Biowaste Treatment and Waste-To-Energy—Environmental Benefits

Martin Pavlas, Jan Dvořáček, Thorsten Pitschke and René Peche
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Martin Pavlas: Sustainable Process Integration Laboratory—SPIL, NETME Centre, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology—VUT Brno, 616 69 Brno, Czech Republic
Jan Dvořáček: Institute of Process Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology—VUT Brno, 616 69 Brno, Czech Republic
Thorsten Pitschke: Bifa Umweltinstitut GmbH, 86167 Augsburg, Germany
René Peche: Bifa Umweltinstitut GmbH, 86167 Augsburg, Germany

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: Biowaste represents a significant fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW). Its separate collection is considered as a useful measure to enhance waste management systems in both the developed and developing world. This paper aims to compare the environmental performance of three market-ready technologies currently used to treat biowaste—biowaste composting, fermentation, and biowaste incineration in waste-to-energy (WtE) plants as a component of residual municipal solid waste (RES). Global warming potential (GWP) was applied as an indicator and burdens related to the operation of facilities and credits obtained through the products were identified. The environmental performance of a WtE plant was investigated in detail using a model, implementing an approach similar to marginal-cost and revenues, which is a concept widely applied in economics. The results show that all of the treatment options offer an environmentally friendly treatment (their net GWP is negative). The environmental performance of a WtE plant is profoundly affected by its mode of its operation, i.e., type of energy exported. The concept producing environmental credits at the highest rate is co-incineration of biowaste in a strictly heat-oriented WtE plant. Anaerobic digestion plants treating biowaste by fermentation produce fewer credits, but approximately twice as more credits as WtE plants with power delivery only.

Keywords: biowaste; waste-to-energy; composting; fermentation; greenhouse gases; global warming potential (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 (1)

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