Predictive Analysis of Waste Co-Combustion with Fossil Fuels Using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Methodology

Krzysztof Pikoń, Piotr Krawczyk, Krzysztof Badyda and Magdalena Bogacka
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Krzysztof Pikoń: Department of Technologies and Installations for Waste Management, Silesian University of Technology, 18 Konarskiego Str., 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Piotr Krawczyk: Institute of Heat Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Nowowiejska Str., 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
Krzysztof Badyda: Institute of Heat Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Nowowiejska Str., 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
Magdalena Bogacka: Department of Technologies and Installations for Waste Management, Silesian University of Technology, 18 Konarskiego Str., 44-100 Gliwice, Poland

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 19, 1-11

Abstract: The use of waste for energy purposes could become widespread and the radical lowering of the costs associated with that process could occur, if the resulting fuel did not have the status of waste. The key issue in removing the status of waste for a given substance is to eliminate the environmental impact of its use. Currently, there are no known fuels whose combustion does not lead to a negative impact on the environment, even to a minimum extent. It is therefore necessary to set a threshold of environmental impact at which we “recognize” a fuel to be harmless to the environment. The ecological impact of lignite was assumed in this text to be such a threshold. This paper proposes a methodology for determining the limit of environmental impact of fuel from waste. It also presents the results of our own research on the morphological and elemental composition of a waste mixture created by the separation of the over-screen fraction of municipal waste undesirable for a fuel, namely, chlorine carriers (PVC), multi-material waste, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and non-combustible fractions (ash). The results obtained were used to assess the relative environmental impact of a waste mixture used as fuel.

Keywords: waste-based fuel; chemical composition of fuel; environmental footprint analyses; CML 2001 methodology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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