TY - JOUR A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Dorgerloh, Ute A1 - Helmis, M. A1 - Mumme, J. A1 - Diakité, M. A1 - Nehls, Irene T1 - Hydrothermally carbonized plant materials: Patterns of volatile organic compounds detected by gas chromatography N2 - The nature and concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in chars generated by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is of concern considering their application as soil amendment. Therefore, the presence of VOCs in solid HTC products obtained from wheat straw, biogas digestate and four woody materials was investigated using headspace gas chromatography. A variety of potentially harmful benzenic, phenolic and furanic volatiles along with various aldehydes and ketones were identified in feedstock- and temperature-specific patterns. The total amount of VOCs observed after equilibration between headspace and char samples produced at 270 °C ranged between 2000 and 16,000 µg/g (0.2–1.6 wt.%). Depending on feedstock 50–9000 µg/g of benzenes and 300–1800 µg/g of phenols were observed. Substances potentially harmful to soil ecology such as benzofurans (200–800 µg/g) and p-cymene (up to 6000 µg/g in pine wood char) exhibited concentrations that suggest restrained application of fresh hydrochar as soil amendment or for water purification. KW - Hydrochar KW - Mass spectrometry KW - Flame ionization detection KW - Phenols KW - Benzenes PY - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2012.12.102 SN - 0960-8524 SN - 1873-2976 VL - 130 SP - 621 EP - 628 PB - Elsevier Applied Science CY - Barking, Essex AN - OPUS4-27616 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -