Lca Of Local Strategies For Energy Recovery From Waste In England, Applied To a Large Municipal Flow

LCA of local strategies for energy recovery from waste in England, appliedto a large municipal flowAn intense waste management (WM) planning activity is currently undergoing in England to build the infrastructure necessary to treat residual wastes, increase recycling levels and the recovery of energy from waste. From the analyses of local WM strategic and planning documents we have identifiedtheemerging of three different energy recovery strategies: established combustion of residual waste; pretreatmentof residual waste and energy recovery from Solid Recovered Fuel in a dedicated plant, usuallyassumed to be a gasifier; pre-treatment of residual waste and reliance on the market to accept the ‘fuelfrom waste’ so produced. Each energy recovery strategy will result in a different solution interms of the technology selected; moreover, on the basis of the favoured solution, the total number, scale and location of thermal treatment plants built in England will dramatically change. To support the evaluation and comparison of these three WM strategy in terms of global environmental impacts, energy recovery possibilities and performance with respect to changing ‘fuel from waste’ marketconditions, the LCA comparison of eight alternative WM scenarios for a real case study dealing with a large flow of municipal wastes was performed with the modelling tool WRATE. The large flow of waste modelled allowed to formúlate and assess realistic alternative WM scenarios and to design infrastructural systems which are likely tocorrespond to those submitted for approval to the localauthorities. The results show that all alternative scenarios contribute to saving abiotic resources and reducing global warming potential. Particularly relevant to the current English debate, the performance of a scenario was shown to depend not from the thermal treatment technology but from a combination of parameters, among which most relevant are the efficiency of energy recovery processes (bothelectricity and heat) and the calorific value of residualwaste and pre-treated material. The contribution and relative importance of recycling and treatment/recovery processes change with the impact category. The lack of reprocessing plants in the area of the case study has shown the relevance of transport distances for recyclate material in reducing the efficiencyof a WM system. Highly relevant to thecurrent English WM infrastructural debate, these results for the first time highlight the risk of a significant reduction in the energy that could be recovered by local WM strategies relying only on the market to dispose of the ‘fuel from waste’ in a non dedicated plant in the case that the SRF had to be sent to landfill for lack of treatment capacityAbbreviations: ARD, abiotic resources depletion;CHP, combined heat and power; EC, established combustion; FBG, fluidised-bed gasification; GW100, global warming potential at 100 years; IVC, in-vessel composting; ktpa, thousand oftonnes per annum; HW, household waste; Non-HW, non-household waste; MBTBD, mechanical biological treatment with bio-drying; MBT-AD, mechanical biological treatment with AD; SRF, solid recovered fuel; T&R, treatmentand recoveryprocesses; WM, waste management. | ACV de estrategias locales para la valorización energética de residuos en Inglaterra, aplicado
a un flujo de grandes municipalesActualmente se está llevando a cabo en Inglaterra una intensa actividad de planificación de la gestión de residuos para construir las infraestructuras necesarias para tratar los residuos, aumentar los niveles de reciclaje yrecuperar la energía de los residuos. Desde el análisis de las estrategias de la gestión de residuos locales y los documentos de planificación, hemos identificado la emergencia de tres diferentes estrategias de recuperación de energía: combustión de los deshechos residuales; pretratamiento de los residuos y la recuperación energética de aceites sólidos recuperados en una planta etablecida,...