PCDD/F enviromental impact from municipal solid waste bio-drying plant

Rada, Elena Cristina; Ragazzi, Marco; Zardi, Dino; Laiti, Lavinia; Ferrari, Ambra

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2011.04.019

Cited by 35 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In this frame the environmental impact of an incinerator depends on many factors:  Site characteristics (the local climatology strongly affects the local impact);  Amount of residual MSW (RMSW) to be treated (the off-gas flow-rate is proportional to the amount of RMSW burnt, if its characteristics are steady);  Lower Heating Value (LHV) of the RMSW (this parameter influence the off-gas flow-rate);  Emission concentrations at the stack during operating conditions (keeping steady the off-gas flow-rate, the release of pollutants at the stack is proportional to the pollutants concentrations at the emission);  Stack height (a higher stack fosters the pollutants dilution into the atmosphere);  Off-gas velocity at the stack (higher values of this parameter favor the dilution);  Off-gas temperature at the stack (this parameter is limited by the need of performing energy recovery, but it is clear that higher values foster dilution into the atmosphere);  Yearly operating hours (keeping steady the amount of waste to be fed, a shorter working period causes an increase of the waste flow-rate, with consequences on the peaks of impact). In the literature, an analysis of the effects of the operating hours scheduling is not common both for thermochemical processes [4,5] and for biochemical processes [6][7][8][9][10][11]. The aim of this paper is to go beyond the analyses based on overall balances [12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maintenance strategies and local impact of MSW incinerators

Ragazzi¹,

Torretta²,

Ionescu³

et al. 2013

Energy and Sustainability IV

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The present paper gives a contribution to the understanding of the effects of variations in maintenance scheduling on the environmental impact of municipal solid waste incinerators. The proposed approach allows a vision of their impact beyond the conventional balances. The characteristics of a selected case study were put forward and discussed. A plant proposed for a region in the North East of Italy was chosen for the scheduling effects analysis because of the long period of non-operation of each waste treatment line: 3 months per year as requested from the local environmental protection agency. The following effects were discussed on a yearly basis: maintenance stop fractionation, maintenance stop lasting, maintenance stop seasonal scheduling; the last aspect was discussed also at device level. The extreme scenario of seasonal stop gave the opportunity of assessing the highest reduction of yearly average impact from the stack, varying the season of maintenance: a reduction up to 23% could be obtained for the pollutants concentration contribution at ground level in the area of highest impact, comparing the worst case with the best case by a diffusive model. In the case of more common periods of stops for maintenance the reduction would be lower. The role of district heating must be taken into account too.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maintenance strategies and local impact of MSW incinerators

Ragazzi¹,

Torretta²,

Ionescu³

et al. 2013

Energy and Sustainability IV

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The removal efficiencies of biofilters, for instance, coupled with the low velocity of the outgoing air, do not offer an appropriate dilution of the pollutants emitted into the atmosphere; in addition, biofilters are usually located at ground level. As a consequence, due to the absence of chimneys to increase the release height, the impacts of MBTs like bio-drying and biostabilization on ambient air concentration and atmospheric deposition to soil may be comparable with the impacts generated by the newest municipal waste incinerators [33,35]. In fact, even though the emissions from MBTs are lower, their impact on the population may be even higher both for the configurations of the usual removal technologies and due to the possible presence of fields, pastures and dwellings in the surroundings.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, with respect to the impacts on human health, the choice of the best treatment from the environmental point of view should not be limited by the results of an LCA. Evidences coming from dispersion simulations based on the typical emission factors for the air treatment systems usually adopted by mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) plants show potentially high impacts on the surrounding areas [32][33][34]. The removal efficiencies of biofilters, for instance, coupled with the low velocity of the outgoing air, do not offer an appropriate dilution of the pollutants emitted into the atmosphere; in addition, biofilters are usually located at ground level.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proposal for the correct management of the Life Cycle Assessment results from integrated municipal solid waste treatment

Schiavon

Ragazzi

Rada

et al. 2014

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study focuses on the application of the environmental part of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to identify the best alternative among four solutions representing different integrated management systems for the treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) fluxes. The comparison between the results is made in terms of the human toxicity potentials, with respect to other treatments, including mechanical-biological treatments (MBTs). However, findings from previous studies highlighted the potential risk deriving from the applications of MBTs in their conventional configurations. It may be important to consider the need for adopting additional methods, such as emission, dispersion and exposure models. These tools can improve the understanding of the potential constraints derived from the choice of an integrated solution for waste management and provide useful insights for the choice of the location of a plant, in order to protect fields, pasture and dwellings from potential contamination of soil, the food chain and air.

show abstract

“…However, the results presented will be useful for achieving an improved understanding of the typical surface wind and ABL processes affecting air quality Gohm et al, 2009;Palau et al, 2005;Pérez-Landa et al, 2007;Rada et al, 2011;Ragazzi et al, 2013;Schnitzhofer et al, 2009), urban weather and climate (Giovannini et al, 2011(Giovannini et al, , 2013a(Giovannini et al, , 2014, turbulent fluxes ) and atmospheric convection leading to precipitation events (Bertò et al, 2004;Kalthoff et al, 2009;Eigenmann et al, 2009;Pucillo et al, 2009) in the study area. For example, in the warm season the Ora del Garda arrival in the afternoon may plausibly be expected to reduce the concentration of (locally emitted) pollutants and mitigate the temperature in the densely populated urban areas north of Trento.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the diurnal development of a lake-valley circulation in the Alps based on airborne and surface measurements

et al. 2014

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. This study investigates the thermal structures of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and the near-surface wind field associated with a lake-valley circulation in the south-eastern Italian Alps -the so-called Ora del Garda. Two flights of an equipped motorglider allowed for the exploration of the diurnal evolution of this circulation, from the onset, on Lake Garda's shoreline, throughout its development along the Sarca Valley and Lakes Valley (Valle dei Laghi), to the outflow into the Adige Valley. At the same time, surface observations, both from a targeted field campaign and from routinely operated weather stations, supported the analysis of the development of the Ora del Garda at the valley floor.In particular, in the valleys typical ABL vertical structures, characterized by rather shallow convective mixed layers (∼ 500 m) and (deeper) weakly stable layers above, up to the lateral crest height, are identified in the late morning. In contrast, close to the lake the ABL is stably stratified down to very low heights, as a consequence of the intense advection of colder air associated with the Ora del Garda flow (up to 6 m s −1 ). The combined analysis of surface and airborne observations (remapped over 3-D high-resolution grids) suggests that the lake-breeze front propagating up-valley from the shoreline in the late morning penetrates slightly later at the eastern end of the valley inlet (delay: ∼ 1 h), probably due to the asymmetric radiative forcing caused by the N-S valley orientation. On the other hand, in the early afternoon the Ora del Garda overflows through an elevated gap, producing an anomalous, strong cross-valley wind (5 m s −1 ) at the Adige Valley floor north of Trento, which overwhelms the local upvalley wind. This feature is associated with a strong deepening of the local mixed layer (from 400 to 1300 m). The potential temperature 3-D field suggests that the intense turbulent mixing may be attributed to the development of a downslope wind across the gap, followed by a hydraulic jump downstream.

show abstract

PCDD/F enviromental impact from municipal solid waste bio-drying plant

Cited by 35 publications

References 18 publications

Maintenance strategies and local impact of MSW incinerators

Maintenance strategies and local impact of MSW incinerators

Proposal for the correct management of the Life Cycle Assessment results from integrated municipal solid waste treatment

Analysis of the diurnal development of a lake-valley circulation in the Alps based on airborne and surface measurements

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About