Gabriela Ionescu

Environmental assessment of the MSW treatment from the transport point of view

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to point out some important elements that can be useful to minimize the impacts and the results can possibly inform business and policy makers about how to minimize the impacts associated to the municipal solid waste (MSW) collection. Design/methodology/approach – The present work faces with the problem of transport, placing attention to the relationship of emissions from scenarios that has been selected between real systems of management. Findings – The choices related to the typology of treatment has the same importance to the item concerning the correct localization of the plant for the implications related to the environmental pressure due to the transport of waste. Originality/value – An important aspect that has to be considered in terms of MSW management is the stage of collection. The emissions generated from these systems can arrive to values that are of the same order of magnitude of emissions from combustion of waste in waste-to-energy plants according to ...

Respirometric index as a tool for biogas generation production from poultry manure

Purpose – In the EU, over the past three decades, poultry production has been growing around the 5 percent per year. This increase determined a higher volume of livestock and poultry farming waste, which represents a potential renewable fuel suitable for waste to energy conversion. One way is through biological process such as the dry anaerobic digestion (AD). Tests normally applied for the measurement of the anaerobic biogas potential (ABP) are reliable, but not feasible as a routine analysis. This kind of test is expensive and time consuming (21-100 days). The purpose of this paper is to propose a rapid method for assessing the potential of biogas in anaerobic poultry manure, with the goal of helping the choices of operators of AD. Design/methodology/approach – The Dynamic Respiration Index was calculated as “key parameter” in order to estimate the ABP, which provides important information about the biogas generation for the poultry manure. Furthermore, two dynamic respirometric approaches were consider...