Assessment of the greenhouse effect impact of technologies used for energy recovery from municipal waste: A case for England

Cost-effectiveness of GHG emission reduction measures and energy recovery from municipal waste in Croatia

Disposal of municipal solid waste in sanitary landfills is still the main waste management method in the Attica region, as in most regions of Greece. Nevertheless, diversion from landfilling is being promoted by regional plans, in which the perspectives of new waste treatment technologies are being evaluated. The present study aimed to assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions impact of different municipal solid waste treatment technologies currently under assessment in the new regional plan for Attica. These technologies are mechanical-biological treatment, mass-burn incineration and mechanical treatment and have been assessed in the context of different scenarios. The present study utilized existing methodologies and emission factors for the quantification of GHG emissions from the waste management process and found that all technologies under assessment could provide GHG emission savings. However, the performance and ranking of these technologies is strongly dependent on the existence of end markets for the waste-derived fuels produced by the mechanical-biological treatment processes. In the absence of these markets the disposal of these fuels would be necessary and thus significant GHG savings would be lost.

The European Directives, along with the general notion that wastes are resources, and the effort to reduce the environmental impact in urban environment from waste management, are the driving forces behind waste to energy philosophy. The most sustainable cities in the EU consider that their sustainability is also based on energy recovery from wastes. They all use Waste-to-Energy facilities to treat a significant segment of their waste in order to produce energy in the form of heat and electricity. They do so in a very successful and environmentally friendly way, as they mainly utilise waste fractions that cannot be recycled or reused, and they do not dispose of these resources in landfills. This approach proves that sustainable waste management cannot be achieved without Waste-to-Energy facilities, since a fraction of wastes consists of non-recyclable and non- reusable materials, which provide a significant heating value that cannot be neglected as an energy source. Apart from recycling, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) treatment is achieved through various processes that aim towards the conversion of waste into useful forms of energy or easily biodegradable, stabilized products. Dedicated treatment methods for getting different refuse derived products that can be used as fuel for producing energy are available. The aim of this paper is to briefly present these methods, review their processes and reveal where their individual energy costs/losses are derived from. A review and a calculation example for the methods of Recycling, Anaerobic Digestion, Composting, Biodrying and combustion are presented concisely. Finally, these methods are compared in terms of energy costs and recovery. Moreover, the calculation methodology of the energy costs of MSW treatment facility is presented. Energy costs/losses are not a synonym for the efficiency of a MSW treatment method, but are an important factor that must be taken into consideration when designing a MSW treatment facility. Furthermore, different waste mixtures will provide different results for this study but the main conclusion remains unaltered: In terms of energy demand for waste management a percentage of methods are energy consuming and others are energy producing, or lead to significant energy savings, which is key action for a sustainable future. Municipal wastes is one of the greatest problems that the modern societies must solve. The current approach is the environmental impact of the method considering the volumes that must be treated and the sustainability of the method. Last but not least, energy consumption must be adopted in each and every human activity so as to achieve sustainable development.The European Directives, along with the general notion that wastes are resources, and the effort to reduce the environmental impact in urban environment from waste management, are the driving forces behind waste to energy philosophy. The most sustainable cities in the EU consider that their sustainability is also based on energy recovery from wastes. They all use Waste-to-Energy facilities to treat a significant segment of their waste in order to produce energy in the form of heat and electricity. They do so in a very successful and environmentally friendly way, as they mainly utilise waste fractions that cannot be recycled or reused, and they do not dispose of these resources in landfills. This approach proves that sustainable waste management cannot be achieved without Waste-to-Energy facilities, since a fraction of wastes consists of non-recyclable and non- reusable materials, which provide a significant heating value that cannot be neglected as an energy source. Apart from recycling, Municipal Solid W...

