IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v18y2025i15p4154-d1718120.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Emission of Total Volatile Organic Compounds from the Torrefaction Process: Meadow Hay, Rye, and Oat Straw as Renewable Fuels

Author

Listed:
  • Justyna Czerwinska

    (Faculty of Process and Environmental Engineering, Lodz University of Technology, Wolczanska 213, 90-924 Lodz, Poland)

  • Szymon Szufa

    (Faculty of Process and Environmental Engineering, Lodz University of Technology, Wolczanska 213, 90-924 Lodz, Poland)

  • Hilal Unyay

    (Faculty of Process and Environmental Engineering, Lodz University of Technology, Wolczanska 213, 90-924 Lodz, Poland)

  • Grzegorz Wielgosinski

    (Faculty of Process and Environmental Engineering, Lodz University of Technology, Wolczanska 213, 90-924 Lodz, Poland)

Abstract

This study aims to quantify total VOC emissions and evaluate how torrefaction alters the heat of combustion of three agricultural residues. The work examines the amount of VOC emissions during the torrefaction process at various temperatures and investigates the changes in the heat of combustion of agri-biomass resulting from the torrefaction process. The process was carried out at the following temperatures: 225, 250, 275, and 300 °C. Total VOC emission factors were determined. The reaction kinetics analysis revealed that meadow hay exhibited the most stable thermal behavior with the lowest activation energy. At the same time, rye straw demonstrated higher thermal resistance and complex multi-step degradation characteristics. The authors analyze three types of agricultural biomass: meadow hay, rye straw, and oat straw. The research was divided into five stages: determination of moisture content in the sample, determination of ash content, thermogravimetric analysis, measurement of total VOC emissions from the biomass torrefaction process, and determination of the heat of combustion of the obtained torrefied biomass. Based on the research, it was found that torrefaction of biomass causes the emission of torgas containing VOC in the amount of 2–10 mg/g of torrefied biomass, which can be used energetically, e.g., to support the torrefaction process, and the torrefied biomass shows a higher value of the heat of combustion. Unlike prior studies focused on single feedstocks or limited temperature ranges, this work systematically compares three major crop residues across four torrefaction temperatures and directly couples VOC quantifications.

