Progress 07/01/18 to 06/30/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience included the International Plant Protection Convention and all participating National Plant Protection Organizations, the wood products industry, international shipping companies, USDA/APHIS, and the wood science community. Additional audiences include scientists and the public concerned with preventing or mitigating the spread of invasive species around the world through shipping materials. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our project has provided an opportunity to the postdoc (Dr. Karolina Szymona) to travel with Dr. Mark Gagnon across the country and learn about the pallet industry: its needs, challenges, and business models. She was mentored by other participants of the project learning about Dielectric Heating wood treatment and ISPM-15 regulation. Working closely with Kiln Tech Limited and its CEO and founder, Mark Hamelin; she acquired specific skills related to preparing and operating RF unit for dielectric heating of wood in compliance with ISPM-15. She also led a group of undergraduate students on their project for the course ENGR 426: Invention Commercialization and gave a presentation at two International Forest Quarantine Research Group meetings about our research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Due to restrictions related to a pending patent application, we have not yet published our findings. However, the patent on this RFP Technology was issued recently and we are now writing papers to submit on this work. In the interim, the most relevant results were presented during the International Forest Quarantine Research Group (IFQRG) meeting, attended by scientists and industry representatives from around the world, in the form of PowerPoint presentations. The following presentations were introduced to the audience: IFQRG meeting in 2018 in Rome, Italy: 1. Commercial Assessment of Radio Frequency Heat Treatment for Pallet Manufacturer ISPM-15 Compliance, and 2. Developments in Radio Frequency Heat Treatment for Pallet Manufacturer ISPM-15 Compliance. IFQRG meeting in 2019 in Brazil, Curitiba: 3. Commercial Viability Findings from Select Manufacturer Engagements with Advanced Commercial Scale Radio Frequency (RF) Dielectric System in the U.S. Pallet Industry, and 4. Radio Frequency Heat Treatment of Recycled Pallet Components for ISPM-15 Compliance. We initiated contact with many pallet manufacturers to gather information about the market, and we visited several of them, learned about their business model, and educated them about the new dielectric heating treatment technology. It resulted in ongoing collaboration, providing a stream of feedback, and helps us better understand what pallet treaters/manufacturers expect towards the emerging method. We coordinated site visits to Kamps headquarters, and a subsequent follow-up visit to Kamps Detroit. On these visits, we discussed the project and commenced our data collection through direct inquiry and operational observation. Another Pallet manufacturer that we visited was John Rock; we met the Safety and Risk Manager of the facility. After our site visit, we corresponded with Mr. Rock to enrich our understanding of the potential for RFP heat treatment adoption; his company was recommended by the National Wooden Pallet and Container Association as receptive to innovation. After we contacted the Strategic Project Manager at Remmey, we visited another medium-size pallet facility located in Beaver Springs, PA. Reports describing our findings were presented to each of the visited facility contacts, leading to feedback and additional dialogue with industry representatives. The project's website includes a technical brief encouraging pallet manufacturers and treaters to contact us with any questions they might have about the technology. A brief introduction to the RF Technology was included in the article printed in Pallet Central by The National Wooden Pallet & Container Association: Radio Frequency Dielectric Heating for Pallet Sanitization, November 2019. The article's purpose was to bring the technology closer to the industry and enhance the understanding of treating wood pallets with the radio frequency method.Due to restrictions related to a pending patent application, we have not yet published our findings. However, the patent on this RFP Technology was issued recently and we are now writing papers to submit on this work. In the interim, the most relevant results were presented during the International Forest Quarantine Research Group (IFQRG) meeting, attended by scientists and industry representatives from around the world, in the form of PowerPoint presentations. The following presentations were introduced to the audience: IFQRG meeting in 2018 in Rome, Italy: 1. Commercial Assessment of Radio Frequency Heat Treatment for Pallet Manufacturer ISPM-15 Compliance, and 2. Developments in Radio Frequency Heat Treatment for Pallet Manufacturer ISPM-15 Compliance. IFQRG meeting in 2019 in Brazil, Curitiba: 3. Commercial Viability Findings