4). Using a combined control of steam
65 12
sprayer and the power of heat source provides humidity con-
trol and temperature control. Kiln environment has to be
80 16 changed according to the moisture content of the wood which
normally follows a recommended schedule.
90 20

95 24

100 28
The reasons for drying of wood to this level of moisture
content are:
a) The mechanical properties of wood such as strength,
hardness, electrical resistance and thermal insulation are
better for dried wood.
b) Dry wood are less prone to insect, fungal infestation,
stain and decay.
c) Reduction of weight resulting in reduction of transporta-
tion cost.
d) Suitability for various finishing processes such as pol-
ishing and painting.
e) Shrinkage of dry wood are minimal hence, wood are Figure 4. Conventional kiln drying [25]
more dimensional stable.
E. Methods of wood drying b. Vacuum drying
Wood drying is a process that consumes a lot of ener- Vacuum kiln drying is a tube with very low air pressure
gy and requires a lot of time and cost. Drying of wood world used for drying process. At this pressure, moisture can evap-
consumed as much as 70% of total energy required in wood orate at much lower temperature as the boiling point of water
processing [24]. The various methods used to dry lumber can is lower as shown in figure (5). Dehumidifiers are used to

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 Elmetwaly et al.: Review of Wood Drying Technologies

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ISSN: 2356-9441 Vol. 8 – No. 4, 2024 ©Tanta University, Faculty of Engineering e ISSN: 2735-4873

extract moisture from circulating air and sometimes, heat able interest in most areas of industry and scientific research
sources are provided to accelerate drying. This process is in most countries of the world. Wood is theoretically dried by
expensive and only used for woods that require special evaporation of moisture at low boiling temperatures (usually
treatment in later stage. Vacuum drying can often be justified around 40°C). Many studies have been related to the vacuum
when drying thicker hardwoods. drying techniques, it have proven that drying time is signifi-
cantly reduced as a result of using the vacuum drying tech-
nique, especially for thick woods. Vacuum drying is often
used for high value species or large sized woods due to the
good drying quality resulting from the use of this technology.
However, little work has been done on the theoretical aspects
of vacuum drying. Water moves within the wood through
bulk flow and diffusion. In general, moisture movement at
moisture content (MC) above the fiber saturation point (FSP)
is controlled by free water bulk flow (FWBF) and diffusion
controls moisture movement at MC below FSP. Little infor-
mation is known about the total water vapour bulk flow
(WVBF) driven by the total pressure difference. Water va-
pour bulk flow depends strongly on the gas permeability of
the wood. In vacuum drying, a mass of water vapour flows
from the centre to the surface through the total pressure dif-
Figure 5. Vacuum kiln drying ference within the wood. It is necessary to study water va-
The vacuum drying technology of wood is not a new tech- pour bulk flow in vacuum drying when water diffusion is not
nology it has been used since 1904, in this wood drying tech- completely controlled. It is well documented that permeabil-
nology timber is placed inside an airtight vessel as shown in ity affects the rate of vacuum drying, and that wood is more
figure (6). Hence, after a long heating period water vapour permeable in the longitudinal direction than in the transverse
from timber is quickly removed until a more or less perfect directions [27].
vacuum is obtained and cycle of heating vacuum is repeated Generally, the drying process involves removing water and
until the timber is dried to the required extent [26]. In vacu- supplying heat to the wood, both of which affect the rate of
um drying process, wood dries below atmospheric pressure, vacuum drying. Since it is important to know how vacuum
this condition at which water boils at a lower temperature. drying works. This in turn will help to understand the effect
Faster drying is particularly relevant in a production envi- of sample length and thickness on the drying rate. It is not
ronment where time and volume flexibility have become known how much water is transported longitudinally and
important competitive advantages [14]. Today, vacuum dry- removed from the surface of the finished grain during vacu-
ing of wood is limited mainly to specialty applications, such um drying. Vacuum drying is rapid and the drying rate is
as drying of very thick timber. determined by the heat source, which in turn is controlled by
the ambient temperature. The drying rate increases with in-
creasing ambient temperature, which leads to an increased
rate of evaporation from the wood surface. It is interesting to
note the effect of lowering the ambient temperature to room
temperature on the vacuum drying rate. Although vacuum
drying greatly reduces drying time, surface inspection and
internal inspection remain a major problem. In addition to
using the vacuum drying process, the moisture gradient along
the thickness is very steep and higher than using traditional
drying [28]. In order to understand the cause of defects such
as screening, the mechanism of vacuum drying must be stud-
ied. This has been increasing steadily in the past decade, es-
Figure 6. Schematic Diagram of Vacuum Drying Unit pecially for drying valuable species. Since the vacuum drying
process takes place at low drying temperatures with a high
In the near future, it is expected that there will be an in- drying rate, almost as fast as high temperature drying over
crease in vacuum drying, which has recently gained remark- 100°C [29], which in turn increases its usability.

