Jan Stenis

Assessment and System Analysis of Industrial Waste Management

Considerable economic as well as environmental benefits can be achieved when appropriate industrial waste management is implemented. The objective of this study was to find a method of organizing a waste management system and of obtaining an overview of the whole system. The method proposed emphasizes the optimization of waste management with regard to energy, economy and environmental impact in separate evaluations. The case study presented illustrates how the method was applied to the Stora Enso Hylte AB paper-mill in Sweden. The waste management systems studied were: (1) the existing system (used as a reference), (2) an energy-recovery system (in which the waste produced is used for energy production, as far as is possible), and (3) a material-recovery system (in which waste is recovered or re-used, as far as is possible). The second system was found to be preferable with regard to energy, economy and environmental impact, although the lowest carbon dioxide emissions was obtained with the first system. The method presented is also suitable as a basis for the development of more specific methodologies for the analysis of waste handling systems applicable to other branches of industry.

Construction waste management based on industrial management models: a Swedish case study

This paper describes a methodology for estimating the true internal costs of construction waste, aimed at promoting environmentally friendly waste management. The study employs cost–benefit analysis, contribution margin analysis, the polluterpays principle and a mathematical model: the model for Efficient Use of Resources for Optimal Production Economy (EUROPE), which has been introduced previously by the author for assigning industrial costs to waste. The calculations are performed on construction waste created in a case study of a building project. Moreover, waste is regarded as, in a business sense, having the same basic status as any normal industrial product, namely the ‘equality principle’. Application of the methodology is suggested to create incentives for environmental and profitability improvement in construction companies and other types of industrial sectors. The results of the case study show the generation of construction waste to substantially decrease the final operating income, due to the internal shadow price cost it creates. This paper is intended to reduce the gap between the choice of waste management procedures and their economic impact, the overall objective being to accomplish an improved industrial environmental situation.

Design of a Reverse Osmosis Plant for Leachate Treatment Aiming for Safe Disposal

Leachate treatment is one of the major environmental issues faced by landfill owners. One promising method for reduction of pollutant discharge is reverse osmosis (RO). RO technology was tested at a pilot plant at Hedeskoga Landfill in southern Sweden. This landfill receives municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial, commercial and institutional (IC&I) waste, and produces about 3000 m3/ha of leachate annually. Annual variations in the volume of leachate produced, estimated from changes in leachate electrical conductivity, were relatively small and should therefore have a minor effect on the main performance parameter of an RO plant, i.e., the achievable volume reduction. The volume reduction (Vpermeate/Vfeed) of polluted water achieved in batch experiments with 200-1000 litres of raw leachate was more than 80% (4MPa) and the remaining 20% was left as retentate. However, raw leachate caused severe fouling problems in a continuous flow run and after 24 hours, the flux had decreased to about 20% of the initial value. By pre-treating the leachate in a storage pond combined with a wetland, the situation was significantly improved and the decrease in membrane flux was only 0.2% per hour during a 200 hour run. The retention in terms of total solids and chemical oxygen demand was 90%, and for ammonia, it was 82%, at a volume reduction of 50%. The HELP-model was used for prediction of the water balance for the Hedeskoga landfill, with special focus on estimation of potential evapotranspiration. With different types of vegetation and a volume reduction of 75% in the RO plant, it was found possible to achieve safe disposal by irrigating 25% to 40% of the leachate-producing landfill area with pre-treated leachate. Pre-treatment with wetlands and nature based systems reduce the need of detergents for cleaning of the membranes and water only can be used. Short pre-treatment by aeration is not sufficient to bring leachate to a condition sustainable for RO-treatment. In that case, it was found necessary with alkaline-acid-alkaline treatment to restore the permeability. The total treatment cost for a full scale treatment plant at Hedeskoga was estimated to be approximately 30 SEK/m3, of which 25 is capital and 5 is operational costs. This can be compared to the total treatment costs for municipal sewage in Sweden, which is 8 SEK/m3.

Paradigms on landfill mining: From dump site scavenging to ecosystem services revitalization

Abstract For the next century to come, one of the biggest challenges is to provide the mankind with relevant and sufficient resources. Recovery of secondary resources plays a significant role. Industrial processes developed to regain minerals for commodity production in a circular economy become ever more important in the European Union and worldwide. Landfill mining (LFM) constitutes an important technological toolset of processes that regain resources and redistribute them with an accompanying reduction of hazardous influence of environmental contamination and other threats for human health hidden in former dump sites and landfills. This review paper is devoted to LFM problems, historical development and driving paradigms of LFM from ‘classical hunting for valuables’ to ‘perspective in ecosystem revitalization’. The main goal is to provide a description of historical experience and link it to more advanced concept of a circular economy. The challenge is to adapt the existing knowledge to make decisions in accordance with both, economic feasibility and ecosystems revitalization aspects.

The Polluter-Pays Principle and its Environmental Consequences for Industrial Waste Management

The paper maintains that, as a means toward achieving the ideal of a sustainable development, industrial waste should best be regarded in business-economic terms as having the same basic status as regular products. It is shown how an approach to proportioning industrial costs to waste that is described can be applied to the Polluter-Pays Principle in a way incorporating this principle into a companys internal estimation system. In two case studies presented, use of this approach is found to generate a waste-reducing incentive through showing waste to have a negative impact on estimates of profit.

Economic optimization of landfill mining

This paper describes a method of optimizing the production economy when excavating an old landfill in order to both minimize its environmental impact and obtain a profit. The analysis employs the e ...

Cost-effectiveness of recycling and recirculation of natural and energy resources based on the equality principle

A cost structure is proposed for optimizing the recirculation and recycling of commodities and energy usage considering regional, national and global operating scales. The methodology proposed involves business administration theory and economics and employs the previously introduced equality principle and the model for efficient use of resources for optimal production economy (EUROPE) to impose shadow costs on unwanted material wastes and energy residuals that produce economic incentives to reduce such wastes at the source. A case study presents the practical application of the proposed theory in a national and a global context. It is concluded that the presented methodology is useful for increasing the cost-effectiveness and optimizing recirculation and recycling in the usage of energy resources and natural resources in general. Profitability increases, technology is advanced and environmental conditions improve simultaneously through the application of the EUROPE model to analyze government policy related to the recirculation and recycling of solid wastes and energy. Furthermore, the equity of the distribution of such recirculation and recycling facilities is improved. The developed methods are useful information support tools for decision-making in the management of energy and other natural resources with emphasis on the economics of recirculated and recycled residuals.

Analysis and classification of the modern methods of ecological normalization of anthropogenic load : Russia vs. the West

An overview of the classification of ecological normalization methods is presented to facilitate the evaluationof alternatives. An historical review is given of the development of several ecologica ...