from Select Manufacturer Engagements with Advanced Commercial Scale Radio Frequency (RF) Dielectric System in the U.S. Pallet Industry, and 4. Radio Frequency Heat Treatment of Recycled Pallet Components for ISPM-15 Compliance. We initiated contact with many pallet manufacturers to gather information about the market, and we visited several of them, learned about their business model, and educated them about the new dielectric heating treatment technology. It resulted in ongoing collaboration, providing a stream of feedback, and helps us better understand what pallet treaters/manufacturers expect towards the emerging method. We coordinated site visits to Kamps headquarters, and a subsequent follow-up visit to Kamps Detroit. On these visits, we discussed the project and commenced our data collection through direct inquiry and operational observation. Another Pallet manufacturer that we visited was John Rock; we met the Safety and Risk Manager of the facility. After our site visit, we corresponded with Mr. Rock to enrich our understanding of the potential for RFP heat treatment adoption; his company was recommended by the National Wooden Pallet and Container Association as receptive to innovation. After we contacted the Strategic Project Manager at Remmey, we visited another medium-size pallet facility located in Beaver Springs, PA. Reports describing our findings were presented to each of the visited facility contacts, leading to feedback and additional dialogue with industry representatives. The project's website includes a technical brief encouraging pallet manufacturers and treaters to contact us with any questions they might have about the technology. A brief introduction to the RF Technology was included in the article printed in Pallet Central by The National Wooden Pallet & Container Association: Radio Frequency Dielectric Heating for Pallet Sanitization, November 2019. The article's purpose was to bring the technology closer to the industry and enhance the understanding of treating wood pallets with the radio frequency method. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Our long-term goal is to expedite broad-scale adoption of radiofrequency/pressurization (RFP) technology as a sustainable, economically competitive solution to replace MB for the treatment of WPM used in international trade, which was approved under ISPM-15. Our experiments to accomplish our goals involved bulk treatment of raw wood that can be used to construct crates and pallets. To accomplish our goal, we completed multiple commercial-scale experiments, using a radio frequency with pressurization unit (RFP) with a fully integrated pressure/vacuum and RF system built by a Canadian company (RF Kiln Technology) and installed in our research lab at PSU in October 2017. The ~3.0 cubic meter prototype (6.86 MHz, 50-kW heating output capacity) can bulk treat up to 1200 bd ft. at one time, representing a real-world commercial operation. Each treating cycle represents the rough equivalent of ISPM-15 sanitized raw material sufficient to build 82 standard 42" x48" Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) pallets widely used for international shipping of commerce goods. We found that a thermal liner added to the unit vessel's chamber walls helps prevent significant thermal heat energy losses during the phytosanitary heating cycle. Over several months, we tried various technologies to reduce these energy losses to the workload, and we have found several potential solutions that are very effective. These solutions produce significant treatment cost savings by reducing energy consumption and improving processing efficiency. Although RFP heating provides the advantage of volumetric heating of the large bulk of wood components, we found that the smaller cross-section of the material provides the benefit of better redistribution of the moisture throughout the pack of the material because moisture content was randomized throughout the workload. To improve the heating time of larger cross-section material, such as blocks, we investigated various configurations of wood grain placement relative to electrodes and its influence on the heating rate and heating uniformity. The end-grain part of the load showed substantially higher temperatures compared to the flat-wise oriented blocks. We learned that edge-wise directional placement of the wood material resulted in a slower temperature increase than in other wood load sections that were oriented flat-wise relative to the electrode surface. We investigated the heating behavior of mixed wood species components, which is common in the industry and allowed for randomization of dielectric properties throughout the pack of wood material. Temperature sensor readings and thermal images were taken after the treatment and showed that temperature depended more on location in the stack than on species of the sample. With RFP unit technical development, our team has been conducting cost/benefit analyses. For our 1200 bd ft RFP unit, we estimated the energy cost of treatment at $0.12 per