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 Journal of Engineering Research, Vol. 8 [2024], Iss. 4, Art. 9

Journal of Engineering Research (JER)

ISSN: 2356-9441 Vol. 8 – No. 4, 2024 ©Tanta University, Faculty of Engineering e ISSN: 2735-4873

In this paper, [Researchers have claimed other advantages

from drying under vacuum that are discussed later in this
paper, So the main objective of this paper is to comprehen-
sively review the scientific literature about vacuum drying of
wood, including major technologies, mechanisms of drying
under vacuum, vacuum drying efficiency and improving the
performance of vacuum dryers in terms of energy consump-
tion].
II. Basics Of Vacuum Drying
A. History of Vacuum Drying
The history of the vacuum drying of wood can be traced
back to early 1920's and a patent on the vacuum drying sys-
tem of wood was registered in 1922 in Sweden [30]. In 1962,
the first industrial vacuum dryer using cyclic technology was
built [31]. In 1964, a small dryer was made with the electric
resistance plates working under a continuous vacuum. Dryer
with hot air heating was developed for the first time. The
first radio frequency vacuum dryer was built in the early
1970's [32].
Recently, it has gained a renewed interest in both industry
Figure 7. Water saturation vapor pressure over a flat water surface [34]
and research. An increase in vacuum drying is expected in
the near future, especially in Europe and Asia. The technolo- C. Main Vacuum Drying Techniques
gy of vacuum drying refers that the lumber is placed in a Wood drying technology which using vacuum drying sys-
tight drying chamber and the vacuum system pulls a vacuum tems can be divided into main three types depending on the
on the lumber. Wood is theoretically dried by evaporation of method of heat transfer to wood:
moisture at low boiling temperatures and when the wood • Conductive heating methods such as hot plate vacuum
reaches the required temperature, a vacuum is drawn over the drying.
wood. The drying process continues until the drying rate be- • Convection heating methods such as superheated steam
comes very small by repeating the cycle several times. Re- vacuum.
searchers have done a great deal of experimental work in • Cyclic vacuum drying such as radio frequency or mi-
recent decades on vacuum drying of wood. crowaves vacuum drying.
B. Definition of Vacuum Drying Wood drying techniques are evaluated based on the de-
The wood is placed in a sealed drying chamber during the gree of reduction in drying time, adequate drying quality,
vacuum drying process and then the vacuum drying system efficient energy use and reasonable drying costs [14]. Vari-
draws a vacuum on the wood so that the water in the wood ous major wood drying technologies and their performance
boils and is drawn out of the wood [33]. In fact, vacuum dry- are discussed in this section.
ing depends on the fact that by decreasing the atmospheric a. Conductive Heating Vacuum Drying
pressure above the wood, the boiling point of water is signif- In conductive heating wood vacuum drying, heat is trans-
icantly reduced. The relationship between saturation vapor ferred to the wood by direct contact with a heated surface
pressure and temperature is approximated by the Clausius- such as “Hot plate” vacuum drying technique, in which
Clapeyron equation (1) [34]: planks of wood are placed between metal plates (usually al-
uminium for rapid heat transfer) that are heated by a hot liq-
L 1 1 uid flowing through them as shown in figure (8).
es = eo exp [ ∗( − )] (1)
Rv To T

Where; the water vapor gas constant is R v =461 J/K.kg,

To =273.15 K, e0 =0.6113kpa and L is latent heat parame-
ter. Temperature in this equation must have units of kelvin.
This relation is graphically presented in figure (7).

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 Elmetwaly et al.: Review of Wood Drying Technologies

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under low pressure conditions and forced through layers of

wood. Heating can be achieved by convection and continu-
ous vacuum drying process. This process is known as super-
heated steam vacuum drying or thermal vacuum drying as
shown in figure (9). Superheated steam has better heat trans-
fer properties than heated air at the same temperature [37].

