Waste incineration, life cycle assessment

Chevalier, J., Rousseaux, P., Benoit, V, and Benadda, B., Environmental assessment of flue gas cleaning processes of municipal solid waste incinerators by means of the life cycle assessment approach, Chem. Eng. Sci, 58, 10 (May) 2053-2064, 2003. 

This report discusses the options for feedstock recycling of plastics waste, including aspects of the environmental and economic pros and cons relating to feedstock recycling in comparison with incineration or mechanical recycling of municipal solid waste, based on a number of life cycle assessments. Particular reference is made to the experience of the TNO-CML Centre of Chain Analysis.485 refs. 

Recycling, Incineration or Landfill A Life Cycle Assessment of Three Different Waste Treatment Methods, Chalmers Industriteknik Ekologik (CIT), Goteborg, Sweden, 1999. 

The aim of the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) is to facilitate the interpretation of the results of the inventory analysis. The result of the inventory analysis is an emission profile for each alternative system. In this study the emission profile is the total of all emissions to air, water and soil from the grave-to-cradle chain for the use of cushion vinyl floor covering, including the up chain processes, like electricity production and the down chain processes, like the incineration and landfill of the waste. Such an emission profile may consist of hundreds of emissions and extractions. In LCA impact assessment the total of interventions (emissions, extractions) of a process chain is evaluated in terms of environmental problems (impact categories). 

Capello et al.16 also assessed the environmental impacts of the life cycles of four solvent mixtures (methanol-water, ethanol-water, methanol-ethanol, and -propyl alcohol-water of different compositions w/w) that can be used for the solvolysis of p-methoxybenzoyl chloride. Different waste treatment scenarios for these binary mixtures (incineration and distillation) were analyzed. It appears that a solvent mixture with a high water content has a low environmental impact because the cumulative energy demand (CED) for the production of water is about three orders of magnitude lower than that for organic solvents.37... 

The last thing that many consumers likely consider when selecting a product from store shelves may be that the chemical substances in that product will ultimately enter the environment, perhaps by volatilizing to air or washing down the drain even after any solid waste is tossed in the trash for landfilling or incineration, chemicals may yet enter air, water, or soil. But matter is neither created nor destroyed. Short of nuclear reaction, fhe chemicals we use follow this principle of conservation of mass. Life cycle analyses consider the fate and transport of chemicals from the source of raw maferials through use of the product to ultimate disposal. Such assessments fundamentally begin with a mass or material balance. 

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