Abstract

A treatment is proposed to sanitize wood for export packaging using radio frequency equipment that is capable of treating wood. This was achieved by optimizing the sanitization process and developing an equation to predict the total sanitization time. Statistical analysis determined that the separation of plates and the power density of the equipment significantly influenced the duration of a sanitization process using radio frequency heating, whereas the thickness of the material was not as influential for the overall process. Furthermore, the sanitization process did not influence the quality of the wood; therefore, the proposed sanitization protocol provided a balance between duration and the quality of the finished radiata pine packaging material.