Division of Environmental Science, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 202 Baker Laboratory, One Forestry Drive, Syracuse, New York 13210, United States.
Department of Sustainable Resources Management, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 306 Bray Hall, One Forestry Drive, Syracuse, New York 13210, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2021 Feb 2;55(3):1436-1445. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c03477. Epub 2021 Jan 8.
Waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities combust both biogenic and nonbiogenic materials comprising municipal solid waste (MSW) in addition to managing waste, leading to a lack of clarity on the life cycle climate change impact (LCCCI) as an electricity generator. In order to investigate the LCCCI of this resource, a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) of a WTE facility in Jamesville, NY, was performed utilizing system expansion to account for avoided landfilling emissions, additional metals recycling, and the loss of potential electricity generation from landfill gas. The LCCCI of electricity from this WTE facility ranges from 0.664 to 0.951 kg CO/kWh before system expansion, which reduced the impact to -0.280 to 0.593 kg CO/kWh when accounting for avoided waste management emissions. Combustion is the leading contributor of GHG emissions from cradle-to-gate, and sensitivity analysis indicates that the nonbiogenic fraction of the waste most significantly influences the LCCCI before including cobenefits. The fraction of methane from landfills that is not captured is the most influential variable under system expansion. Before system expansion, the LCCCI of this system is comparable to that of electricity from fossil fuels. With system expansion, the LCCCI ranges from below that of renewable energy to comparable to natural gas based electricity. These results disagree with claims in the reviewed literature that WTE can avoid GHG emissions overall, although avoided emissions reduce the magnitude of its impact.
废物能源化（WTE）设施除了处理废物之外，还燃烧包括城市固体废物（MSW）在内的生物源和非生物源材料，因此作为发电装置，其生命周期气候变化影响（LCCCI）并不明确。为了研究该资源的 LCCCI，对纽约州詹姆斯维尔的 WTE 设施进行了从摇篮到大门的生命周期评估（LCA），利用系统扩展来考虑避免垃圾填埋场排放、额外的金属回收以及垃圾填埋场气体潜在发电损失。在进行系统扩展之前，该 WTE 设施的电力 LCCCI 范围为 0.664 至 0.951 kg CO/kWh，而当考虑避免垃圾管理排放时，这一影响降低到-0.280 至 0.593 kg CO/kWh。从摇篮到大门，燃烧是温室气体排放的主要贡献者，敏感性分析表明，在计入协同效益之前，废物的非生物部分对 LCCCI 的影响最大。在系统扩展下，未捕获的垃圾填埋场甲烷的比例是最具影响力的变量。在进行系统扩展之前，该系统的 LCCCI 与化石燃料发电相当。进行系统扩展后，其 LCCCI 范围从低于可再生能源到与天然气为基础的电力相当。这些结果与文献综述中声称的 WTE 可以整体避免温室气体排放的说法相矛盾，尽管避免排放会降低其影响的程度。