Figure 8. Schematic Diagram of Conductive Heating Vacuum Dryer

This system provides uniform heating of the wood and

good control of the temperatures which are used. However,
loading and unloading the kiln is time consuming, if done
manually and the panels require periodic maintenance or
replacement which increases the cost. Therefore, some fur-
nace manufacturers offer automatic systems for stacking Figure 9. Schematic of superheated steam drying operation
wood and hot plates. The hot plate vacuum drying technique However, steam under vacuum has a lower heat capacity
has been used to dry oak wood by many researchers and this (due to lower density) and drying rates are lower than hot
type of wood is susceptible to checking, distortion and stains humid air as in conventional drying. This can be compen-
during drying. Researchers achieved much faster drying rates sated by circulating air at high speeds of about 10 m/s, and
for vacuum-dried oak than with conventional drying, 20% to by frequent fan reversals [38]. The “reversal temperature” of
50% shorter for 40 mm thick oak and 243% to 433% faster superheated steam (when the steam temperature exceeds the
for 28 mm thick red oak [35]. The two and a half inch thick reversal point the superheated steam vacuum drying speed
oak (51 mm surface) was also dried in 300 hours to obtain exceeds the air drying speed) was observed when drying 100
satisfactory quality. Chen and Lamb [17] were able to x 100 x 40 mm Mason pine with initial moisture contents
achieve drying rates between 0.32% and 2.2% per hour for ranging from 140% to 147%. Some of the advantages of su-
green red oak, where the drying rate was dependent on the perheated steam vacuum drying mentioned in the literature
sample size. Autengruber et al.[36] investigated a finite ele- include energy savings due to the potential to recycle latent
ment based on moisture transport model for wood including heat of steam via condensation and improved drying quality
free water above the fiber saturation point and they conclud- by reducing case hardening, warping and splits [39]. One
ed that: The exchange processes between the three different disadvantage of superheated steam vacuum drying is that
water phases were defined explicitly for the description of the similar to conventional drying which produce high values of
evaporation or condensation rate and a new water vapor con- final MC in the kiln coincide with regions of relatively low
centration dependent reaction function was introduced, the air velocity [14]. Khouya et al. [40] found that beech, spruce
numerical implementation of the processes in the user ele- and Scots pine dried three times faster at superheated steam
ment is modular and future improvements of infiltration vacuum than at atmospheric pressure and the drying times for
models can easily be implemented into the proposed model oak wood did not differ from conventional drying times.
and the developed model was able to describe seven different However, more than 45% of beech and oak were dried in a
validation experiments and simulations for both drying and similar manner which leads the authors to believe that the
infiltration situations quite well and numerically stable. vacuum only accelerates the hygroscopic drying process. The
b. Convection with Steam at high Temperatures Vacuum researchers suspect that when the superheated steam vacuum
Drying (Superheated Steam Vacuum Dryer) dries out, the air in the cavity keeps the pressure high and
During this vacuum drying technique superheated steam preventing the water from boiling. Thick (100*100*40 mm)
(water vapor at a temperature above the boiling point) is used

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pine wood is dried at an undisclosed rate faster than conven-