BackgroundDue to a rapid urbanization process in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile (MRS), the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated has increased considerably within the last years. MSW should be managed properly in order to achieve sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to analyze MSW management in MRS on the basis of three different explorative scenarios for the year 2030.MethodsThe Integrative Sustainability Concept of the Helmholtz Association provided a conceptual framework for the study and was used to evaluate the scenarios. One important topic within the field of management of MSW in the year 2030 will be the contribution of waste treatment technologies to energy production, e.g., by the use of landfill gas and by separated collection of biowaste followed by anaerobic treatment.ResultsThe largest sustainability deficits in the scenarios are the small proportion of MSW being pre-treated before final disposal and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with MSW disposal. MSW management technologies taken into consideration were mechanical biological treatment, energy recovery from MSW in anaerobic digestion plants with biogas production, the production of refuse-derived fuel and its use as a secondary fuel, as well as electricity generation from landfill gas. Energy generation from MSW in 2030 will be about 6% of electricity consumption in 2010.ConclusionsThe three scenarios show some sustainability deficits. Even so, there are some improvements such as the reduction of GHG emissions and - even though marginal - energy supply for MRS from renewable energy sources.

Anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse warming gases (GWG) to the atmosphere are thought to contribute to the Earth’s global warming. Among different waste management options, incineration is often considered one of the most effective and environmentally protective as demonstrated by many Life Cycle Assessment analysis. Nonetheless, depending on previous treatments that a waste may receive, such as mechanical biological treatment (MBT), landfilling could offer better possibilities than incineration in terms of GWG emissions thanks to carbon sequestration according to the “Carbon Sink” principle. The latter refers to any process that avoids the emission of GWG, for example, the biogenic carbon that is not dissimilated and remains permanently stored in a landfill, avoiding its emission to the atmosphere. The current study presents a forensic case study of municipal solid waste management in Italy; it aims at assessing the GWG [i.e., methane, carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitrous oxide] released to the atmosphere by two different scenarios of a waste flow processed in a MBT: incineration with energy recovery and landfill disposal with gas recovery. For each scenario, total fluxes of GWG are estimated as the sum of: 1) emissions during waste refinery to produce refuse-derived fuel; 2) indirect emissions associated to transport; 3) process or treatment emissions derived from the waste itself (direct emissions) and from the fuel used for its treatment prior to disposal; 4) disposal emissions that result from the ultimate disposal of the waste; 5) emissions avoided as a result of useful energy or materials recovery; 6) stored or sequestered emissions due to short-cycle carbon locked up in the landfill and prevented from being returned to the atmosphere as CO2 for longer than 100 years. Carbon sink is a fundamental phenomenon to be accounted in the study, given that, without considering it, the GWG in the landfill would considerably change (from –33.9 kg CO2/t DF to 250.3 kg CO2/t DF, DF being the dry fraction from the MBT process). According to the composition of waste and to the plant engineering for the treatment/disposal destinations assumed, landfilling results the better option in term of GWG emissions. It is worth mentioning that not only GWG should be considered in the evaluation of waste management options. Nonetheless, the results from the present study provide useful information to prove that a waste management option (landfilling), that a priori could appear less sustainable, represents, instead, an optimal solution.

Greenhouse gas emission mitigation potential from municipal solid waste treatment: A combined SD-LMDI model

Investigating the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from municipal solid waste management using ant colony algorithm, Monte Carlo simulation and LCA approach in terms of EU Green Deal

Waste Management Pinch Analysis (WAMPA): Application of Pinch Analysis for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction in municipal solid waste management

The feasibility analysis of cement kiln as an MSW treatment infrastructure: From a life cycle environmental impact perspective

In order to comply with the EU landfill directive (Bosnia and Herzegovina is a potential candidate for a membership in the European Union) and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as to save important resources, mechanical biological treatment of municipal solid waste is a promising waste treatment option compared to open dumping and in particular large size landfilling. Mechanical biological waste treatment shows high potential to reduce direct GHG emissions through avoiding methane generation in landfills. Besides, indirect GHG can be reduced by replacing primary products or fossil energy by recycling products and renewable energy, which are less greenhouse gas emission intensive. Key words: municipal solid waste management, greenhouse gas emissions, mechanical-biological treatment, landfill gas, material recovery.

