Life Cycle Environmental Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste to Energy Technologies: A Review Study

Abstract

The global surge in solid waste generation has spurred the exploration of diverse strategies aimed at minimizing the resulting environmental impacts. A vital tool for evaluating waste management options and planning sustainable approaches is life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA provides an effective means of assessing system expansion, encompassing the environmental effects of primary production, recycling processes, and waste management. Recent years have witnessed extensive utilization of LCA to evaluate the environmental performance of thermal waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies, such as incineration, co-combustion, pyrolysis, and gasification. These studies have primarily focused on key elements, including goal and scope definitions, technology parameters, and modeling principles. Furthermore, these investigations have explored the intricate interactions among various factors, including functional units, system boundaries, temporal and geographic scopes, waste composition, technology specifics, gas cleaning, energy recovery, residue management, inventory data, energy/mass calculations, as well as energy substitution and capital goods. This comprehensive review offers a comprehensive overview of the assumptions and modeling techniques employed in existing literature on waste-to-energy LCA. It also provides valuable recommendations to enhance future LCA studies on waste-to-energy. In summary, this review paper provides a comprehensive overview of the assumptions and modeling techniques employed in waste-to-energy LCA studies. It emphasizes the significance of LCA in evaluating the environmental impacts of waste management and offers valuable insights to advance research in waste-to-energy LCA.