tional drying [41].
Rubber wood was found to dry 8.4 times faster using su-
perheated steam vacuum compared to traditional methods.
Although faster drying rates 30%to40% higher were
achieved using superheated steam vacuum compared to con-
ventional drying of pine and birch Radiata wood [42], a
greater variation in the final moisture content of wood dried
by superheated steam vacuum was observed. It has been sug-
gested that the greater variation in moisture content was due
to a greater temperature drop via convection most likely due
to fan non-reversal. In the same experiment, shrinkage was
measured and the values were lower for vacuum drying as
the volumetric shrinkage of 5% MC. Green reached 12% and
13% for vacuum drying and conventional drying of planted
birch plantations and respectively 12.8% or 13.4% for sawn
wood from natural forests [43]. Australian eucalyptus plant-
ings dry 60% faster than conventional drying. However, there
was a need to improve the quality of the wood which the
authors believe could be achieved by controlling drying con-
ditions. In order to better understand and optimize the pro-
cess, mathematical models for superheated steam vacuum
drying have been developed [44]. Ananias et al. [45] mod-
elled superheated steam vacuum drying of radiation pine and
validated the model by experimental operation at 0.2 bar (20
kPa) and 70 °C. Alustondo et al. [46] evaluated three super- Figure 10. Schematic of radio frequency vacuum drying operation
heated steam vacuum drying models and they found that the
High-frequency vacuum (RFV) drying is performed at fre-
most accurate model is based on heat transfer and moisture
quencies below (100 MHz) RFV drying involves exposing
migration where the drying rate is proportional to the wet
wood to an alternating electromagnetic field which causing
bulb depression and the difference between the actual mois-
polar water molecules in the wood to move in the direction of
ture content and the equilibrium moisture content.
the changing field. These movements absorb energy that is
c. Dielectric Heating Vacuum Drying
released in the form of heat and this phenomenon increases
a) Dielectric Heating Vacuum Drying the temperature of the wood to such an extent that the driving
In the radio frequency vacuum (RFV) drying process, forces for moisture migration are stimulated. The intensity of
wood insulation can be placed between electrodes or metal heating depends on the moisture content of the wood and the
sheets as shown in figure (10). When a radio frequency elec- electric field and the movement of moisture depends on the
trical charge is produced these molecules periodically change permeability and internal pressure gradient. In contrast to
their direction which causing rapid movement of the mole- conventional drying, in radio frequency vacuum drying ener-
cules. In this process, radio frequency generates significant gy transfer as the main resistance above the fiber saturation
temperature in the wood at a short time. point becomes negligible as vacuum enhances internal mass
transfer due to pressure differences. The mass transfer mech-
anisms are capillary and mass flow above the fiber saturation
point and limited water diffusion below the fiber saturation
point. Heat transfer is also very effective in radio frequency
vacuum drying, so internal stresses can build up quickly ex-
ceeding the mechanical strength of the wood fibers. Drying
programs for RFV drying depend largely on an energy densi-
ty limit (energy per unit volume of wood usually expressed in
kWh/m3). In fact, the rate of energy absorption is proportion-
al to the electrode potentials and the energy density depends

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 Elmetwaly et al.: Review of Wood Drying Technologies

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on the type (permeability) and is also affected by the cross cy. The model was able to illustrate the idea of “drying from
section of the material to be dried. As wood dries, energy the inside out” and increase the drying speed while increas-
loss decreases which was a measure of the material's ability ing the gas permeability of the wood. Finally, the model pro-
to absorb heat in an electromagnetic field which in turn slows vided a basis for classifying the difficulties of drying species
the drying process. Therefore, there were two ways to control using radio frequency vacuum drying [52].
the drying speed: by constant or variable voltage and the lat- In general, studies have shown that the use of RFV drying
ter can be implemented gradually or in stages. Several meth- leads to shorter drying times and reduced MC fluctuations,
ods have been proposed to monitor drying conditions during ultimately leading to higher economic returns. When compar-
RFV drying. ing RFV to conventional drying of lumber and filled frame
