IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v205y2020ics0360544220311099.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental and exergetic life cycle assessment of incineration- and gasification-based waste to energy systems in China

Author

Listed:
  • Tang, Yuanjun
  • Dong, Jun
  • Li, Guoneng
  • Zheng, Youqu
  • Chi, Yong
  • Nzihou, Ange
  • Weiss-Hortala, Elsa
  • Ye, Chao

Abstract

The clean and efficient energy production from municipal solid waste (MSW) is highly desirable due to increasing energy demand and environmental concerns. In this study, four incineration- (S1) and gasification-based (S2 with combustion boiler, S3 with gas turbine/combined cycle and S4 with internal combustion engine) MSW treatments were compared using methods of environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and exergetic life cycle assessment (ELCA). LCA was applied to measure the environmental performances and ELCA was supplemented to reflect the thermodynamics efficiencies. Afterwards, cumulative degree of perfection (CDP) and abatement exergy (AbatCExC) efficiency of the considered systems were also calculated to determine the imperfection and environmental sustainability of the processes. Results showed that gasification-based systems were effective to mitigate the environmental impacts of acidification, nutrient enrichment, and photochemical ozone formation potential, but caused higher global warming impacts. The S3 system exhibited the best performance from both environmental and exergetic perspective, due to its high net efficiency of electricity generation and low exhaust emission into air. Results from ELCA indicated that the rest two gasification-based systems (S2 and S4) were inefficient as compared to MSW direct incineration, mainly due to auxiliary energy consumption for MSW pretreatment and more conversion steps. The CDP and AbatCExC of the systems in descending order was expressed as S3 system > S1 system > S2 system > S4 system.

