The Life Cycle Assessment on Mixed Incineration of High Heating Value Industrial Solid Waste with Municipal Solid Waste

Abstract

The industrialization process of China has achieved remarkable economic and social development in recent decades, which companies with excessive production of industrial solid waste (ISW). It took up a large amount of land and led to potential environmental problems such as air, water, soil pollution. With the increasing awareness of environmental protection and the better vision to build a pattern of sustainable economy, the comprehensive utilization of ISW is becoming a challenging and promising research field. In this work, a waste incineration power plant in Guangdong Province, China was selected as the research object. Its novel incineration scheme by mix ISW and MSW was evaluated, which aims to improve power generation efficiency. The comprehensive environmental impact assessment of this refuse incineration-power generation technology was also carried out by life cycle assessment. Results show that for waste incineration power generation system, the numerical order of all normalization indicators is Waste Solids>EP>NOx>ADP>AP>CADP>RI>CADP (fossil fuel) >CO2> SO2>GWP>PED>COD>IWU> Water Use > NH3-N. It shows that the ash reduction and denigration system are the most worthy of optimization. And the contribution of flue gas purification to ECER index reaches 38.98%, which is the most influential link and significantly ahead of other links, as well as the most needed optimization link.