Suggested Citation

  • Justyna Czerwinska & Szymon Szufa & Hilal Unyay & Grzegorz Wielgosinski, 2025. "Emission of Total Volatile Organic Compounds from the Torrefaction Process: Meadow Hay, Rye, and Oat Straw as Renewable Fuels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-30, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:15:p:4154-:d:1718120
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/15/4154/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/15/4154/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Teresa Mendiara & Alberto Navajas & Alberto Abad & Tobias Pröll & Mikel Munárriz & Luis M. Gandía & Francisco García-Labiano & Luis F. de Diego, 2024. "Life Cycle Assessment of Wheat Straw Pyrolysis with Volatile Fractions Chemical Looping Combustion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-14, May.
    2. Arkadiusz Dyjakon & Tomasz Noszczyk, 2020. "Alternative Fuels from Forestry Biomass Residue: Torrefaction Process of Horse Chestnuts, Oak Acorns, and Spruce Cones," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-19, May.
    3. Mateusz Jackowski & Łukasz Niedźwiecki & Krzysztof Mościcki & Amit Arora & Muhammad Azam Saeed & Krystian Krochmalny & Jakub Pawliczek & Anna Trusek & Magdalena Lech & Jan Skřínský & Jakub Čespiva & J, 2021. "Synergetic Co-Production of Beer Colouring Agent and Solid Fuel from Brewers’ Spent Grain in the Circular Economy Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-17, September.
    4. Marta Marczak-Grzesik & Stanisław Budzyń & Barbara Tora & Szymon Szufa & Krzysztof Kogut & Piotr Burmistrz, 2021. "Low-Cost Organic Adsorbents for Elemental Mercury Removal from Lignite Flue Gas," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-15, April.
    5. Hao Luo & Lukasz Niedzwiecki & Amit Arora & Krzysztof Mościcki & Halina Pawlak-Kruczek & Krystian Krochmalny & Marcin Baranowski & Mayank Tiwari & Anshul Sharma & Tanuj Sharma & Zhimin Lu, 2020. "Influence of Torrefaction and Pelletizing of Sawdust on the Design Parameters of a Fixed Bed Gasifier," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, June.
    6. Maria A. Vasileiadou & Georgia Altiparmaki & Konstantinos Moustakas & Stergios Vakalis, 2022. "Quality of Hydrochar from Wine Sludge under Variable Conditions of Hydrothermal Carbonization: The Case of Lesvos Island," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-12, May.
    7. Mateusz Jackowski & Lukasz Niedzwiecki & Magdalena Lech & Mateusz Wnukowski & Amit Arora & Monika Tkaczuk-Serafin & Marcin Baranowski & Krystian Krochmalny & Vivek K. Veetil & Przemysław Seruga & Anna, 2020. "HTC of Wet Residues of the Brewing Process: Comprehensive Characterization of Produced Beer, Spent Grain and Valorized Residues," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-20, April.
    8. Hilal Unyay & Nuriye Altınay Perendeci & Piotr Piersa & Szymon Szufa & Agata Skwarczynska-Wojsa, 2024. "Harnessing Switchgrass for Sustainable Energy: Bioethanol Production Processes and Pretreatment Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-13, September.
    9. Arkadiusz Dyjakon & Łukasz Sobol & Mateusz Krotowski & Krzysztof Mudryk & Krzysztof Kawa, 2020. "The Impact of Particles Comminution on Mechanical Durability of Wheat Straw Briquettes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-14, November.
    10. Szymon Szufa & Grzegorz Wielgosiński & Piotr Piersa & Justyna Czerwińska & Maria Dzikuć & Łukasz Adrian & Wiktoria Lewandowska & Marta Marczak, 2020. "Torrefaction of Straw from Oats and Maize for Use as a Fuel and Additive to Organic Fertilizers—TGA Analysis, Kinetics as Products for Agricultural Purposes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-30, April.
    11. Krzysztof Mudryk & Marcin Jewiarz & Marek Wróbel & Marcin Niemiec & Arkadiusz Dyjakon, 2021. "Evaluation of Urban Tree Leaf Biomass-Potential, Physico-Mechanical and Chemical Parameters of Raw Material and Solid Biofuel," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-14, February.
    12. Silva, Susana & Soares, Isabel & Afonso, Oscar, 2013. "Economic and environmental effects under resource scarcity and substitution between renewable and non-renewable resources," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 113-124.
    13. Chew, J.J. & Doshi, V., 2011. "Recent advances in biomass pretreatment – Torrefaction fundamentals and technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 4212-4222.
    14. Nocquet, Timothée & Dupont, Capucine & Commandre, Jean-Michel & Grateau, Maguelone & Thiery, Sébastien & Salvador, Sylvain, 2014. "Volatile species release during torrefaction of wood and its macromolecular constituents: Part 1 – Experimental study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 180-187.
    15. Nocquet, Timothée & Dupont, Capucine & Commandre, Jean-Michel & Grateau, Maguelone & Thiery, Sébastien & Salvador, Sylvain, 2014. "Volatile species release during torrefaction of biomass and its macromolecular constituents: Part 2 – Modeling study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 188-194.
