Landfill modelling in LCA – A contribution based on empirical data

Obersteiner, Gudrun; Binner, Erwin; Mostbauer, Peter; Salhofer, Stefan

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2007.02.018

Cited by 73 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In the UK, approx 22% of household waste generated in England was recycled in 2007/08 (Defra, 2009b); recycling rate for commercial waste and construction waste in England was much higher(45% and 50% respectively) and in 2002/03 the average recycling rate for total waste generated in UK already reached 42% (Defra, 2006d, Defra, 2006e, Defra, 2007c The largest component of UK household waste that is recycled is paper, followed by comingled material, glass and metals; plastics only occupied a small fraction (Defra, 2007f The first two types represent the conventional landfill systems where no active measures were taken to enhance waste degradation. In the future landfills may only accept waste that has been either pre-treated via incineration or by mechanical/biological treatment (Obersteiner et al, 2007).…”

Section: Recyclingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides these collection systems, cover layers are also applied in landfill management e.g. CH 4 oxidation layer to reduce CH 4 emissions, or the water retention layer to minimize the entry of rainwater and further reduce leachate (Menard et al, 2003, Obersteiner et al, 2007. A new design referred to as ‗bio-reactor landfill' is equipped with leachate re-circulation system to accelerate the biochemical degradation of MSW (Menard et al, 2003); in another semi-aerobic technology introduced, combinations of aerobic and AD can be applied: once the CH 4-generation reaches a level too low for energy recovery, the aerobic step is activated by injecting air from bottom of landfill site ).…”

Section: Recyclingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus metallic emissions under infinite-time need considering. However, Obersteiner et al (2007) argued that the uncertain parameters over the 100-year time horizon such as the technical innovation, change in climate condition etc make it impossible to ascertain the future characterization values which should be applied to long-term emissions; moreover, they proposed an assumption that leachate from sanitary landfill after 10 years decrease to the level of bottom ash landfills.…”

Section: Lca Of Landfillmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus Obersteiner et al (2007) concluded that the waste remaining in a landfill was not a crucial factor for the difference in long-term emissions from different landfill types.…”

Section: Lca Of Landfillmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…as in the LCA models presented by Doberl et al (2002), Menard et al (2003) and Binaghi et al(2007). But the effects of barriers are limited to a certain period, which should be considered especially in LCA models based on medium or long-term period; often a maximum 100-year life time was assumed for barriers (Doberl et al, 2002, Laner, 2009); whereas a 20-year or 30-year operation period for leachate treatment and landfill gas collection systems were modelled in previous studies (Menard et al, 2003, Obersteiner et al, 2007). …”

Section: Lca Of Landfillmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Light-Weight Eco-composites

Guo¹

2012

Springer Theses

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LCA of Light-weight Eco-composites Statement of originality 2 Statement of originalityI hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person.Contributions made to the research of this thesis by others, with whom I have worked with are explicitly acknowledged. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others with data collection and modification of process-oriented model DNDC is acknowledged. Miao GuoSep 2010 LCA of Light-weight Eco-compositesAbstract 3 AbstractThe environmental profiles of novel wheat based foam materials were investigated in this thesis using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods. The LCAs were developed using primary data collected from industrial sources combined with new laboratory experiments supplemented with secondary data from publicly available sources.Laboratory research was conducted to obtain important missing data on WBFs for the LCA modelling, including physico-chemical parameters, biodegradability and energy recovery under anaerobic digestion conditions.Contribution analysis suggested that the emissions evolved from the wheat agroecosystem and PVOH production, together with the energy and infrastructure involved in WBF production were the major contributors to the environmental burdens of the WBF life cycle in most impact categories. The atmospheric emissions resulting from WBF degradation at the end-of-life also emerged as another important contributor to environmental impact. Amongst the diverse ‗end-of-life' scenarios examined, AD and home composting were suggested to be the optimum choices for WBF waste treatment. This research discusses two N 2 O modelling approaches and presents a method to expand the system boundary by integrating the process-oriented model DNDC for field emissions into the LCA. Sensitivity analysis suggests that the environmental profiles of agricultural products are influenced substantially by the system boundary definition. LCA of Light-weight Eco-compositesAbstract 4 Furthermore, it suggests that the ‗general rule' in LCA practice by applying an empirical model or a default emission factor (EF) could deliver unreliable LCA findings.This study also evaluated the sensitivity of the LCA results to methodology and data variations and quantified the uncertainties in the LCA outcomes arising from uncertainty in the inventory and data variability. This has led to an increase in confidence in the LCA findings. At the same time it indicates the areas where improvements in data or methods are needed in order for robust conclusions to be drawn and unbiased information to be delivered e.g. the methodological rigidity of characterization models, the IPCC Tier 1 EF uncertainty range. LCA of Light-weight Eco-compositesAcknowledgements 5

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Section: Recyclingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Recyclingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lca Of Landfillmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus Obersteiner et al (2007) concluded that the waste remaining in a landfill was not a crucial factor for the difference in long-term emissions from different landfill types.…”

Section: Lca Of Landfillmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lca Of Landfillmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Light-Weight Eco-composites

Guo¹

2012

Springer Theses

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Landfilling: MBP Waste Landfills

Stegmann

2010

Solid Waste Technology &Amp; Management

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Assessment of technical and environmental performances of wheat‐based foams in thermal packaging applications

et al. 2010

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SUMMARYThis paper presents an assessment of the technical and environmental performance of a wheat-based foam (WBF) and bio-composite for shipping chilled products. The thermal conductivity of the WBF was found to be higher than that of polyurethane foams commonly used in high-value insulation packaging, but close to that of low-density (expanded polystyrene) EPS foams and signifi cantly lower than that of polyethylene (PE) foams, which are typically used in thermal packaging of foods. The insulation performance of a simple cool box constructed from both the WBF and EPS sandwich panels without the use of any refrigerant was studied experimentally. The comparison demonstrated that the performance of the WBF cool box was comparable to that of the EPS counterpart. Two industrial case studies were conducted on WBF cool boxes with refrigerants in comparison with PE or EPS counterparts. The WBF cool boxes had comparable thermal performance to the EPS and PE counterparts on the basis of identical foam thickness. The performance of the WBF cool boxes was also simulated with fi nite element (FE) modelling. Good agreement was achieved between experimental data and the FE prediction. The model was then used to assist cool box design. WBF cool boxes made from renewable raw materials are inherently biodegradable and may be used as an alternative to those based on polymer foams in thermal packaging applications. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) was used to investigate environmental profi les of cool boxes made with WBF, EPS and PE foams. The WBF cool boxes offer substantially lower global warming and abiotic depletion potentials than equivalent cool boxes made from petrochemical foams.

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Landfill modelling in LCA – A contribution based on empirical data

Cited by 73 publications

References 14 publications

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Light-Weight Eco-composites

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Light-Weight Eco-composites

Landfilling: MBP Waste Landfills

Assessment of technical and environmental performances of wheat‐based foams in thermal packaging applications

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