pallet. However, based on an experiment conducted using a larger 6000 bd ft unit, we estimated the potential cost of optimized treatment at $0.05/pallet. We also developed the innovation of using a reflective/insulation liner in the treating chamber to reduce the cost of treatment by reducing thermal irradiation energy transfer to the steel cylinder vessel walls, reflecting the thermal radiation to the workload. To promote the RFP Technology and collect data to obtain the cost/benefit analyses, we met with pallet manufacturing companies, including our long-term industry partner Penn Pallet in St. Marys, PA. We established new relationships with Kamps Pallets Inc. in Grand Rapids, MI, Kamps Pallets in Detroit, MI, John Rock in Coatesville, PA, and Remmey, Beaver Springs, PA. We have been arranging further collaborations to perform phytosanitary treatment trials that can include feedback from the industry to ensure our invention can accommodate the commercial wood packaging market. In discussions with pallet manufacturers and wood packaging treaters, we are verifying the possibility of implementing the RFP kiln as an in-line system for solid wood packaging component phytosanitation. Another valuable outcome of the direct conversations with the industry brought to our attention that a considerable part of the pallet market builds pallets from recycled materials. Pallets made from recycled and damaged wood material have become a big part of the industry. These materials can be RF heated to phytosanitize them for manufacture reuse as pallet replacement components. We demonstrated successful ISPM-15 treatment of recycled deck and stringer materials from discarded and deconstructed pallets. These materials included residual staples to greater ferrous metal content nail fasteners and, depending on the pallet storage, very high to dry states of water moisture (wood % MC). There were air gaps, nail parts, and lots of residual ferrous metal fasteners remaining in the material, which might cause electrical arching. Despite this concern, the results were very encouraging. We saw no post-treatment evidence of this problem. In the fall of 2019, we started a set of experiments that included data collection on direct treating and post-treating heating behavior to establish dielectric certification procedures for implementing the ISPM-15 DH (dielectric heating). PSU and USDA researchers, along with RF Kiln Tech Limited, proposed and performed initial tests to collect RFP treatment data to support a US-Canadian Bilateral Agreement. This proposed agreement will be submitted to US and Canadian NPPO officials to advance dielectric heating technology (RFP in this case) with an established protocol suitable for the RFP dielectric treating certification process for North American commercial applications. Our goal in working with the American Lumber Standards Committee and Canadian Lumber Standards Accreditation Bureau is to maintain an open dialogue for their comments and/or feedback to develop the protocols that will be used to certify equipment installed in industrial locations in compliance with ISPM-15. It will be the first RFP technology certified anywhere globally as an ISPM-15 compliant unit, and products treated by this unit will legally bear the ISPM-15 DH stamp.
Publications
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Progress 07/01/19 to 06/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences include the International Plant Protection Convention and all participating National Plant Protection Organizations, the wood products industry, international shipping companies, USDA/APHIS, and the wood science community. Additional audiences include scientists and the public concerned with preventing or mitigating the spread of exotic species around the world through shipping materials. Specifically, we have been communicating and establishing working relationships with pallet manufacturing companies, including our long-term industry partner Penn Pallet in St. Marys, PA, Kamps Pallets Inc. in Grand Rapids, MI, Kamps Pallets in Detroit, MI, John Rock in Coatesville, PA, and Remmey, Beaver Springs, PA. We have been arranging further collaborations to perform phytosanitary treatment trials that can include feedback from the industry to ensure our invention can accommodate the commercial wood packaging market.We will continue engaging with the PhillaPort to bring about the use of RF to sanitize dunnage at US ports. