Vineyard pruning residues pellets for use in domestic appliances: a quality assessment according to the EN ISO 17225

Abstract

Nowadays many types of biomass are studied to satisfy the increased demand of renewable energy based on pellet combustion. However, only a few biomasses fulfil the high quality standard required for pellet used in domestic appliances. European and International standards in force define this quality of non-industrial use of pellets in term of the origin of biomass, physical, mechanical and chemical parameters. Vineyard residues are a worldwide potential source of energy but their compliance to be used in domestic pellet stoves has not been yet proven according to the new standards in force. In order to meet this need, this study makes an exhaustive characterisation of vineyard based pellets manufactured from residues of Prosecco (Glera variety) vineyards, assessing both the quality of biofuel and its behaviour during combustion in a domestic pellet stove. The quality of biofuel has been evaluated according to the in force standards for wood and non-woody pellets. The results show that vineyard pellets do not meet the type B quality standards required for non-industrial use of wood pellet mainly because of the high amount of ash content (>2%) and the high amount of copper (>10 ppm) but they fulfil the specifications of the type B non-woody pellets. Furthermore, during combustion test of vineyard-based pellet the high emission of CO indicates incomplete combustion; and vineyard-based pellet NOx emissions are more than double compared to those obtained during the control tests, confirming that the analysed vineyard-based pellets are unsuitable, as they are, for use in traditional pellet stoves.

Pelleting Vineyard Pruning at Low Cost with a Mobile Technology

“…Most chemical parameters analyzed in laboratory for pruning and pellet are comparable with the results found in previous studies [30][31][32]. The main variations refer to heavy metals, due to the different harvesting systems and storage conditions.…”

Field Testing of a Biomass-Fueled Flamer for In-Row Weed Control in the Vineyard

“…Additional savings are possible by using vine wood pellet produced in the farm from pruning residuals. Vineyards can produce 1 to 2.5 t of dried vineyard residual per hectare [20], so that flaming for weed control would use just a portion of it. However, while harvesting of pruning residuals is a well-established technique [21], further research is still needed to optimize biomass processing and vine wood pellet production [22].…”

Choice of the Optimal Design and Operation of Multi-Energy Conversion Systems in a Prosecco Wine Cellar

“…Picchi et al [21] demonstrated the excellent performances of electrostatic filters to reduce total fly ash emissions of boilers specifically tailored for biomass with high content of ash. Also Zanetti et al [19], Pizzi et al [20] and Picchi et al [21] demonstrate the lower costs of woodchips compared to pellets in spite of the slightly lower performances in terms of combustion efficiency and emissions of pollutants.…”

“…Compared to the base case, the proposed alternative uses lead to the reduction (from 1.6 to 9.5 times) of the environmental impact indicators belonging the categories of climate change, ozone depletion, acidification and freshwater eutrophication but an increase (up to 38 times) of the indicator categories strongly related to the wood combustion, such as particulate matter and photochemical oxidant emissions. Zanetti et al [19] analyzed the properties of different shapes of vine biomass and their behavior during combustion in domestic stoves and industrial boilers, demonstrating that the former cannot comply with the EN ISO 17225 International Standards. Pizzi et al [20] tested vine pruning pellets in a 150 kW boiler, measuring the total suspended particles (TSP), CO and NO X emissions.…”