Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Impact of Commercial and Raw Pellets available in the Italian Market: Study of Organic and Inorganic Fraction and Related Chemometric Approach

Pietro Pandolfi
ORCID logo ,
Ivan Notardonato
,
Sergio Passarella
,
Maria Pia Sammartino
ORCID logo ,
Giovanni Visco
,
Paolo Ceci
ORCID logo ,
Loretta De Giorgi
,
Virgilio Stillittano
ORCID logo ,
Domenico Monci
,
Pasquale Avino
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 15 June 2023 / Approved: 16 June 2023 / Online: 16 June 2023 (08:54:56 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Pandolfi, P.; Notardonato, I.; Passarella, S.; Sammartino, M.P.; Visco, G.; Ceci, P.; De Giorgi, L.; Stillittano, V.; Monci, D.; Avino, P. Characteristics of Commercial and Raw Pellets Available on the Italian Market: Study of Organic and Inorganic Fraction and Related Chemometric Approach. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 6559. Pandolfi, P.; Notardonato, I.; Passarella, S.; Sammartino, M.P.; Visco, G.; Ceci, P.; De Giorgi, L.; Stillittano, V.; Monci, D.; Avino, P. Characteristics of Commercial and Raw Pellets Available on the Italian Market: Study of Organic and Inorganic Fraction and Related Chemometric Approach. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 6559.

Abstract

Air pollution and the increasing production of greenhouse gases has prompted greater use of renewable energy sources; the EU has set the use of green energy at 32 percent by 2030. With this in mind, in the last 10 years the demand for pellets in Italy has more than doubled making Italy the second largest consumer in Europe. The quality of the pellets burned in stoves is crucial to indoor and outdoor pollution. Among other parameters, moisture and ash are used to classify pellets according to EN ISO 17225:2014. This work involved the analysis of the organic and inorganic fraction of both some finished products on the Italian market and some raw materials (e.g., wood chips) sampled according to the technical standard EN 14778:2011. The analytical results showed the presence of some substances potentially harmful to human health such as formaldehyde, acetone, toluene and styrene for the organic fraction and nickel, lead and vanadium for the inorganic fraction. The chemometric approach showed that it is the inorganic fraction which is most responsible for the diversification of the samples under study. The detection of some substances may be a warning bell about the impact of such materials both for the environment and for the human health.

Keywords

pellet; wood; biomass; atmosphere; outdoor; indoor air quality; VOCs, PAHs; heavy metals; chemometrics.

Subject

Public Health and Healthcare, Public, Environmental and Occupational Health

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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