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our postdoc (Karolina Szymona) has been traveling with the ag economist (Dr. Mark Gagnon) on the project to meet with pallet manufacturers and she is learning about the industry and business development whilegathering information about the pallet production process to access RFP treatment feasibility in comparison to established conventional heating treatment.She also lead a group of undergradate students on their project for the courseENGR 426: Invention Commercialization and gave a presentation at the International Forest Quarantine Research Group meeting giving a presentation about our research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Based on our findings, our research team gave two presentations at the annual IFQRG (International Forestry Quarantine Research Group) meeting in 2019 in Brazil, Curitiba: 1.Commercial ViabilityFindings from Select Manufacturer Engagements with Advanced Commercial Scale Radio Frequency (RF)Dielectric System in the U.S. Pallet Industry, and 2.Radio Frequency Heat Treatment ofRecycled Pallet Components for ISPM-15 Compliance. Our project website has been updated where we uploaded some of our research findings. We have had multiple meetings with pallet manufacturing companies, including our long-term industry partner Penn Pallet in St. Marys, PA, and we started new relationships with Kamps Pallets Inc. in Grand Rapids, MI, Kamps Pallets in Detroit, MI, John Rock in Coatesville, PA, and Remmey, Beaver Springs, PA.We delivered aninvited presentation at thePennsylvaniaHardwoodsDevelopmentCouncilmeeting on February 13, 2020, to share our research and inform theCouncilabout our technology. We engaged in a conversation about treating wood dunnage (the packing materials used in ocean freight) with the Port of Philadelphia. Leadership from PhillaPort saw our presentation at the HDC meeting as an opportunity to reuse dunnage. A visit to this port is planned for this fall.Penn State News published the article "Technology that destroys pests in wood moves closer to commercialization". National Wooden Pallet & Container Association Pallet Central Magazine published our article "Radio Frequency Dielectric Heating for Pallet Sanitization" about the economic feasibility of RF HT that helped to spread information about our technology to the pallet industry. Central PA local news WTAJ6 also broadcast a news story on the RF technology on February 5, 2020. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue engaging with the PhillaPort about the use of our radio frequency with pressure (RFP) technology to sanitize untreated shipping dunnage that arrives at port authorities. Currently, dunnage at PhillaPort must be transported by trucks to an off-site location and incinerated, which is expensive, releases carbon dioxide, and is time-consuming. We recognize that many US ports have similar issues related to safe, convenient and cost-effective disposal of dunnage and there is a need to find an alternative to manage these waste streams. RFP with developed dielectric heating schedules could sanitize dunnage on-dock or nearby, reducing time and cost; then the import/export terminal could instead recycle and eliminate the costly disposal of significant dunnage volumes. PhillaPort sees our technology as an opportunity and they are anxious to see it working at the port. USDA APHIS is beginning to reach out to ports along the Eastern seaboard about this approach including the Port of Charleston, SC.We are planning to upgrade our RF unit with a more advanced, constant power supply, solid-state RF system, which will further improve heating time and uniformity, to efficiently treat dunnage material. This improvement will allow for better control of the power applied during treatment. It also adds a zone heating feature that will allow for enhanced feedback control of the process throughout the treating schedule. In the current RF unit configuration, there are four load sections separated by electrodes that are placed in the workload to revert the electromagnetic field. With the upgraded system, we will be able to control and apply a specific power density to each zone separately. If a lower heating rate occurs in one of the zones, we can increase the temperature in this zone by applying higher power, which will even out the heating rate in the workload. This will result in a shorter treatment time, avoiding overheating of other sections. We will continue establishing protocols suitable for the RF certification process for North American commercial applications. Our goal in working with ASLC and CLSAB is to maintain an open dialogue for their comments and/or feedback to develop the certification protocols that will be used to certify equipment installed in industrial locations in compliance with ISPM-15.Further development of the RFP phytosanitation certification will support the transfer of the technology to commercial operations.This will be the first RFP technology certified anywhere in the world as an ISPM-15 compliant unit and products treated by this unit can legally bear the ISPM-15 DH stamp.Establishing this certification procedure will provide knowledge that can be later shared with the treaters to accelerate adoption of RF treatment among WPM producers in North America and other parts of the world. To provide evidence of uniform heating of WPM material, we will install anIR camera (OEM monitoring) in our treatment chamber for real-time temperature data collections and employ a second thermocouple (manual thermometer) to take simultaneouspost-treatmentreading for target temperature verification of the workload on opposite sides at the same time).
