IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i9p5328-d803612.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Steam-Exploded Pruning Waste as Peat Substitute: Physiochemical Properties, Phytotoxicity and Their Implications for Plant Cultivation

Author

Listed:
  • Rui Yang

    (Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610213, China
    These authors contribute equally to this work.)

  • Xuejiao Chen

    (School of Food and Biotechnology, Xihua University, Chengdu 610039, China
    These authors contribute equally to this work.)

  • Dongdong Zhang

    (Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610213, China)

  • Hong Wang

    (Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610213, China)

  • Wanlai Zhou

    (Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610213, China)

  • Wei Lin

    (Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610213, China)

  • Zhiyong Qi

    (Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610213, China)

Abstract

Peat is a nonrenewable resource that we are using at alarming rates. Development of peat alternative from pruning waste (PW) could be a cost- and environment-friendly way of disposal. Steam explosion (SE) is a commonly used pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass, but its impact on the properties of PW as a growing substrate is largely unknown. To address this issue, PW was treated using five SE temperatures (160, 175, 190, 205 and 220 °C) and three retention times (1, 3 and 5 min) and evaluated for key traits of growing substrate. Results indicate that bulk density, total porosity, EC, total carbon, and concentration of phytotoxins including phenol, flavonoid, and alkaloid significantly increased or tended to increase with increasing temperature and/or retention time. A reversed trend was observed for water-holding capacity, pH, content of hemicellulose and lignin, and germination index. Cation exchange capacity and total N showed minimal response to SE. Steam explosion had inconsistent impacts on acid soluble nutrients. Phytotoxicity was a major factor limiting the use of SE-treated PW as growing substrate. Higher pretreatment severity led to higher phytotoxicity but also facilitated subsequent phytotoxicity removal by torrefaction. Pruning waste treated by SE and torrefaction under certain conditions may be used as peat substitute for up to 40% (v/v).

Suggested Citation

  • Rui Yang & Xuejiao Chen & Dongdong Zhang & Hong Wang & Wanlai Zhou & Wei Lin & Zhiyong Qi, 2022. "Steam-Exploded Pruning Waste as Peat Substitute: Physiochemical Properties, Phytotoxicity and Their Implications for Plant Cultivation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-16, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5328-:d:803612
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5328/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5328/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Wei-Hsin & Hsu, Huan-Chun & Lu, Ke-Miao & Lee, Wen-Jhy & Lin, Ta-Chang, 2011. "Thermal pretreatment of wood (Lauan) block by torrefaction and its influence on the properties of the biomass," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 3012-3021.
    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. Hong Wang & Wei Lin & Dongdong Zhang & Rui Yang & Wanlai Zhou & Zhiyong Qi, 2022. "Phytotoxicity of Chemical Compounds from Cinnamomum camphora Pruning Waste in Germination and Plant Cultivation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-12, September.

    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. Batidzirai, B. & Mignot, A.P.R. & Schakel, W.B. & Junginger, H.M. & Faaij, A.P.C., 2013. "Biomass torrefaction technology: Techno-economic status and future prospects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 196-214.
    2. Rousset, P. & Fernandes, K. & Vale, A. & Macedo, L. & Benoist, A., 2013. "Change in particle size distribution of Torrefied biomass during cold fluidization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 71-77.
    3. Chen, Wei-Hsin & Chen, Chih-Jung & Hung, Chen-I & Shen, Cheng-Hsien & Hsu, Heng-Wen, 2013. "A comparison of gasification phenomena among raw biomass, torrefied biomass and coal in an entrained-flow reactor," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 421-430.
    4. Wu, Keng-Tung & Tsai, Chia-Ju & Chen, Chih-Shen & Chen, Hsiao-Wei, 2012. "The characteristics of torrefied microalgae," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 52-57.
    5. Chen, Wei-Hsin & Kuo, Po-Chih, 2011. "Isothermal torrefaction kinetics of hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin and xylan using thermogravimetric analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 6451-6460.
    6. Christoforou, Elias A. & Fokaides, Paris A., 2016. "Life cycle assessment (LCA) of olive husk torrefaction," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 257-266.
    7. Gunarathne, Duleeka Sandamali & Mueller, Andreas & Fleck, Sabine & Kolb, Thomas & Chmielewski, Jan Karol & Yang, Weihong & Blasiak, Wlodzimierz, 2014. "Gasification characteristics of steam exploded biomass in an updraft pilot scale gasifier," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 496-506.
    8. Yang, Y. & Brammer, J.G. & Wright, D.G. & Scott, J.A. & Serrano, C. & Bridgwater, A.V., 2017. "Combined heat and power from the intermediate pyrolysis of biomass materials: performance, economics and environmental impact," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 639-652.
    9. Ke, Linyao & Wu, Qiuhao & Zhou, Nan & Xiong, Jianyun & Yang, Qi & Zhang, Letian & Wang, Yuanyuan & Dai, Leilei & Zou, Rongge & Liu, Yuhuan & Ruan, Roger & Wang, Yunpu, 2022. "Lignocellulosic biomass pyrolysis for aromatic hydrocarbons production: Pre and in-process enhancement methods," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    10. Chen, Wei-Hsin & Peng, Jianghong & Bi, Xiaotao T., 2015. "A state-of-the-art review of biomass torrefaction, densification and applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 847-866.
    11. 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.
    12. Chen, Wei-Hsin & Liu, Shih-Hsien & Juang, Tarng-Tzuen & Tsai, Chi-Ming & Zhuang, Yi-Qing, 2015. "Characterization of solid and liquid products from bamboo torrefaction," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 829-835.
    13. Sun Yong Park & Kwang Cheol Oh & Seok Jun Kim & La Hoon Cho & Young Kwang Jeon & DaeHyun Kim, 2023. "Development of a Biomass Component Prediction Model Based on Elemental and Proximate Analyses," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-17, July.
    14. Niu, Yanqing & Lv, Yuan & Lei, Yu & Liu, Siqi & Liang, Yang & Wang, Denghui & Hui, Shi'en, 2019. "Biomass torrefaction: properties, applications, challenges, and economy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    15. Jau-Jang Lu & Wei-Hsin Chen, 2013. "Product Yields and Characteristics of Corncob Waste under Various Torrefaction Atmospheres," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-15, December.
    16. Bach, Quang-Vu & Skreiberg, Øyvind & Lee, Chul-Jin, 2017. "Process modeling and optimization for torrefaction of forest residues," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 348-354.
    17. Chen, Wei-Hsin & Lu, Ke-Miao & Tsai, Chi-Ming, 2012. "An experimental analysis on property and structure variations of agricultural wastes undergoing torrefaction," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 318-325.
    18. Sabil, Khalik M. & Aziz, Muafah A. & Lal, Bhajan & Uemura, Yoshimitsu, 2013. "Synthetic indicator on the severity of torrefaction of oil palm biomass residues through mass loss measurement," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 821-826.
    19. 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.
    20. Zhang, Congyu & Ho, Shih-Hsin & Chen, Wei-Hsin & Wang, Rupeng, 2021. "Comparative indexes, fuel characterization and thermogravimetric- Fourier transform infrared spectrometer-mass spectrogram (TG-FTIR-MS) analysis of microalga Nannochloropsis Oceanica under oxidative a," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).

    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:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5328-:d:803612. 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.