    16. Szufa, Szymon & Unyay, Hilal & Pakowski, Zdzislaw & Piersa, Piotr & Siczek, Krzysztof & Kabaciński, Mirosław & Sobek, Szymon & Moj, Kevin & Likozar, Blaž & Kostyniuk, Andrii & Junga, Robert, 2025. "Batch rolling-bed dryer applicability for drying biomass prior to torrefaction," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    17. Schwerz, Felipe & Neto, Durval Dourado & Caron, Braulio Otomar & Nardini, Claiton & Sgarbossa, Jaqueline & Eloy, Elder & Behling, Alexandre & Elli, Elvis Felipe & Reichardt, Klaus, 2020. "Biomass and potential energy yield of perennial woody energy crops under reduced planting spacing," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 1238-1250.
    18. Andrzej Białowiec & Monika Micuda & Antoni Szumny & Jacek Łyczko & Jacek A. Koziel, 2019. "Waste to Carbon: Influence of Structural Modification on VOC Emission Kinetics from Stored Carbonized Refuse-Derived Fuel," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-13, February.
    19. Wang, Zhaohua & Bui, Quocviet & Zhang, Bin, 2020. "The relationship between biomass energy consumption and human development: Empirical evidence from BRICS countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    20. Hart, Rob, 2016. "Non-renewable resources in the long run," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 1-20.
    21. Agnieszka Urbanowska & Małgorzata Kabsch-Korbutowicz & Christian Aragon-Briceño & Mateusz Wnukowski & Artur Pożarlik & Lukasz Niedzwiecki & Marcin Baranowski & Michał Czerep & Przemysław Seruga & Hali, 2021. "Cascade Membrane System for Separation of Water and Organics from Liquid By-Products of HTC of the Agricultural Digestate—Evaluation of Performance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-18, August.
    22. Alves, José Luiz Francisco & da Silva, Jean Constantino Gomes & Mumbach, Guilherme Davi & Domenico, Michele Di & da Silva Filho, Valdemar Francisco & de Sena, Rennio Felix & Machado, Ricardo Antonio F, 2020. "Insights into the bioenergy potential of jackfruit wastes considering their physicochemical properties, bioenergy indicators, combustion behaviors, and emission characteristics," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 1328-1338.
    23. Aragon-Briceño, Christian & Pożarlik, Artur & Bramer, Eddy & Brem, Gerrit & Wang, Shule & Wen, Yuming & Yang, Weihong & Pawlak-Kruczek, Halina & Niedźwiecki, Łukasz & Urbanowska, Agnieszka & Mościcki,, 2022. "Integration of hydrothermal carbonization treatment for water and energy recovery from organic fraction of municipal solid waste digestate," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 577-591.
    24. Schuenemann, Franziska & Msangi, Siwa & Zeller, Manfred, 2018. "Policies for a Sustainable Biomass Energy Sector in Malawi: Enhancing Energy and Food Security Simultaneously," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 14-26.
    25. Fais, Birgit & Sabio, Nagore & Strachan, Neil, 2016. "The critical role of the industrial sector in reaching long-term emission reduction, energy efficiency and renewable targets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 699-712.
    26. Helder Filipe dos Santos Viana & Abel Martins Rodrigues & Radu Godina & João Carlos de Oliveira Matias & Leonel Jorge Ribeiro Nunes, 2018. "Evaluation of the Physical, Chemical and Thermal Properties of Portuguese Maritime Pine Biomass," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-15, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Salini Chandrasekharan Nair & Vineetha John & Renu Geetha Bai & Timo Kikas, 2025. "Torrefaction of Lignocellulosic Biomass: A Pathway to Renewable Energy, Circular Economy, and Sustainable Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-28, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Piotr Piersa & Szymon Szufa & Justyna Czerwińska & Hilal Ünyay & Łukasz Adrian & Grzegorz Wielgosinski & Andrzej Obraniak & Wiktoria Lewandowska & Marta Marczak-Grzesik & Maria Dzikuć & Zdzislawa Roma, 2021. "Pine Wood and Sewage Sludge Torrefaction Process for Production Renewable Solid Biofuels and Biochar as Carbon Carrier for Fertilizers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-27, December.
    2. Moya, Roger & Rodríguez-Zúñiga, Ana & Puente-Urbina, Allen & Gaitán-Álvarez, Johanna, 2018. "Study of light, middle and severe torrefaction and effects of extractives and chemical compositions on torrefaction process by thermogravimetric analysis in five fast-growing plantations of Costa Rica," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 1-10.
    3. Mularski, Jakub & Stasiak, Kamil & Ostrycharczyk, Michał & Czerep, Michał & Wnukowski, Mateusz & Krochmalny, Krystian & Baranowski, Marcin & Ziółkowski, Paweł & Kowal, Mateusz & Arora, Amit & Vishwaje, 2025. "The effect of hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) on entrained flow steam gasification of sewage sludge. Experimental validation of various gasification models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    4. Leontiev, Alexandr & Kichatov, Boris & Korshunov, Alexey & Kiverin, Alexey & Medvetskaya, Natalia & Melnikova, Ksenia, 2018. "Oxidative torrefaction of briquetted birch shavings in the bentonite," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(PA), pages 303-313.