Zhang et al. [47] found that for hemlock squares wood, pieces with pieces cut before and after drying by both meth-
when the tension remains constant the wood loss factor de- ods the highest yields were achieved when raw wood was
creases as the MC decreases which slowing the drying rate. dried with RFV and then cut into pieces. Radio frequency
This can be compensated for by increasing the tension thus vacuum drying produced less deformation than conventional
keeping the energy density per unit volume of wood constant. drying which the researchers attributed to lower shrinkage of
Drying times were 80% shorter than conventional drying materials dried with radio frequency vacuum drying [53].
times and the final MC along the samples was between 12% b) Microwave Vacuum Drying
and 16%. There was no internal, final or surface control and Microwaves are another form of dielectric heating that oc-
no collapse or internal stress when power density less than 10 curs at frequencies above 300 MHz that can be used as a
kW/m3. Xiao et al. [48] reported that the relative humidity is wood drying technique [54]. Unlike conventional drying in
affected by the dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures and the microwave vacuum drying where almost the entire drying
difference between the air temperature and the water temper- process goes through a period of constant drying rate which
ature in the condenser. The relative humidity is only slightly appears to be less than the average moisture content and less
affected by the pressure. Cai and Hayashi [49] used tempera- than the fiber saturation point [55]. Compared to radio fre-
ture and pressure measurements in wood as a means of moni- quencies, microwaves have a shorter and more uniform
toring MC during RFV drying. Their measurements were wavelength which leads to faster drying, primarily due to the
very close to those obtained using the oven drying method higher energy density. Microwave vacuum drying has been
with absolute errors ranging from 0.8% to 1.8% depending used successfully for drying beech, oak and Scots pine. Limi-
on the position in the cross section. A similar study used the tation of using standard microwaves for heating is poor pene-
relationship between temperature, pressure and EMC for real tration especially for low loss materials. To solve this prob-
time MC measurement under RFV drying, as the authors lem, the researchers proposed using a continuous process. A
concluded that their method could be used on MC under FSP continuous process using a conveyor belt moving through the
and that the measurement accuracy was not affected by the chamber at a speed of 20 m/hour has been successfully used
drying schedule or by the measurement location [50]. Kou- to dry beech and oak wood from 32% to 8% MC and from
moutsakos et al. [51] described the development and experi- 79% to 12% MC within 120 to 360 second [56].
mental validation of a one dimensional mathematical model III. Efficiency in Vacuum Drying
for simulating RFV drying transport phenomena. Their mod- Wood drying requires energy to evaporate and remove wa-
el derived and solved the initial heat and mass transfer equa- ter from the wood surface. In addition, energy is needed to
tions, taking into account internal heat generation and the heat the material, compensate for energy loss and move the
effect of pressure gradients in the gas phase. It has been air. Vacuum drying is more energy efficient than traditional
shown that the one dimensional model can satisfactorily pre- methods because it is a closed system that does not require
dict the average MC and drying time. Wood drying by RFV ventilation and requires lower drying temperatures.
was then modeled based on heat and mass transfer theory and Elustondo et al. [52] developed a mathematical model to es-
conservation equations. The model calculated each inde- timate the energy efficiency (the percentage of electromag-
pendent variable independently and curves were calculated netic energy actually used to produce water vapor) of radio
for different parts of the wood sample. Simulated data for frequency vacuum drying. The energy required for water
MC and temperature were compared with experimental re- evaporation divided by the total energy transferred to the
sults using Sugi wood and the researchers came to the con- wood varied from 36% to 81% for wood with a cross section
clusion that their model adequately describes the drying be- of 105 × 230 to 310 × 310 mm. The energy efficiency of
haviour. In another experiment, the dielectric energy conver- microwave vacuum drying of beech, spruce and maple trees
sion in evaporating water was modeled using well known was estimated by Leiker and Adamska [57] and was between
heat and mass transfer equations to predict thermal efficien-

