A wood
thermal treatment apparatus (1) comprising: - a
cell (2) comprising a
thermal treatment chamber (3) adapted to house a wood
mass (4) to be treated, wherein the
cell (2) comprises an air circulation jacket (5) arranged outside the
thermal treatment chamber (3), which is adjacent to the thermal treatment chamber and is fluidly isolated from the thermal treatment chamber (3) by at least one partition wall (6), wherein the air circulation jacket (5) comprises an inlet collector (7) for introducing air into the air circulation jacket (5) and an outlet collector (8) for extracting air from the air circulation jacket (5); - a
system for heating and cooling the thermal treatment chamber (3), adapted to take a heating operating configuration and a cooling operating configuration; wherein the heating and cooling
system comprises: - a recirculation duct ( 9a, 9b) which in the heating operating configuration is connected between the inlet collector (7) and the outlet collector (8) so that an
airflow, which is introduced into and extracted from the air circulation jacket (5), passes in the recirculation duct ( 9a, 9b), wherein in the heating configuration, the recirculation duct ( 9a, 9b) and the air circulation jacket (5) form a
closed circuit; - a heating unit (10) configured to heat air flowing in the recirculation duct (9a, 9b) by
combustion of
wood waste resulting from
wood processing; -
flow diverter means (Ha, lib) configurable to open the
closed circuit in the cooling operating configuration of the heating and cooling
system.