Stefania Butera

Life cycle assessment of waste incineration in Denmark and Italy using two LCA models

In Europe, about 20% of municipal solid waste is incinerated. Large differences can be found between northern and southern Europe regarding energy recovery efficiencies, flue gas cleaning technologies and residue management. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) of waste incineration often provides contradictory results if these local conditions are not properly accounted for. The importance of regional differences and site-specific data, and choice of LCA model itself, was evaluated by assessment of two waste incinerators representing northern and southern Europe (Denmark and Italy) based on two different LCA models (SimaPro and EASEWASTE). The results showed that assumptions and modelling approaches regarding energy recovery/substitution and direct air emissions were most critical. Differences in model design and model databases mainly had consequences for the toxicity-related impact categories. The overall environmental performance of the Danish system was better than the Italian, mainly because of higher heat recovery at the Danish plant. Flue gas cleaning at the Italian plant was, however, preferable to the Danish, indicating that efficient flue gas cleaning may provide significant benefits. Differences in waste composition between the two countries mainly affected global warming and human toxicity via water. Overall, SimaPro and EASEWASTE provided consistent ranking of the individual scenarios. However, important differences in results from the two models were related to differences in the databases and modelling approaches, in particular the possibility for modelling of waste-specific emissions affected the toxicity-related impact categories. The results clearly showed that the use of site-specific data was essential for the results.

Life cycle assessment of construction and demolition waste management.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) modelling of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) management was carried out. The functional unit was management of 1 Mg mineral, source separated C&DW, which is either utilised in road construction as a substitute for natural aggregates, or landfilled. The assessed environmental impacts included both non-toxic and toxic impact categories. The scenarios comprised all stages of the end-of-life management of C&DW, until final disposal of all residues. Leaching of inorganic contaminants was included, as was the production of natural aggregates, which was avoided because of the use of C&DW. Typical uncertainties related to contaminant leaching were addressed. For most impact categories, utilisation of C&DW in road construction was preferable to landfilling; however, for most categories, utilisation resulted in net environmental burdens. Transportation represented the most important contribution for most nontoxic impacts, accounting for 60-95 per cent of these impacts. Capital goods contributed with negligible impacts. Leaching played a critical role for the toxic categories, where landfilling had lower impacts than utilisation because of the lower levels of leachate per ton of C&DW reaching the groundwater over a 100-year perspective. Leaching of oxyanions (As, V and Sb) was critical with respect to leaching. Typical experimental uncertainties in leaching data did not have a pivotal influence on the results; however, accounting for Cr immobilisation in soils as part of the impact assessment was critical for modelling the leaching impacts. Compared with the overall life cycle of building and construction materials, leaching emissions were shown to be potentially significant for toxicity impacts, compared with contributions from production of the same materials, showing that end-of-life impacts and leaching should not be disregarded when assessing environmental impacts from construction products and materials. CO2 uptake in the C&DW corresponding to 15 per cent carbonation could out-balance global warming impacts from transportation; however, carbonation would also likely result in increased toxicity impacts due to higher leaching of oxyanions.

Life cycle assessment and residue leaching: the importance of parameter, scenario and leaching data selection.

Residues from industrial processes and waste management systems (WMSs) have been increasingly reutilised, leading to landfilling rate reductions and the optimisation of mineral resource utilisation in society. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a holistic methodology allowing for the analysis of systems and products and can be applied to waste management systems to identify environmental benefits and critical aspects thereof. From an LCA perspective, residue utilisation provides benefits such as avoiding the production and depletion of primary materials, but it can lead to environmental burdens, due to the potential leaching of toxic substances. In waste LCA studies where residue utilisation is included, leaching has generally been neglected. In this study, municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash (MSWI BA) was used as a case study into three LCA scenarios having different system boundaries. The importance of data quality and parameter selection in the overall LCA results was evaluated, and an innovative method to assess metal transport into the environment was applied, in order to determine emissions to the soil and water compartments for use in an LCA. It was found that toxic impacts as a result of leaching were dominant in systems including only MSWI BA utilisation, while leaching appeared negligible in larger scenarios including the entire waste system. However, leaching could not be disregarded a priori, due to large uncertainties characterising other activities in the scenario (e.g. electricity production). Based on the analysis of relevant parameters relative to leaching, and on general results of the study, recommendations are provided regarding the use of leaching data in LCA studies.

Construction and demolition waste: Comparison of standard up-flow column and down-flow lysimeter leaching tests

Five samples of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) were investigated in order to quantify leaching of inorganic elements under percolation conditions according to two different experimental setups: standardised up-flow saturated columns (<4mm particle size) and unsaturated, intermittent down-flow lysimeters (<40mm particle size). While standardised column tests are meant primarily to provide basic information on characteristic leaching properties and mechanisms and not to reproduce field conditions, the lysimeters were intended to mimic the actual leaching conditions when C&DW is used in unbound geotechnical layers. In practice, results from standardised percolation tests are often interpreted as estimations of actual release from solid materials in percolation scenarios. In general, the two tests yielded fairly similar results in terms of cumulative release at liquid-to-solid ratio (L/S) 10l·kgTS; however, significant differences were observed for P, Pb, Ba, Mg and Zn. Further differences emerged in terms of concentration in the early eluates (L/S<5l·kg(-1)TS) for Al, As, Ba, Cd, Cu, DOC, Mg, Mn, Ni, P, Pb, Sb, Se, Si, Zn. Observed differences between tests are likely to be due to differences in pH related to crushing and exposure of fresh particle surfaces, as well as in equilibrium conditions. In the case of C&DW, the standardised column tests, which are more practical, are considered to acceptably describe cumulative releases at L/S 10l·kg(-1)TS in percolation scenarios. However, when the focus is on estimation of initial concentrations for (for example) risk assessment, data from standardised column tests may not be fully applicable, and data from lysimeters may be used for validation purposes. Se, Cr and, to a lesser extent, SO4 and Sb were leaching from C&DW in critical amounts compared with existing limit values.

Soil retention of hexavalent chromium released from construction and demolition waste in a road-base-application scenario

We investigated the retention of Cr(VI) in three subsoils with low organic matter content in laboratory experiments at concentration levels relevant to represent leachates from construction and demolition waste (C&DW) reused as unbound material in road construction. The retention mechanism appeared to be reduction and subsequent precipitation as Cr(III) on the soil. The reduction process was slow and in several experiments it was still proceeding at the end of the six-month experimental period. The overall retention reaction fit well with a second-order reaction governed by actual Cr(VI) concentration and reduction capacity of the soil. The experimentally determined reduction capacities and second-order kinetic parameters were used to model, for a 100-year period, the one-dimensional migration of Cr(VI) in the subsoil under a layer of C&DW. The resulting Cr(VI) concentration would be negligible below 7-70 cm depth. However, in rigid climates and with high water infiltration through the road pavement, the reduction reaction could be so slow that Cr(VI) might migrate as deep as 200 cm under the road. The reaction parameters and the model can form the basis for systematically assessing under which scenarios Cr(VI) from C&DW could lead to an environmental issue for ground- and receiving surface waters.