    5. Zdzislawa Romanowska-Duda & Szymon Szufa & Mieczysław Grzesik & Krzysztof Piotrowski & Regina Janas, 2021. "The Promotive Effect of Cyanobacteria and Chlorella sp. Foliar Biofertilization on Growth and Metabolic Activities of Willow ( Salix viminalis L.) Plants as Feedstock Production, Solid Biofuel and Bio," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-21, August.
    6. Granados, D.A. & Ruiz, R.A. & Vega, L.Y. & Chejne, F., 2017. "Study of reactivity reduction in sugarcane bagasse as consequence of a torrefaction process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 818-827.
    7. Krochmalny, Krystian & Niedzwiecki, Lukasz & Pelińska-Olko, Ewa & Wnukowski, Mateusz & Czajka, Krzysztof & Tkaczuk-Serafin, Monika & Pawlak-Kruczek, Halina, 2020. "Determination of the marker for automation of torrefaction and slow pyrolysis processes – A case study of spherical wood particles," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 350-360.
    8. Oliveira Rodrigues, Pedro Paulo de & Lamas, Giulia Cruz & Ghesti, Grace F. & Macedo, Lucélia A. & Luz, Sandra M. & Francisco Alves, José Luiz & de Paula Protásio, Thiago & Rousset, Patrick & Silveira,, 2025. "Effect of extractive removal and heating rates on pequi seed torrefaction: A detailed kinetic and predictive study for biofuel production," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 321(C).
    9. Bouraoui, Zeineb & Jeguirim, Mejdi & Guizani, Chamseddine & Limousy, Lionel & Dupont, Capucine & Gadiou, Roger, 2015. "Thermogravimetric study on the influence of structural, textural and chemical properties of biomass chars on CO2 gasification reactivity," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 703-710.
    10. Guizani, Chamseddine & Haddad, Khouloud & Jeguirim, Mejdi & Colin, Baptiste & Limousy, Lionel, 2016. "Combustion characteristics and kinetics of torrefied olive pomace," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 453-463.
    11. Čespiva, J. & Skřínský, J. & Vereš, J. & Wnukowski, M. & Serenčíšová, J. & Ochodek, T., 2023. "Solid recovered fuel gasification in sliding bed reactor," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    12. González Martínez, María & Dupont, Capucine & da Silva Perez, Denilson & Mortha, Gérard & Thiéry, Sébastien & Meyer, Xuân-mi & Gourdon, Christophe, 2020. "Understanding the torrefaction of woody and agricultural biomasses through their extracted macromolecular components. Part 1: Experimental thermogravimetric solid mass loss," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    13. Dossow, Marcel & Dieterich, Vincent & Hanel, Andreas & Spliethoff, Hartmut & Fendt, Sebastian, 2021. "Improving carbon efficiency for an advanced Biomass-to-Liquid process using hydrogen and oxygen from electrolysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    14. Doddapaneni, Tharaka Rama Krishna C. & Praveenkumar, Ramasamy & Tolvanen, Henrik & Rintala, Jukka & Konttinen, Jukka, 2018. "Techno-economic evaluation of integrating torrefaction with anaerobic digestion," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 272-284.
    15. Tsai, Wen-Tien & Lin, Yu-Quan & Tsai, Chi-Hung & Chung, Mei-Hua & Chu, Ming-Hung & Huang, Hung-Ju & Jao, Ya-Hsuan & Yeh, Showin-Ing, 2020. "Conversion of water caltrop husk into torrefied biomass by torrefaction," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    16. Suchandra Hazra & Prithvi Morampudi & John C. Prindle & Dhan Lord B. Fortela & Rafael Hernandez & Mark E. Zappi & Prashanth Buchireddy, 2023. "Torrefaction of Pine Using a Pilot-Scale Rotary Reactor: Experimentation, Kinetics, and Process Simulation Using Aspen Plus™," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-21, May.
    17. González Martínez, María & Dupont, Capucine & Anca-Couce, Andrés & da Silva Perez, Denilson & Boissonnet, Guillaume & Thiéry, Sébastien & Meyer, Xuân-mi & Gourdon, Christophe, 2020. "Understanding the torrefaction of woody and agricultural biomasses through their extracted macromolecular components. Part 2: Torrefaction model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    18. Sławomir Francik & Bogusława Łapczyńska-Kordon & Norbert Pedryc & Wojciech Szewczyk & Renata Francik & Zbigniew Ślipek, 2022. "The Use of Artificial Neural Networks for Determining Values of Selected Strength Parameters of Miscanthus × Giganteus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-26, March.
    19. Rodriguez Alonso, Elvira & Dupont, Capucine & Heux, Laurent & Da Silva Perez, Denilson & Commandre, Jean-Michel & Gourdon, Christophe, 2016. "Study of solid chemical evolution in torrefaction of different biomasses through solid-state 13C cross-polarization/magic angle spinning NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) and TGA (thermogravimetric ana," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 381-390.
    20. Oleksiy Opryshko & Nikolay Kiktev & Sergey Shvorov & Fedir Hluhan & Roman Polishchuk & Maksym Murakhovskiy & Taras Hutsol & Szymon Glowacki & Tomasz Nurek & Mariusz Sojak, 2025. "Evaluation of Promising Areas for Biogas Production by Indirect Assessment of Raw Materials Using Satellite Monitoring," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-23, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:15:p:4154-:d:1718120. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.