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ISSN: 2356-9441 Vol. 8 – No. 4, 2024 ©Tanta University, Faculty of Engineering e ISSN: 2735-4873

70% and 80% during most of the drying process. Seyfarth et um chamber. The chamber then activates the low pressure
al. [56] attempted continuous microwave vacuum drying and system. The boiling point decreases as the pressure increases.
found that the electrical energy consumption was similar to Therefore, drying temperatures can be controlled thermostat-
that of conventional drying. A special drying process called ically to maintain product integrity. In order for pilot dryers
the "Muldrop process" which uses extremely hot steam under to make a special contribution to increasing efficiency, there
vacuum has been proven to use 55% less electricity to dry are initially equipped with a vacuum chamber inside which
pine or spruce on moisture content between 80% to 18% and there are directly heated frames, usually made of stainless
72% less electricity to dry 50mm Pine. The energy require- steel which facilitates the dissipation of high heat towards the
ments for commercial scale radio frequency vacuum drying material to be dried. Heating plates and heating racks play a
were calculated based on the energy required to remove a vital role in the drying processes within a vacuum dryer.
given amount of water (kWh/kg water). It has been found There are often made of stainless steel and ensure tempera-
that vacuum drying of 101 mm thick wood consumes 83% ture uniformity which is a crucial factor when working with
less energy than drying 50 mm thick wood in a conventional heat sensitive materials. Direct heat transfer from these com-
kiln and 20% to 60% less energy is used for moisture drying ponents to the dry materials ensures that drying temperatures
(including drying 50 mm thick wood) [58]. remain constant, preventing product damage as the heat is
Avramidis and Zwick [59] showed that as efficiency de- provided by a medium flowing through tubes inside the heat-
creases the energy cost increases exponentially and linearly ing plates. The medium is usually hot water, steam or thermal
with the initial moisture content and gradually decreases with oil. Generally, we can illustrate most equations used for es-
increasing absorbed energy density (kW/m3). timating energy efficiency and drying efficiency for different
IV. Improving the Performance of Vacuum Dryers in dryers through the following equations [62]:
Terms of Energy Consumption Energy efficiency (ηe ) at any time during the drying pro-
The drying process consumes large amounts of energy for cess can be calculated by equation “(5)”[63]:
Eev
several reasons, the most important of which is the wide- ηe = ( )∗ 100 (5)
EU
spread use of drying technology in most industrial applica-
tions, as a typical thermal dryer is expected to consume at Where, Eev [kJ] Energy consumed to evaporate moisture from
least 1 MW of thermal energy per ton of evaporation [60]. drying samples, EU[kJ] is Total energy consumption. The
So, many companies view dryers as popular targets in their energy consumed to evaporate moisture from drying samples
energy conservation programs. The recent escalation in the (Eev ) at any time during the drying period can be calculated
price of oil and natural gas has naturally provided an added from equation”(6)”[64]:
incentive.
Eev = hfg ∗ Mw (6)
The thermal efficiency of a dryer can be expressed in sev-
eral ways. A typical measure is: Where, hfg [kJ/kg] Latent heat of vaporization and Mw [kg] is
Q
η= 100 ev (2) the mass of evaporated water from the product.
Qhtr Drying efficiency (De) for the drying process can be calcu-
Where, Q htr refers to the total rate at which thermal ener- lated from equation “(7)”[65]:
gy is supplied to the dryer and Q ev is required to provide the
latent heat of evaporation. Alternatively, the specific energy Eev +Eheating
consumption Es of the dryer is defined as the thermal energy De = ( ) (7)
EU
required for evaporation unit mass of water:
Qhtr Where, (De) Drying efficiency of the drying process,
Q = 0.001 (3)
ѡev Eev [kJ] is the energy consumed to evaporate moisture from
Where, ѡev refers to the evaporation rate. Baker and drying samples and Eheating [kJ] is the energy for the material
McKenzie [61] showed that the specific energy consumption heating where we can calculate it from equation” (8)”[66]:
Es,a of such a dryer is not fixed in the absolute sense, but
rather that it depended on the temperature and humidity of Eheating = Wd Cm ∆T (8)
the outlet air:
Where, Wd [kg]The mass of the dry material, ∆T[K] is the
To − Ta
EUs,a = 0.001 [Cpg ( ) + λref ] temperature difference and Cm [kJ/kg. K] is the specific heat
Yo − Ya of the material where we can calculate it for microwave vac-
=Cpgξ+λref (4) uum drying from equation” (9)”[67]:
Vacuum dryers are the mainstay of production. Heat sensi-
tive materials are placed in trays on separate racks in a vacu-

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Cm =
4.18WCp ∆P
(9) • In the longitudinal direction there is greater water migra-
t tion.
Where, w [kg]is the weight loss, ∆P [mbar] is the differential Major advantages of wood vacuum drying technology re-
pressure and t [min] is the drying time. Although, we can ported in the literature are:
calculate Cm for infrared vacuum drying from equation” • Drying process occurs at lower temperatures than con-
(10)”[67]: ventional drying (which in turn may lead to less drying
defects).
MP
Cm = 1465 + 3560 ( ) (10) • Drying times are reduced greatly (especially for hard-
1+MP
woods and very large sections) in addition to improving
Where, MP [kg water /kg solid ] is the particle moisture content color preservation.
which we can calculate it from equation” (11)”[68]: • Vacuum drying technology has higher energy efficiency
Ww −Wd (because of the dramatically reduced heat losses).
MP = (11) • Vacuum drying has a better control of volatile organic
Wd
Where, Ww [kg] stands for the initial mass and Wd [kg] rep- compound emissions in addition to dry very large cross
resents the mass of the dry sample. sections.
The low pressure environment inside the chamber reduces Any drying technology’s attractiveness for the industry is
the boiling point of the solvent to be dried from the raw ma- greatly affected by the economics and energy efficiency of
terial to be dried which leads to improving the efficiency of vacuum drying, knowing that little research has addressed
the drying process as the vacuum conditions inside the dryer this part during vacuum drying process. Many companies
accelerate the moisture removal process at lower tempera- will have to pay attention to studying vacuum drying more
tures and pressures than traditional drying methods. This widely in order to provide more customized products to the
ensures faster drying in addition to enhance the efficiency of market and reduce the energy consumed in the drying pro-
the process. Vacuum dryers have much lower energy con- cess in order to save fuel and preserve the environment.
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