Improving Municipal Solid Waste Management Strategies of Montréal (Canada) Using Life Cycle Assessment and Optimization of Technology Options

Tahereh Malmir, Saeed Ranjbar and Ursula Eicker
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Tahereh Malmir: Canada Excellence Research Chair Next Generation Cities, Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science, Concordia University, Montréal, QC H3G 1M8, Canada
Saeed Ranjbar: Canada Excellence Research Chair Next Generation Cities, Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science, Concordia University, Montréal, QC H3G 1M8, Canada
Ursula Eicker: Canada Excellence Research Chair Next Generation Cities, Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science, Concordia University, Montréal, QC H3G 1M8, Canada

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 21, 1-15

Abstract: Landfilling of organic waste is still the predominant waste management method in Canada. Data collection and analysis of the waste were done for the case study city of Montréal in Canada. A life cycle assessment was carried out for the current and proposed waste management system using the IWM-2 software. Using life cycle assessment results, a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm was used to optimize the waste flows. The optimization showed that the current recovery ratio of organic waste of 23% in 2017 could be increased to 100% recovery of food waste. Also, recycling could be doubled, and landfilling halved. The objective functions were minimizing the total energy consumption and CO 2eq emissions as well as the total cost in the waste management system. By using a three-objective optimization algorithm, the optimized waste flow for Montréal results in 2% of waste (14.7 kt) to anaerobic digestion (AD), 7% (66.3 kt) to compost, 32% (295 kt) to recycling, 1% (8.5 kt) to incineration, and 58% (543 kt) to landfill.

Keywords: organic waste; energy recovery; life cycle assessment; cost analysis (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: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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