MBT’s Contribution to Climate Protection and Resource Conservation

Mechanical-biological waste treatment involves the production and separation of waste streams that are subsequently routed to materials or energy recovery. The associated contribution to resource conservation and climate protection and the energy efficiency attained by MBT processes are presented by the example of real-life facilities and compared with the results of other disposal methods. The result of the climate and energy balance strongly depends on the specific configuration and operating conditions of the facility. Despite major variations between the individual facilities, the study demonstrated clear advantages of the MBT facilities examined over alternative processes.The results of the balances provide a basis for identifying potential for the optimization and further development of MBT from both environmental performance and economic aspects.

While various publications are available on the climate balance of MBT processes, energy efficiency information on MBT facilities that covers all the building blocks of the process combination including MBT, materials / energy recovery and landfilling is so far not available in the literature.
The published CO2 balances for MBT processes partly show great variability. In the same way, they frequently show major variations from the results presented in this paper. These variations can for the greater part be explained by the inventory analysis underlying the calculations and, in part, also by the approaches selected for the efficiency assessment.
The results presented in this paper are based on the actual operating data (material and energy balance) of mechanical-biological treatment facilities and the downstream plants utilizing the material streams generated by the MBT facilities examined.
The calculation model is based on the method presented in VDI Guideline 3460, Part 2, which has been expanded and/or matched to the requirements of a process combination. The model uses a closed and plausible energy and mass balance to calculate the net energy yield which, after deduction of the energy consumption of the treatment process, describes the energy benefit of the process.
The environmental lifecycle assessment of the waste treatment process is made by the example of the climate balance via the magnitude of climate-relevant CO2 emission savings (expressed as CO2 equivalents per unit volume of waste treated). The CO2 equivalents are calculated with the aid of specific emission factors that describe the environmental impact in comparison with an equivalent system.
The system boundaries have been selected such that the computed performance indicators, i.e. energy efficiency and climate impact, allow both an assessment of the specific plant combination and a comparative assessment of alternative waste treatment processes.
In order to assess the magnitude of the values determined for the MBT processes, they are compared with literature data on identical processes and processes for the exclusive thermal treatment at municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs).



Copyright: © Arbeitsgemeinschaft Stoffspezifische Abfallbehandlung ASA e.V.
Quelle: 9. Recyclingtage 2012 (September 2012)
Seiten: 25
Preis: € 12,50
Autor: Dr.-Ing. Ketel Ketelsen
 
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