Burnley Stephen, Coleman Terry, Peirce Adam
Department of Engineering and Innovation, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, United Kingdom.
Resource and Waste Solutions LLP, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.
Waste Manag. 2015 May;39:295-304. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2015.02.022. Epub 2015 Mar 7.
A life cycle assessment was carried out to assess a selection of the factors influencing the environmental impacts and benefits of incinerating the fraction of municipal waste remaining after source-separation for reuse, recycling, composting or anaerobic digestion. The factors investigated were the extent of any metal and aggregate recovery from the bottom ash, the thermal efficiency of the process, and the conventional fuel for electricity generation displaced by the power generated. The results demonstrate that incineration has significant advantages over landfill with lower impacts from climate change, resource depletion, acidification, eutrophication human toxicity and aquatic ecotoxicity. To maximise the benefits of energy recovery, metals, particularly aluminium, should be reclaimed from the residual bottom ash and the energy recovery stage of the process should be as efficient as possible. The overall environmental benefits/burdens of energy from waste also strongly depend on the source of the power displaced by the energy from waste, with coal giving the greatest benefits and combined cycle turbines fuelled by natural gas the lowest of those considered. Regardless of the conventional power displaced incineration presents a lower environmental burden than landfill.
进行了生命周期评估，以评估一系列影响对源头分离后剩余的城市垃圾进行焚烧所产生的环境影响和效益的因素，这些垃圾原本可用于再利用、回收、堆肥或厌氧消化。所研究的因素包括从底灰中回收的金属和骨料的程度、该过程的热效率以及焚烧产生的电力所替代的传统发电燃料。结果表明，与填埋相比，焚烧具有显著优势，在气候变化、资源枯竭、酸化、富营养化、人体毒性和水生生态毒性方面的影响较小。为了最大限度地提高能源回收效益，应从残留底灰中回收金属，特别是铝，并且该过程的能源回收阶段应尽可能高效。垃圾能源的总体环境效益/负担也在很大程度上取决于垃圾能源所替代的电力来源，其中煤炭带来的效益最大，而在所考虑的能源中，以天然气为燃料的联合循环涡轮机带来的效益最低。无论所替代的传统电力如何，焚烧所带来的环境负担都低于填埋。
