Environmental assessment of waste incineration in a life-cycle-perspective (EASEWASTE)

Riber, Christian; Bhander, Gurbakhash Singh; Christensen, Thomas Højlund

doi:10.1177/0734242x08088583

Cited by 89 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The impact assessment followed recent recommendations for best practice within LCA (32). The following assessment methods were used: IPCC 2007 for GW (33), accumulated exceedance for AC (34), EUTREND for EP (N) (35), and Usetox for ETw and HT (36).…”

Section: Impact Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Material Resources, Energy, and Nutrient Recovery from Waste: Are Waste Refineries the Solution for the Future?

Tonini¹,

Martinez-Sanchez²,

Astrup³

2013

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Waste refineries focusing on multiple outputs of material resources, energy carriers, and nutrients may potentially provide more sustainable utilization of waste resources than traditional waste technologies. This consequential life cycle assessment (LCA) evaluated the environmental performance of a Danish waste refinery solution against state-of-the-art waste technology alternatives (incineration, mechanical-biological treatment (MBT), and landfilling). In total 252 scenarios were evaluated, including effects from source-segregation, waste composition, and energy conversion pathway efficiencies. Overall, the waste refinery provided global warming (GW) savings comparable with efficient incineration, MBT, and bioreactor landfilling technologies. The main environmental benefits from waste refining were a potential for improved phosphorous recovery (about 85%) and increased electricity production (by 15-40% compared with incineration); albeit at the potential expense of additional toxic emissions to soil.Society's need for the outputs from waste, i.e. energy products (electricity vs. transport fuels) and resources (e.g., phosphorous), and the available waste composition were found decisive for the selection of future technologies. Based on the results, it is recommended that a narrow focus on GW aspects should be avoided as most waste technologies may allow comparable performance.Rather, other environmental aspects such as resource recovery and toxic emissions should receive attention in the future.3

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Section: Impact Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Material Resources, Energy, and Nutrient Recovery from Waste: Are Waste Refineries the Solution for the Future?

Tonini¹,

Martinez-Sanchez²,

Astrup³

2013

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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“…On the other hand, the EASEWASTE database was established using data from different sources, including: existing databases such as EDIP (LCA-center 2008), inventories developed for previous LCA studies (Riber et al 2008) and datasets compiled by the developers.…”

Section: Lci Databasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…EASEWASTE (Riber et al 2008), SimaPro (Pré Consultants 2008), Gabi (PE International 2010). To be considered comprehensive and robust, the results of an LCA study should not be model dependent.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle assessment of waste incineration in Denmark and Italy using two LCA models

et al. 2011

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In Europe, about 20% of municipal solid waste is incinerated. Large differences can be found between northern and southern Europe regarding energy recovery efficiencies, flue gas cleaning technologies and residue management. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) of waste incineration often provides contradictory results if these local conditions are not properly accounted for. The importance of regional differences and site-specific data, and choice of LCA model itself, was evaluated by assessment of two waste incinerators representing northern and southern Europe (Denmark and Italy) based on two different LCA models (SimaPro and EASEWASTE). The results showed that assumptions and modelling approaches regarding energy recovery/ substitution and direct air emissions were most critical. Differences in model design and model databases mainly had consequences for the toxicity-related impact categories. The overall environmental performance of the Danish system was better than the Italian, mainly because of higher heat recovery at the Danish plant. Flue gas cleaning at the Italian plant was, however, preferable to the Danish, indicating that efficient flue gas cleaning may provide significant benefits. Differences in waste composition between the two countries mainly affected global warming and human toxicity via water. Overall, SimaPro and EASEWASTE provided consistent ranking of the individual scenarios. However, important differences in results from the two models were related to differences in the databases and modelling approaches, in particular the possibility for modelling of waste-specific emissions affected the toxicity-related impact categories. The results clearly showed that the use of site-specific data was essential for the results.

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“…LCA can be categorised as a hybrid approach since it utilises equations for inventory analysis and recycling loops on the one hand, while on the other it requires expertise input for impact assessment and characterisation. Riber et al (2008) utilise EASEWASTE (Christensen et al, 2007) for the environmental assessment of waste incineration. Liamsanguan and Gheewala (2008) calculate the inventory for the solid waste management system in Phuket, Thailand.…”

Section: Decision Support Systems (Dss) In Solid Waste Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decision support systems in solid waste management: A case study at the national and local level in Greece

Abeliotis

Καραϊσκου²,

Togia³

et al. 2013

Global NEST Journal

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Decision support systems (DSS) are used to aid at solid waste management, a tedious problem with many technical, economic and social constraints. The main DSS available are briefly presented and the development of a novel system, ReFlows, is described. The novelty of the developed DSS consists of the detailed analysis of the collection subsystem and in particular the source separation and collection programs for recyclables materials. ReFlows utilises mathematical equations for material and financial flows, organised in several subroutines, to simulate the various sub-systems of an integrated solid waste management system and may be applied to any geographical scale, from the local to the national. The model, currently developed in MATLAB, is applied on recycling scenarios based on the degree of expansion of the different source collection schemes currently operating in Greece.Results are presented at a national (Greece) and a local level (Municipality of Athens). The main outcome of the study is that full expansion of the existing schemes may not fulfil the recovery goals for packaging waste in Greece. Improved collection schemes are required, based on more pilot programs in order to investigate the optimum recycling strategy.

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Environmental assessment of waste incineration in a life-cycle-perspective (EASEWASTE)

Cited by 89 publications

References 8 publications

Material Resources, Energy, and Nutrient Recovery from Waste: Are Waste Refineries the Solution for the Future?

Material Resources, Energy, and Nutrient Recovery from Waste: Are Waste Refineries the Solution for the Future?

Life cycle assessment of waste incineration in Denmark and Italy using two LCA models

Decision support systems in solid waste management: A case study at the national and local level in Greece

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