Transition towards eco-efficiency in municipal solid waste management to reduce GHG emissions: The case of Brazil

Disposal of solid waste poses great challenges to city managements. Changes in solid waste composition and disposal methods, along with urbanisation, can certainly affect greenhouse gas emissions from municipal solid waste. In this study, we analysed the changes in the generation, composition and management of municipal solid waste in Beijing. The changes of greenhouse gas emissions from municipal solid waste management were thereafter calculated. The impacts of municipal solid waste management improvements on greenhouse gas emissions and the mitigation effects of treatment techniques of greenhouse gas were also analysed. Municipal solid waste generation in Beijing has increased, and food waste has constituted the most substantial component of municipal solid waste over the past decade. Since the first half of 1950s, greenhouse gas emission has increased from 6 CO2-eq Gg y(-1)to approximately 200 CO2-eq Gg y(-1)in the early 1990s and 2145 CO2-eq Gg y(-1)in 2013. Landfill gas flaring, landfill gas utilisation and energy recovery in incineration are three techniques of the after-emission treatments in municipal solid waste management. The scenario analysis showed that three techniques might reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 22.7%, 4.5% and 9.8%, respectively. In the future, if waste disposal can achieve a ratio of 4:3:3 by landfill, composting and incineration with the proposed after-emission treatments, as stipulated by the Beijing Municipal Waste Management Act, greenhouse gas emissions from municipal solid waste will decrease by 41%.

Implementing mechanical biological treatment in an emerging waste management system predominated by waste pickers: A Brazilian case study

Improving waste management is currently one of the priorities for Ukraine in the environmental safety. EU experience in the use of mechanical biological waste treatment technologies should be applied now in connection with the development and implementation of Regional Waste Management Plans in Ukrainian regions. The aim of the paper is to analyse the benefits and the preconditions of using mechanical biological waste treatment technologies in Ukraine, as well as barriers that may hinder the construction of mechanical biological waste treatment plants. The analysis of the eight drafts of the Regional Waste Management Plans showed that the mechanical biological waste treatment technologies market is free in Ukraine and the best option for the regions where there are cement plants operating is production of solid recovered fuel. Such types of projects could be affordable for Ukrainians with the cost recovery period more than 8 years. On the other hand there are significant obstacles of economic, organizational and technological nature to their immediate implementation i.e. low rates on waste disposal tax, partly compliance on air emissions monitoring system, absence of necessary standards etc. The priority actions to speed up mechanical biological waste treatment technologies implementation have been defined.

Landfilling is the most applied solid waste management method in developing countries, which leads to a large amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is thus imperative to develop strategies for evaluating different economically viable waste management scenarios to mitigate GHG emissions. According to the Paris Agreement, Kazakhstan planned to decrease GHG emissions by 25% by 2050 as compared to 1990 levels, while reaching carbon neutrality by 2060. In this context, we herein propose four different scenarios for municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment and three scenarios for sewage sludge (SS) treatment with the aim of evaluating the GHG potential for Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan, using the (solid waste management) SWM-GHG calculator developed by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. The MSW treatment scenarios include: (A) 15% recycling of secondary materials and 85% landfilling of remaining MSW; (B) 30% recycling of secondary materials; 70% sanitary landfilling with biogas collection; (C) 30% recycling and 70% biological stabilization and landfilling without biogas collection; and (D) 30% recycling, 20% composting, and 50% (waste-to-energy) WtE incineration. The sewage sludge management scenarios include (1) 100% landfilling; (2) 100% WtE incineration; and (3) co-incineration of sewage sludge and coal. The results reveal that more complex scenarios lead to extensive ecological benefits; however, there are economic constraints. Based on the analysis of the proposed scenarios, we recommend the optimal strategy for MSW treatment to be 30% recycling with biological stabilization that has a total cost of EUR 16.7 million/year and overall GHG emissions of −120 kt of CO2 eq/year. In terms of sewage sludge management, the addition of coal to sewage sludge simplifies the combustion process due to the higher heat capacity. Considering lower cost and higher energy recovery, it is recommended as a favorable process.