Key Laboratory of Energy Thermal Conversion and Control of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, P.R. China.
Shenzhen Energy Environment Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, P.R. China.
Waste Manag Res. 2024 May;42(5):418-429. doi: 10.1177/0734242X231187560. Epub 2023 Jul 31.
Incineration is one of the most widely used treatments in the field of sewage sludge disposal. However, the choice of sewage sludge incineration process is still controversial. In this study, the comparative life cycle assessment of sewage sludge incineration processes, including the mono-incineration, co-incineration in coal-fired power plants and co-incineration in municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration plants, was carried out from the perspective of environment, carbon footprint and economy. The environmental assessment results show that terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity, human carcinogenic toxicity and human non-carcinogenic toxicity are the most significant environmental impacts. And the environmental performance of co-incineration in coal-fired power plants is the best. Moreover, the environmental impact is most sensitive to the dehydrant, electricity and fly ash chelating agent. Co-incineration in MSW incineration plants has the lowest carbon emissions, with only 70.50% and 82% of the carbon emissions from mono-incineration and co-incineration in coal-fired power plants, respectively. Furthermore, sewage sludge mono-incineration has the highest disposal costs because of the higher depreciation and solid waste disposal costs. The comprehensive evaluation results reveal that the optimization should focus on the selection of dehydrant and fly ash chelating agent, as well as the improvement of the equipment efficiency.
焚烧是污水处理领域中应用最广泛的处理方法之一。然而，对于选择哪种污泥焚烧工艺仍然存在争议。本研究从环境、碳足迹和经济角度出发，对单独焚烧、燃煤电厂协同焚烧和城市生活垃圾（MSW）焚烧厂协同焚烧这三种污泥焚烧工艺进行了比较生命周期评估。环境评估结果表明，陆地生态毒性、淡水生态毒性、海洋生态毒性、人类致癌毒性和人类非致癌毒性是最显著的环境影响。燃煤电厂协同焚烧的环境性能最佳。此外，环境影响对脱水剂、电力和飞灰螯合剂最敏感。MSW 焚烧厂协同焚烧的碳排放量最低，分别比单独焚烧和燃煤电厂协同焚烧低 70.50%和 82%。此外，由于更高的折旧和固体废物处理成本，污泥单独焚烧的处理成本最高。综合评价结果表明，优化应侧重于选择脱水剂和飞灰螯合剂，并提高设备效率。
