Life-cycle assessment of a Waste-to-Energy plant in central Norway: Current situation and effects of changes in waste fraction composition

Lausselet, Carine; Cherubini, Francesco; Serrano, Gonzalo del Alamo; Becidan, Michaël; Strømman, Anders Hammer

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2016.09.014

Cited by 65 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…A challenge is that the Norwegian-Swedish green electricity certificate market established in the year 2012 does not include WtE [174]. Some issues also exist with profitability; WtE plant processing capacity exceeds the waste produced in the Scandinavian market, where the gate fee is basically set by Swedish plants [174,190]. The United Kingdom (the UK) is a large European country with a 65.6 million population.…”

Section: Waste-to-energy In Norwaymentioning

confidence: 99%

Municipal solid waste management and waste-to-energy in the context of a circular economy and energy recycling in Europe

Malinauskaitė

Jouhara

Czajczyńska

et al. 2017

Energy

703

298

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a b s t r a c tThis paper proposes an overarching review of national municipal waste management systems and wasteto-energy as an important part of it in the context of circular economy in the selected countries in Europe. The growth of population and rising standards of living means that the consumption of goods and energy is increasing. On the one hand, consumption leads to an increase in the generation of waste. On the other hand, the correlation between increased wealth and increased energy consumption is very strong as well. Given that the average heating value of municipal solid waste (MSW) is approximately 10 MJ/kg, it seems logical to use waste as a source of energy. Traditionally, waste-to-energy (WtE) has been associated with incineration. Yet, the term is much broader, embracing various waste treatment processes generating energy (for instance, in the form of electricity and/or heat or producing a wastederived fuel). Turning waste into energy can be one key to a circular economy enabling the value of products, materials, and resources to be maintained on the market for as long as possible, minimising waste and resource use. As the circular economy is at the top of the EU agenda, all Member States of the EU (including the EEA countries) should move away from the old-fashioned disposal of waste to a more intelligent waste treatment encompassing the circular economy approach in their waste policies. Therefore, the article examines how these EU policies are implemented in practice. Given that WtE traditionally is attached to the MSW management and organisation, the focus of this article is twofold. Firstly, it aims to identify the different practices of municipal waste management employed in selected countries and their approaches in embracing the circular economy and, secondly, the extent to which WtE technologies play any role in this context. The following countries, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK were chosen to depict a broad European context.

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Section: Waste-to-energy In Norwaymentioning

confidence: 99%

Municipal solid waste management and waste-to-energy in the context of a circular economy and energy recycling in Europe

Malinauskaitė

Jouhara

Czajczyńska

et al. 2017

Energy

703

298

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The effect on renewables is only partially significant. While lowering space heating needs may reduce reliance on fossil fuels, such efforts should be coupled with strong incentives for a transition to renewable heating sources and efforts to utilize local energy sources such as waste heat and energy-from-waste technologies (Lausselet et al, 2016;UNEP, 2015). Water heating needs have little relevance for the choice of space and water heating source.…”

Section: Sheltermentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon mitigation in domains of high consumer lock-in

Ivanova

Vita

Wood

et al. 2018

Global Environmental Change

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As climate policy needs to address all feasible ways to reduce carbon emissions, there is an increasing focus on demand-side solutions. Studies of household carbon footprints have allocated emissions during production to the consumption of the produced goods, and provided an understanding of what products and consumer actions cause significant emissions. Social scientists have investigated how attitudes, social norms, and structural factors shape salient behavior. Yet, there is often a disconnect as emission reductions through individual actions in the important domains of housing and mobility are challenging to attain due to lock-ins and structural constraints. Furthermore, most behavioral research focuses on actions that are easy to trace but of limited consequence as a share of total emissions. Here we study specific alternative consumption patterns seeking both to understand the behavioral and structural factors that determine those patterns and to quantify their effect on carbon footprints. We do so utilizing a survey on consumer behavioral, attitudinal, contextual and socio-demographic factors in four different regions in the EU. Some differences occur in terms of the driving forces behind behaviors and their carbon intensities. Based on observed differences in mobility carbon footprints across households, we find that the key determining element to reduced emissions is settlement density, while car ownership, rising income and long distances are associated with higher mobility footprints. For housing, our results indicate that changes in dwelling standards and larger household sizes may reduce energy needs and the reliance on fossil fuels. However, there remains a strong need for incentives to reduce the carbon intensity of heating and air travel. We discuss combined effects and the role of policy in overcoming structural barriers in domains where consumers as individuals have limited agency.

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“…Currently the most mature WtE technology used worldwide is incineration. Statistical data have reported a steadily increased number of incineration plants: 455 plants were in operation in Europe in 2012 (Lausselet et al, 2016); while that number had increased 3.5-folds in China from 54 plants in 2004 to 188 plants in 2014 (Mian et al, 2016). The feedstock can be either the residual waste (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of waste-to-energy technologies of gasification and incineration using life cycle assessment: Case studies in Finland, France and China

Dong

Tang

Nzihou

et al. 2018

Journal of Cleaner Production

145

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Waste-to-Energy (WtE) has gradually constituted one of the most important options to achieve energy recovery from municipal solid waste (MSW). However, the environmental sustainability of a specific WtE system varies with used technologies and geographic differences. As a result, three representative WtE systems are compared using life cycle assessment (LCA): a gasification-based WtE plant in Finland, mechanical-grate incineration in France, and circulating fluidized bed incineration in China. Results show that the overall environmental performance of the gasification system is better than incineration. The use of gasification technology, attributed to an intermediate syngas purification step, can provide benefits of both reducing the stack emissions and increasing the energy efficiency. Regional waste management, especially related to MSW caloric value and emission regulation, are determining factors for a preferable performance of the incineration in France over that in China. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses further address key variations such as choice of MSW composition, basis of displaced electricity, energy recovery mode, and application of "best-available technology" dedicated to incineration. It is found that the most sensitive parameters influencing the LCA results are: electricity recovery, CO 2 emission, and NO x emission. In the future, use of the source-separated high caloric waste combined with a more stringent emission standard can efficiently improve MSW incineration in China. Bottom ash recycling for metals and materials is highly applicable regarding incineration in France. This presented study can overall contribute to the development of specific WtE technology and local waste management plan for decision-makers.

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Life-cycle assessment of a Waste-to-Energy plant in central Norway: Current situation and effects of changes in waste fraction composition

Cited by 65 publications

References 68 publications

Municipal solid waste management and waste-to-energy in the context of a circular economy and energy recycling in Europe

Municipal solid waste management and waste-to-energy in the context of a circular economy and energy recycling in Europe

Carbon mitigation in domains of high consumer lock-in

Comparison of waste-to-energy technologies of gasification and incineration using life cycle assessment: Case studies in Finland, France and China

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