Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome, Tor Vergata, 00155 Rome, Italy.
Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences (DiAAA), University of Molise, 86100 Campobasso, Italy.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Aug 11;20(16):6559. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20166559.
Air pollution and the increasing production of greenhouse gases has prompted greater use of renewable energy sources; the EU has set a target that the use of green energy should be 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 human health.
空气污染和温室气体排放的增加促使人们更多地使用可再生能源；欧盟设定了一个目标，到 2030 年，绿色能源的使用应达到 32%。考虑到这一点，在过去的 10 年里，意大利对颗粒的需求增加了一倍多，使意大利成为欧洲第二大颗粒消费国。燃烧在火炉中的颗粒的质量对于室内和室外的污染至关重要。除了其他参数外，水分和灰分被用于根据 EN ISO 17225:2014 对颗粒进行分类。这项工作涉及分析一些意大利市场上的成品以及根据技术标准 EN 14778:2011 抽样的一些原材料（如木屑）的有机和无机部分。分析结果表明，一些有机物质如甲醛、丙酮、甲苯和苯乙烯，以及无机物质如镍、铅和钒，存在一些对人体健康有潜在危害的物质。化学计量学方法表明，正是无机部分导致了所研究样品的多样化。一些物质的检测可能是对这些材料的环境和人类健康影响的一个警告。
