Life Cycle Inventory of Waste-to-Energy and Comparison to Landfill-Gas-to-Energy Options

2012 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Inventory ◽  
Landfill Gas ◽  
Waste To Energy ◽  
Energy Options

Life Cycle Comparison of Two Options for MSW Management in Puerto Rico: Thermal Treatment vs. Modern Landfilling

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giselle Balaguer-Da´tiz ◽  
Nikhil Krishnan
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Thermal Treatment ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Life Cycle Inventory ◽  
Landfill Gas ◽  
The Body ◽  
Waste To Energy ◽  
Msw Management ◽  
Wide Range

The management of municipal solid wastes (MSW) in Puerto Rico is becoming increasingly challenging. In recent years, several of the older landfills have closed due to lack of compliance with federal landfill requirements. Puerto Rico is an island community and there is limited space for construction of new landfills. Furthermore, Puerto Rico residents generate more waste per capita than people living on the continental US. Thermal treatment, or waste to energy (WTE) technologies are therefore a promising option for MSW management. It is critical to consider environmental impacts when making decisions related to MSW management. In this paper we quantify and compare the environmental implications of thermal treatment of MSW with modern landfilling for Puerto Rico from a life cycle perspective. The Caguas municipality is currently considering developing a thermal treatment plant. We compare this to an expansion of a landfill site in the Humacao municipality, which currently receives waste from Caguas. The scope of our analysis includes a broad suite of activities associated with management of MSW. We include: (i) the transportation of MSW; (ii) the impacts of managing waste (e.g., landfill gas emissions and potential aqueous run-off with landfills; air emissions of metals, dioxins and greenhouse gases) and (iii) the implications of energy and materials offsets from the waste management process (e.g., conversion of landfill gas to electricity, electricity produced in thermal treatment, and materials recovered from thermal treatment ash). We developed life cycle inventory models for different waste management processes, incorporating information from a wide range of sources — including peer reviewed life cycle inventory databases, the body of literature on environmental impact of waste management, and site-specific factors for Puerto Rico (e.g. waste composition, rainfall patterns, electricity mix). We managed uncertainty in data and models by constructing different scenarios for both technologies based on realistic ranges of emission factors. The results show that thermal treatment of the unrecyclable part of the waste stream is the preferred option for waste management when compared to modern landfilling. Furthermore, Eco-indicator 99 method is used to investigate the human health, ecosystem quality and resource use impact categories.

scholarly journals Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Gasification and Landfilling for Disposal of Municipal Solid Wastes

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
pp. 7032
Author(s):  
Angelika Sita Ouedraogo ◽  
Robert Scott Frazier ◽  
Ajay Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Landfill Gas ◽  
Solid Wastes ◽  
Waste To Energy ◽  
Air Emissions ◽  
Municipal Solid Wastes ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Environment And Health ◽  
The Impact

Disposal of municipal solid wastes (MSW) remains a challenge to minimize its impacts on the environment and human health. Landfilling, currently the most common method used for MSW disposal, occupies land space and leads to soil and air emissions. Gasification, an alternative MSW disposal method, can convert waste to energy, but can also lead to soil and air emissions and is a more extensive operation. In this study, life cycle assessments (LCA) of the two disposal methods (landfilling without energy recovery and gasification) were compared to understand impacts on environment and health. The LCA was conducted following the ISO 14040 standards with one ton of MSW as the functional unit. The life cycle inventory was obtained from published journals, technical reports, LandGEM, HELP and GREET database. The impact assessment was done using TRACI 2.1 and categorized into eight groups. The LCA revealed that landfilling is a higher contributor in global warming, acidification, smog formation, eutrophication, ecotoxicity and human health cancer and non-cancer categories. The negative environmental impacts of MSW landfilling can be primarily attributed to the fate of leachate loss and landfill gas, while those of the MSW gasification can be attributed to the disposal of its solid residues.

Gate-to-Gate Life Cycle Inventory and Model of CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery (Presentation)

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Cooney ◽  
James Littlefield ◽  
Joe Marriott ◽  
Matt Jamieson ◽  
Robert E James III PhD ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Enhanced Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Life Cycle Inventory

scholarly journals Social Life Cycle Inventory for Pavements – A Case Study of South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 100060
Author(s):  
Sheldon A. Blaauw ◽  
James W. Maina ◽  
Louis J. Grobler
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Inventory ◽  
Social Life

scholarly journals Life cycle inventory for the production of germinated oil palm seeds at a selected seed production unit in Malaysia

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nik Sasha Khatrina Khairuddin ◽  
B. S. Ismail ◽  
Halimah Muhamad ◽  
Choo Yuen May
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Seed Production ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Life Cycle Inventory ◽  
Production Unit
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