Incineration; Life Cycle Assessment; Monte Carlo Analysis; ReCiPe; Waste management
Abstract :
[en] Purpose
The present study aims at identifying the best practice in residual municipal solid waste management using specific data from Liège, a highly industrialized and densely populated region of Belgium. We also illustrate the importance of assumptions relative to energy through sensitivity analyses and checking uncertainties regarding the results using a Monte Carlo analysis.
Methods
We consider four distinct household waste management scenarios. A life cycle assessment is made for each of them using the ReCiPe method. The first scenario is sanitary landfill, which is considered as the base case. In the second scenario, the refuse-derived fuel fraction is incinerated and a sanitary landfill is used for the remaining shredded organic and inert waste only. The third scenario consists in incinerating the whole fraction of municipal solid waste. In the fourth scenario, the biodegradable fraction is collected and the remaining waste is incinerated. The extracted biodegradable fraction is then treated in an anaerobic digestion plant.
Results and discussion
The present study shows that various scenarios have significantly different environmental impact. Compared to sanitary landfill, scenario 4 has a highly reduced environmental impact in terms of climate change and particulate matter formation. An environmental gain, equal to 10, 37, or 1.3 times the impact of scenario 1 is obtained for, respectively, human toxicity, mineral depletion, and fossil fuel depletion categories. These environmental gains are due to energetic valorization via the incineration and anaerobic digestion. Considering specific categories, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 17 % in scenario 2 and by 46 % in scenarios 3 and 4. For the particulate matter formation category, a 71 % reduction is achieved by scenario 3. The figures are slightly modified by the Monte Carlo analysis but the ranking of the scenarios is left unchanged.
Conclusions
The present study shows that replacing a sanitary landfill by efficient incineration significantly reduces both emissions of pollutants and energy depletion, thanks to electricity recovery.
Disciplines :
Energy Chemical engineering
Author, co-author :
Belboom, Sandra ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de chimie appliquée > Génie chimique - Procédés et développement durable
Digneffe, Jean-Marc; Intradel
Renzoni, Roberto ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de chimie appliquée > Génie chimique - Procédés et développement durable
Germain, Albert ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de chimie appliquée > Département de chimie appliquée
Léonard, Angélique ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de chimie appliquée > Génie chimique - Procédés et développement durable
Language :
English
Title :
Comparing technologies for municipal solid waste management using life cycle assessment methodology: a Belgian case study
Publication date :
2013
Journal title :
International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
ISSN :
0948-3349
eISSN :
1614-7502
Publisher :
Springer Science & Business Media B.V., Landsberg, Germany
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