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We completed a set of experiments to determine the optimum parameters and develop schedules of RF treatment for mixed wood species decking boards and stringers. We collected data on direct treating and post-treating heating behavior to establish dielectric certification procedures for the implementation of the ISPM-15 DH (dielectric heating). PSU and USDA researchers, along with RF Kiln Tech Limited, performed 10 initial tests to collect RF with pressure (RFP) treatment data to support a US-Canadian Bilateral Agreement for movement of wood packaging material between the two countries. The verification of treatment compliance of our RFP technology innovations included participation by the Presidents of the American Softwood Lumber Committee (ASLC) and the Canadian Lumber Standards Accrediation Bureau (CLSAB). They are the principal parties that conduct third-party inspections of commercial phytosanitation for US to Candian commercial pallet treating facilities. During those experiments we collected footage that will be used to create a demonstration video of methods to follow for proper temperature measurements using thermal measurement technologies and guidance for pallet manufacturers who seek to adopt and certify dielectric heating technology for treating wood packing in compliance with ISPM-15.Our research team also conducted a set of tests to determine if RF can be used to treat recycled pallet components. Recycled material that is used to repair pallets contains multiple fragments of metal fasteners embedded in the wood, and often contains some level of wood decay. During testing, we did not experience any issues from the metal fasteners during treatment. We showed that while the decay of wood material lowers the heating response, treatment can still be performed on material that shows wood decay. With RFP unit technical development, our team has been conducting cost/benefit analyses. For our 1200 bd ft RFP unit, we estimated the energy cost of treatment at $0.12 per pallet. However, based on an experiment conducted using alarger 6000 bd ftunit, we estimated the potential cost of optimized treatment at $0.05/pallet.We also developed the innovation of using a reflective/insulation liner in the treating chamber to further reduce the cost of treatment by reducingthermal irradiation energy transfer to the steel cylinder vessel walls and instead reflecting the thermal radiation back to the workload. We identified two ideal materials and found a happy medium between cost and efficiency. In addition, The RF technology was introduced to the Penn State Start-up Leadership Network where additional potential for RF commercal enhancement continues to be explored.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Gagnon, M., K. Szymona, J. Janowiak, and K. Hoover. 2019. Radio Frequency Dielectric Heating for Pallet Sanitization. Central Magazine, National Wooden Pallet & Container Association.
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Progress 07/01/18 to 06/30/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences include the International Plant Protection Convention and all participating National Plant Protection Organizations, the wood products industry, international shipping companies, USDA/APHIS, and the wood science community. Additional audiences include scientists and the public concerned with preventing or mitigating the spread of exotic species around the world through shipping materials. Specifically we have been in direct contact with pallet manufacturing companies, including our long term industry partner Penn Pallet in St. Marys, PA, eKamps Pallets Inc. in Grand Rapids, MI, Kamps Pallets in Detroit, MI, John Rock in Coatesville, PA, and Remmey, Beaver Springs, PA. We have been arranging further collaborations in order to perform phytosanitary treatment trials that can include feedback from industry to ensure our invention can accommodate the commercial wood packaging market. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our postdoc has been traveling with the economist on the project to meet with pallet manufacturers and is learning a great deal about the industry being in the field. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Based on our findings, our research team gave two presentations at the annual IFQRG (International Forestry Quarantine Research Group) meeting in 2018 in Rome, Italy: 1. Commercial Assessment of Radio Frequency Heat Treatment for Pallet Manufacturer ISPM-15 Compliance, and 2. Developments in Radio Frequency Heat Treatment for Pallet Manufacturer ISPM-15 Compliance. Our project website was systematically updated, we uploaded some of our research findings, and a technological brief encouraging pallet manufacturers to contact our research team in order to establish a dialog and obtain the first hand information from industry. We have produced three videos that will help to educate potential end-users on the subject of dielectric heating principals and RFP treating Technology. We have had multiple meetings with pallet manufacturing companies, including our long term industry partner Penn Pallet in St. Marys, PA, established new relationships with Kamps Pallets Inc. in Grand Rapids, MI, Kamps Pallets in Detroit, MI, John Rock in Coatesville, PA, and Remmey, Beaver Springs, PA. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have initiated certification of our RFP equipment, which is located in Forest Resources Lab at Penn State. Certification by regulatory authorities of equipment compliance with ISPM-15 requirements must include demonstration of heating uniformity before certifying the equipment for use. We conducted the demonstration treatment in the presence of David Kretschmann (President of American Lumber Standard Committee, Inc) and Chuck Dentelbeck, President & CEO of CLSAB (Canadian Lumber Standards Accreditation Board) to receive their feedback relative to our technology. We will continue our efforts to comply with certification requirements. By determining the path to certify the RFP equipment, requirements for determining the cold spots, and establishing the methods for confirmation of the entire workload reaching required temperature, we will gain the information and experience that we can share with industry on best practices and how to certify equipment in compliance with ISPM-15. Our first generation prototype relies on RF oscillator technology that does not permit spontaneous power density control. Electrode adjustments (EMF intensity) involve manual tap setting changes, which cannot be performed during the continuous DH treatment cycle. Taken together we strongly believe that to best optimize operational power consumption, a more advanced power control design is required. In order to provide more control of the level of applied power, we are planning to improve the unit by providing the constant power supply modification. In order to continue our cost/benefit analysis and introducing our Technology to the industry, we initialized contact with Edwards Wood Products in North Carolina, which is considered a large scale pallet manufacturer. Contacting and visiting one small pallet manufacturer will provide the data point for smaller scale production, although having in mind significant initial cost of the investment, we do not anticipate particular interest in implementing the RFP Technology by small scale producers. Our goal is to identify specific RFP adoption scenarios and working value propositions for selected types of manufacturers. After completing 4-5 case studies we will then generalize findings for the pallet manufacturing industry. Our preliminary findings indicate technical feasibility with RFP Technology for low to medium density wood fiber and that charge parameters are volumetrically in line with conventional dry kiln operations. However, we also recognize the need for additional economic analysis to decompose pallet heat treatment cost (labor, energy, equipment changes, etc.) in order to compare these elements with the proposed RFP cylinder option. Throughput calculations and anticipated benefits from including RFP within pallet manufacturers workflow must also be determined. For example, can significant time and inventory savings be realized and do opportunities exist for enhanced HT efficiencies with specialty pallet production for auto-manufacturing, steel, pharma and/or food grade pallets? We look forward to additional dialogue with pallet manufacturers to further our inquiry into the economic viability of RFP Technology for pallet manufacturing. We are currently making efforts to arrange a large scale experiment using a 6000 bd ft capacity RF phytosanitation unit located in Michigan, situated in a close distance from Kamps Pallets facility. We are making efforts to secure the required volume of material as well as operating time of the unit. Large scale experiments will provide more accurate estimates of energy costs per pallet and will allow us to conduct the calculations of return of investment for the larger, industrial scale unit.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In our experiments, which involve bulk treating raw wood to be used to construct crates and pallets, we found that innovations to the chamber walls of the RFP vessel helps to prevent significant thermal heat energy losses during the phytosanitary heating cycle by RFP treatment to more rapidly and cost effectively comply with ISPM treating requirements. Over several months we tried a variety of different technologies to reduce these energy losses to the workload and we have found several potential solutions that are very effective. In order to improve the heating time of larger cross-section area material, such as blocks, we investigated various configurations of the wood grain placement relative to electrodes, and its influence on heating rate and heating uniformity. We tested end-grain oriented 4" x 6" x 8" blocks (red maple 80% mixed w/ ~20% oak). We ran this trial as 50/50 flat-wise to end-grain oriented material. The end-grain part of the load showed substantially increased temperatures in comparison to the flat-wise oriented blocks. We also ran Yellow Poplar 48" x 3 ½" x 1 ?" stringer material, where one section of the workload was oriented edge-wise relative to the electrode. In this experiment we learned that the edge-wise direction of the wood material resulted in slower temperature increase than in other wood load sections, which were oriented flat-wise relative to electrode surface. Similarly, we tested treatment of mixed wood species components, which is common in the industry and allowed for randomization of dielectric properties throughout the pack of wood material. We investigated heating behavior of various species in mixed wood species loads. We tested 5.75"x3.75"x7.75" block material consisting of: White Oak 48.8%, Red Oak 0.68%, Soft Maple 19.5%, Beech 1.6%Birch 9.3%, Cherry 15.4%, and Yellow poplar 0.75%. Temperature sensors readings and thermal images taken after the treatment