Samples of several wood species were treated in a two steps process, subsequently hydrothermal and dry heat-treated, by the so-called PLATO-process and analysed for their resistance against fungal attack. Both PLATO-treated and dry heat-treated specimen were prepared and analysed, in order to study the influence of moisture during hydrothermal treatment of wood. The resistance against all of the studied types of fungi was improved considerably after the PLATO-treatment. Especially the resistance against brown rot fungi was increased by the treatment. Also the resistance against white rot and soft rot was improved. The increase of the decay resistance was found dependent on the applied process conditions. The PLATO-treatment was found to be more efficient compared to a one step dry heat-treatment, with respect to improving the resistance against fungal attack. The effectiveness of the treatment is improved by applying a hydrothermal step before the dry heat-treatment step. The process conditions in the curing step appeared to have the largest effect on the resistance against soft rot and brown rot decay. White rot decay was less dependent on the curing conditions and found more affected by the hydrothermolysis, suggesting the decomposition of hemicellulose in the hydrothermolysis.

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