Incineration and energy

This paper describes a life eyele analysis study eondueted to determine the environmental impaet of meehanieal recycling in comparison to, or in conjunction with, other post-consumer HDPE disposal options - landfill, incineration, and energy reeovery. The results are presented and discussed in full. 

Household refuse Household Mainly landfill Some incineration Some resource and energy recovery... 

Incineration, as well as returnables and recovered scrap, is an alternative to recycling. Because of the new polymeric barriers this technique can be used where the municipal incineration system incorporates energy recovery. This arrangement depends, however, on the availability of properly designed incinerators with scrubbers and energy recovery. 

As for routes (2) and (3), the conclusion in this paper, as one can find back in many LCAs, is that the difference in environmental terms is not big. After all, both routes make use of the energy content (or carbon content) of the plastics, with a (close to) 100% efficiency. This is a striking point, since route (2) is labelled as incineration with energy recovery whereas route (3) is labelled as recovery , and hence in legal terms an option that scores... 

Incineration with energy recovery is examined as a means for the disposal of plastics waste, and data are presented for the calorific values of a number of materials. Chemical recycling techniques are also briefly reviewed. 

A survey is made of methods for the recycling of PVC and mixed waste containing PVC, including incineration with energy recovery, pyrolysis and chemical recycling. Consideration is also given to the flammability of PVC and the toxicity of its combustion products. 82 refs. 

An integrated approach to municipal waste management is put forward as the only sensible solution, selecting from a range of resource management and reeovery options. These are examined and diseussed, with particular reference to incineration with energy recovery. 

This paper discusses waste management in the city of Paris. Data on solid wastes in Paris is provided, then the role of incineration, and the use of energy from incineration (heating network, production of electricity, total energy recovery), is examined. Air pollution standards are listed, and a comparison made between the different energies used for a heating network. Finally, future considerations are discussed. 

With reference to the latest UK government s attempts to tackle the problem of the disposal and/or recycling of packaging waste, comments are reported from Cameron McLatchie, chief executive of British Polythene Industries. He calls for a landfill levy and increased use of incineration with energy recovery. According to recent studies, the capacity for mechanical recycling is presently insufficient. Statistics relating to waste production are included and the case for incineration in the UK is propounded. 

Waste treatment technologies for incineration and landfill of PVC are present in the ecoinvent database. The material specific burdens for the waste treatment are calculated by a supporting spreadsheet. Necessary data for the calculation of the burden are, e.g. element composition, water content, energy content, degradability in landfill, etc. Note that the Ecoinvent waste management model estimates emissions based on the element composition and some general characteristics of the materials (like degradability). Detailed characteristics, like the mobility of DEHP from PVC, are not taken into account. Therefore additional assumptions have been made for the emission of DEHP from landfill of PVC. 

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