Heat treatments of wood fibers for self-bonding and stabilized fiberboards

Heat treatment of wood fibers in a closed press for 4 and 8 minutes and pressed into fiberboards greatly reduces moisture regain and increases dimensional stability of the boards. Part of the hemicellulose sugars are lost during the steam treatment and furan intermediates were detected. Mannose, galactose, xylose, arabinose and rhamnose were partially lost during the steaming process. The steam treated boards have lower strength as compared to adhesive added boards but they do not fall apart when placed in water.