Pitch pine (P. rigida) wood was treated with superheated steam (SHS) and the subsequent effects due to drying and heat treatment (HT) were observed. The following treatment parameters were tested: 180°C air HT, 220°C air HT, 0.1 MPa–180°C SHS HT, 0.1 MPa–220°C SHS HT, 0.5 MPa–180°C SHS HT, and 0.5 MPa–220°C SHS HT. No drying checks were observed in the specimens (500×150×50 mm³) treated at 0.5 MPa–220°C SHS and with these treatment parameters, equilibrium moisture content (EMC) was the lowest. Low EMC has an effect on physical properties such as shrinkage, compressive strength parallel to the grain, bending strength, hardness, and decay resistance. Based on the results, it is expected that the green wood in a large scale is possible to be simultaneously dried and heat-treated without occurrence of checks by the SHS HT process.

Objectives:The construction sector is a very important sector in achieving carbon neutrality. In modern society, construction has grown rapidly, and basic materials such as cement and concrete have contributed greatly to the development of construction. These materials emit a large amount of global warming substances during the raw material extraction and production process, causing serious environmental pollution. In order to establish a carbon reduction strategy to slow down global warming, we compared the environmental impacts of each building material and showed the current situation.Methods:The LCI DB for the construction materials used in the two-story wooden house (Building area 128.67m2, total floor area 235.73m2) located in the National Institute of Forest Science was extracted. Then, the data for LCA was processed and performed through the life cycle assessment methodology for the resources consumed from raw material collection, material production, and transportation stages. Then, based on the environmental performance labeling impact assessment method, a study was conducted on the environmental impact categories of the actual construction materials used and comparisons with other construction materials.Results and Discussion:When analyzing the environmental impact of concrete [25-21-120] and construction wood used in wooden house, the environmental impact was found to be 98.79% higher on average in the pre-manufacturing stage than in the manufacturing stage, and construction wood was confirmed to have a reduction effect of 62.21 kg CO2-eq per 1 m3 compared to concrete. Through the scenario, there was a carbon reduction effect of up to 36% when the entire area was replaced with wood. In addition, the environmental impact by major construction material was quantitatively quantified.Conclusion:When building a wooden house, reducing the amount of concrete equivalent to the amount of wood is expected to have a greenhouse gas reduction effect, so it is time to activate construction wood from the production process to the post-production stage to replace concrete. In addition, follow-up research on the development of construction technology with low environmental impact during construction should be continued. This study is expected to be used as a useful indicator for R&D and policies in the construction field in the future, as it quantitatively quantified the amount of CO2 reduction per m3 when replacing concrete with construction wood and numerically compared and analyzed six major environmental impact categories by major construction materials.