Emissions of volatile organic compounds from wood and wood-based materials
Thünen Report 86a
Thünen Report 86a, 2026.
Abstract
Various woods and wood-based materials are used as building products in constructions due to their numerous beneficial properties. As a potential source of emissions, they can thus have an impact on indoor air quality, such as other building products used indoors. For this reason, an understanding of the emissions of wood-containing products is important. Therefore, the following document describes the emission behaviour of solid wood and wood-based materials made from it. The main volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and their area-specific emission rates are shown and the factors influencing the emission behaviour are discussed. In addition, the temporal dynamics of the emissions are highlighted, which means that the emission rates always only represent a snapshot at a specific point in time. This makes it possible to compare the emission behaviour of the individual wood products. However, this does not necessarily allow the actual contribution of wood product emissions to indoor VOC concentrations to be assessed. This is decisively conditioned by the real installation situation of the product as well as the material interactions and climatic conditions within the room.
Verbatim author abstract reproduced from the official Thünen report under CC BY 4.0.
FLEC use
FLEC mention, comparison or reference
This is a literature review; FLEC occurs in its discussion of earlier chamber/cell measurements and in cited standards, not in new measurements performed by the report authors.