Heat sterilization methods for hardwood pallets

Hardwood pallets that are to be exported to countries participating in the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) will soon need to be heat sterilized. IPPC regulations require heating the center of the wood to 133?F for a minimum of 30 minutes. This paper discusses heat and steam sterilization trials conducted on standard stinger pallets using laboratory dry kilns. The trials demonstrated that disregarding kiln warm-up time direct heat for sterilization takes approximately 3.3 times longer than direct steam. However, both treatments can be completed rapidly. With the short treatment times experienced for both steam and heat-treating methods there is no significant change the moisture content of the pallet parts nor was there significant degrade.

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