showed that temperature depended more on the location in the stack than on species of the sample in the stack. We've also made adjustments to operational parameters to optimize the economics of using this technology in compliance with ISPM-15 and related uses. In meetings with industry partners, economic analyses show that dielectric heating (DH) compares favorably to conventional heating of SWPM assembled pallets at equivalent if not significantly lower energy cost (Penn Pallet, Inc. Ridgeway, PA among other shipping pallet manufacturers). Completed DH evaluations in previous funding cycles have included wood of different mass densities with gas pressure of permeable hardwood species, including green/white ash, black cherry (BC), soft (red) maple (SM), yellow poplar (YP), red/white oak and some softwoods such as Eastern white pine (EWP) and Southern yellow pine (SYP). We visited several pallet manufacturing plants and found that pallets made from recycled and damaged wood material has become a big part of the industry. These materials can be RF heated to phytosanitize them for manufacture reuse as pallet replacement components. We demonstrated successful ISPM-15 treatment of recycled deck & stringer materials from discarded and deconstructed pallets. These materials included residual staples to greater ferrous metal content nail fasteners and depending on the pallet storage, very high to dry states of water moisture (wood % MC). Material used in a recycled decking boards was tested, which contained approximately 30% Black Cherry and 70% Southern Yellow Pine of various cross-section dimensions. Moisture content also varied widely, between 11% and 48%. There were air gaps, nail parts and lots of residual ferrous metal fasteners remaining in the material, which might cause electrical arching. Despite this concern, the results were very encouraging. We saw no post-treating evidence of this problem. The first temperature sensors reached 60C in just 23 minutes. After 144 min of treatment, only one probe did not show 60C temperature, and we decided to turn off the power to observe the heat redistribution. The last probe reached 60C after another 12 min.We utilized targeted sampling via introductions from Brad Gething (Director of Science & Technology Integration) of the NWPCA (National Wood Pallet & Container Association) to connect us with Kamps management leadership. Brad Retiema, Executive VP of Corporate Services serves as our point contact for this research. After reviewing secondary information on Kamps we initiated contact with Brad that included a project brief and presentation that explained our intended interaction and RFP heat treatment value discovery process. We coordinated site visits to Kamps headquarters on October 17, 2018 and a subsequent follow-up visit to Kamps Detroit on October 18, 2018. On these visits, we discussed the project and commenced our data collection through direct inquiry and operational observation. After site visits we corresponded with the Kamps team to enrich our understanding of the potential for RFP heat treatment adoption. Kamps pallet was chosen since it is representative of large pallet manufacturers (~$168M revenues, ~650 employees) in the $9.7B U.S. pallet industry that is projected to grow at 3.3% annualized 2018-2023. In addition, Kamps was recommended by the National Wooden Pallet and Container Association (NWPCA) as being a company that's receptive to innovation. The report, that we prepared contains a customized analysis for adopting RFP heat treatment Technology for Kamps Detroit plant located at 19001 Glendale St. Detroit, MI 48223. Our interactions with Kamps specified a series of needed RFP heat treatment experiments with wood material configurations that roughly correspond to pallet construction materials currently being processed in Kamps commercial operations. Data collected from the YP heating test trials will serve as a proxy for the aspen and red pine that Kamps Detriot commonly runs. As a next step, Dr. Gething of the National Wooden Pallet & Container Assoc. also connected us with John Rock as a potential company to work with. We coordinated a visit to John Rock headquarters and pallet plant on November 7, 2018. During our visit, we discussed the project and commenced our data collection through direct inquiry and operational observation. After our site visit we corresponded with John Rock to enrich our understanding of the potential for RFP heat treatment adoption. Our engagement also included running RFP chamber trails with various wood material configurations used by John Rock. John Rock pallet facility was chosen since it is representative of medium pallet manufacturers (~$17.6M revenues, ~90 employees) in the $9.7B U.S. pallet industry that is projected to grow at 3.3% annualized 2018-2023. In addition, John Rock was recommended by the National Wooden Pallet and Container Association (NWPCA) as being a company that's receptive to innovation. The facility is comparable, if not larger, compared to large pallet companies. Additionally, after we initiated contact with Strategic Project Manager at Remmey, Ben Remmey, we visited another medium size pallet facility located in Beaver Springs, PA (revenues were $20.3M in 2018). Reports describing our findings were presented to the Kamps Pallets and John Rock contacts, which allowed for building the additional dialogue between our team and industry representatives, and provided valuable feedback.
Publications
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