Chemicals loading in acetylated bamboo assisted by supercritical CO2 based on phase equilibrium data

Indonesia has a large tropical forest. However, the deforestation still appears annually and vastly. This reason drives a use of bamboo as wood alternative. Recently, there are many modifications of bamboo in order to prolong the shelf life. Unfortunately, the processes need more chemicals and time. Based on wood modification, esterifying of bamboo was undertaken in present of a dense gas, i.e. supercritical CO2. Calculation of chemicals loading referred to ASTM D1413-99 by using the phase equilibrium data at optimum condition by a statistical design. The results showed that the acetylation of bamboo assisted by supercritical CO2 required 14.73 kg acetic anhydride/m3 of bamboo for a treatment of one hour.