Drying of Oil Palm Lumber by Combining Forced-Air Drying and Modified Super- Fast Drying Methods

In this study, super-fast drying (SFD) method was modified by adding forced-air drying (AFD) method in the beginning stage. The modified drying method is called modified super-fast drying (MSFD). This method eliminates the holing process in SFD and makes it more favourable by wood-based manufacturers. Inner and outer portion of oil palm lumber (OPL) were segregated and dried using both SFD and MSFD methods. The drying rate and drying defects of the OPL dried with AFD method were compared with conventional air drying (AD) method. The OPL dried with MSFD were compared with SFD in terms of drying defects, rate, physical and mechanical properties. The results revealed that AFD method exhibited significantly effective drying rate compared to AD by shorten the time needed to achieve desired moisture content (MC). On the other hand, MSFD were found to be able to reduce the outer OPL to 10% within 3 hr. The SFD method reported the same rate of drying performance. However, MSFD did not involve the unfavourable holing process as in SFD method. In addition, OPL dried using MSFD exhibited better mechanical and physical properties than SFD. The findings suggested the MSFD method is an enhanced method compared to SFD method. (author)