Virgin and treated wood combustion: VOC toxicity analysis

This study investigates the behavior of virgin wood and treated wood in terms of emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere after combustion in a heater. This activity is intended to verify if semifinished wood containing non-chlorinated organic glues generates emissions that significantly differ from virgin wood if used as fuel in heaters. 3 samples of virgin wood and 3 samples of treated wood were separately burnt in a two-stage gasification boiler. Generally, during the steady-state phase of combustion, the differences between the tests with virgin wood and with treated wood are minimal and no criticalities can be observed in terms of total VOC concentrations at the outlet. Additional investigations are anyway required to analyze the toxicity of the effluents, which is strongly influenced by the concentrations of the single VOCs.