Suggested Citation

  • Tang, Yuanjun & Dong, Jun & Li, Guoneng & Zheng, Youqu & Chi, Yong & Nzihou, Ange & Weiss-Hortala, Elsa & Ye, Chao, 2020. "Environmental and exergetic life cycle assessment of incineration- and gasification-based waste to energy systems in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:205:y:2020:i:c:s0360544220311099
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.118002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544220311099
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2020.118002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stougie, Lydia & Tsalidis, Georgios A. & van der Kooi, Hedzer J. & Korevaar, Gijsbert, 2018. "Environmental and exergetic sustainability assessment of power generation from biomass," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(PB), pages 520-528.
    2. Situmorang, Yohanes Andre & Zhao, Zhongkai & Yoshida, Akihiro & Kasai, Yutaka & Abudula, Abuliti & Guan, Guoqing, 2019. "Potential power generation on a small-scale separated-type biomass gasification system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 19-29.
    3. Bianchi, Michele & Branchini, Lisa & De Pascale, Andrea, 2014. "Combining waste-to-energy steam cycle with gas turbine units," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 764-773.
    4. Ye, Chao & Wang, Qinhui & Zheng, Youqu & Li, Guoneng & Zhang, Zhiguo & Luo, Zhongyang, 2019. "Techno-economic analysis of methanol and electricity poly-generation system based on coal partial gasification," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 624-632.
    5. Rocco, Matteo V. & Di Lucchio, Alberto & Colombo, Emanuela, 2017. "Exergy Life Cycle Assessment of electricity production from Waste-to-Energy technology: A Hybrid Input-Output approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 832-844.
    6. Yu, Haimiao & Wu, Zilu & Chen, Geng, 2018. "Catalytic gasification characteristics of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 559-567.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhou, Xin & Yan, Hao & Sun, Zongzhuang & Feng, Xiang & Zhao, Hui & Liu, Yibin & Chen, Xiaobo & Yang, Chaohe, 2021. "Opportunities for utilizing waste cooking oil in crude to petrochemical process: Novel process design, optimal strategy, techno-economic analysis and life cycle society-environment assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    2. Luo, Chao & Ju, Yanbing & Santibanez Gonzalez, Ernesto D.R. & Dong, Peiwu & Wang, Aihua, 2020. "The waste-to-energy incineration plant site selection based on hesitant fuzzy linguistic Best-Worst method ANP and double parameters TOPSIS approach: A case study in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    3. Xu, Jiuping & Huang, Yidan & Shi, Yi & Li, Ruolan, 2022. "Reverse supply chain management approach for municipal solid waste with waste sorting subsidy policy," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Akrami, Ehsan & Ameri, Mohammad & Rocco, Matteo V., 2021. "Conceptual design, exergoeconomic analysis and multi-objective optimization for a novel integration of biomass-fueled power plant with MCFC-cryogenic CO2 separation unit for low-carbon power productio," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    5. Soltanian, Salman & Kalogirou, Soteris A. & Ranjbari, Meisam & Amiri, Hamid & Mahian, Omid & Khoshnevisan, Benyamin & Jafary, Tahereh & Nizami, Abdul-Sattar & Gupta, Vijai Kumar & Aghaei, Siavash & Pe, 2022. "Exergetic sustainability analysis of municipal solid waste treatment systems: A systematic critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    6. Zhao, Xiaolan & Gao, Pei & Shen, Boxiong & Wang, Xiaoqi & Yue, Tian & Han, Zhibin, 2023. "Recent advances in lignin-derived mesoporous carbon based-on template methods," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    7. Cui, Peizhe & Xu, Zaifeng & Yao, Dong & Qi, Huaqing & Zhu, Zhaoyou & Wang, Yinglong & Li, Xin & Liu, Zhiqiang & Yang, Sheng, 2022. "Life cycle water footprint and carbon footprint analysis of municipal sludge plasma gasification process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PB).
    8. Chen, Heng & Li, Jiarui & Li, Tongyu & Xu, Gang & Jin, Xi & Wang, Min & Liu, Tong, 2022. "Performance assessment of a novel medical-waste-to-energy design based on plasma gasification and integrated with a municipal solid waste incineration plant," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    9. Einara Blanco Machin & Daniel Travieso Pedroso & Daviel Gómez Acosta & Maria Isabel Silva dos Santos & Felipe Solferini de Carvalho & Adrian Blanco Machín & Matías Abner Neira Ortíz & Reinaldo Sánchez, 2022. "Techno-Economic and Environmental Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste Energetic Valorization," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-17, November.
    10. Rodrigues, Livia Fernanda & Santos, Ivan Felipe Silva dos & Santos, Thereza Isabelle Silva dos & Barros, Regina Mambeli & Tiago Filho, Geraldo Lúcio, 2022. "Energy and economic evaluation of MSW incineration and gasification in Brazil," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 933-944.
    11. Jun Li & Lixian Wang & Yong Chi & Zhaozhi Zhou & Yuanjun Tang & Hui Zhang, 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment of Advanced Circulating Fluidized Bed Municipal Solid Waste Incineration System from an Environmental and Exergetic Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-16, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guelpa, Elisa & Bischi, Aldo & Verda, Vittorio & Chertkov, Michael & Lund, Henrik, 2019. "Towards future infrastructures for sustainable multi-energy systems: A review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 2-21.
    2. Hanaoka, Toshiaki & Fujimoto, Shinji & Kihara, Hideyuki, 2019. "Improvement of the 1,3-butadiene production process from lignin – A comparison with the gasification power generation process," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 1303-1313.
    3. Ren, Siyue & Feng, Xiao & Wang, Yufei, 2021. "Emergy evaluation of the integrated gasification combined cycle power generation systems with a carbon capture system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    4. Yin, Weijie & Wang, Shuai & Zhang, Kai & He, Yurong, 2020. "Numerical investigation of in situ gasification chemical looping combustion of biomass in a fluidized bed reactor," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 216-225.
    5. Siddig S. Khalafalla & Umer Zahid & Abdul Gani Abdul Jameel & Usama Ahmed & Feraih S. Alenazey & Chul-Jin Lee, 2020. "Conceptual Design Development of Coal-to-Methanol Process with Carbon Capture and Utilization," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-21, December.
    6. Catherine Lalman & Hirushie Karunathilake & Rajeev Ruparathna, 2023. "To Dispose or to Reuse? Analyzing the Life Cycle Impacts and Costs of Disposal, Sterilization, and Reuse of Electrophysiological Catheters," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-23, March.
    7. Pio, D.T. & Tarelho, L.A.C., 2021. "Industrial gasification systems (>3 MWth) for bioenergy in Europe: Current status and future perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    8. Bianchi, Michele & Branchini, Lisa & Cesari, Simone & De Pascale, Andrea & Melino, Francesco, 2015. "Repowering existing under-utilized WTE power plant with gas turbines," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 902-911.
    9. Mokheimer, Esmail M.A. & Dabwan, Yousef N. & Habib, Mohamed A. & Said, Syed A.M. & Al-Sulaiman, Fahad A., 2015. "Development and assessment of integrating parabolic trough collectors with steam generation side of gas turbine cogeneration systems in Saudi Arabia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 131-142.
    10. Ayodele, T.R. & Ogunjuyigbe, A.S.O. & Alao, M.A., 2017. "Life cycle assessment of waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies for electricity generation using municipal solid waste in Nigeria," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 200-218.
    11. Yuan, Rong & Rodrigues, João F.D. & Tukker, Arnold & Behrens, Paul, 2018. "The impact of the expansion in non-fossil electricity infrastructure on China’s carbon emissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 1994-2008.
    12. Aghbashlo, Mortaza & Khounani, Zahra & Hosseinzadeh-Bandbafha, Homa & Gupta, Vijai Kumar & Amiri, Hamid & Lam, Su Shiung & Morosuk, Tatiana & Tabatabaei, Meisam, 2021. "Exergoenvironmental analysis of bioenergy systems: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    13. Guoxian Cao & Chaoyang Guo & Hezhong Li, 2022. "Risk Analysis of Public–Private Partnership Waste-to-Energy Incineration Projects from the Perspective of Rural Revitalization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-19, July.
    14. Abdul Rahim Shaikh & Qinhui Wang & Long Han & Yi Feng & Zohaib Sharif & Zhixin Li & Jianmeng Cen & Sunel Kumar, 2022. "Techno-Economic Analysis of Hydrogen and Electricity Production by Biomass Calcium Looping Gasification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, February.
    15. Heun, Matthew Kuperus & Owen, Anne & Brockway, Paul E., 2018. "A physical supply-use table framework for energy analysis on the energy conversion chain," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 1134-1162.
    16. Katulić, Stjepko & Čehil, Mislav & Schneider, Daniel Rolph, 2018. "Thermodynamic efficiency improvement of combined cycle power plant's bottom cycle based on organic working fluids," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 36-50.
    17. Guelpa, Elisa & Verda, Vittorio, 2019. "Thermal energy storage in district heating and cooling systems: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 1-1.
    18. Ryszard Bartnik & Zbigniew Buryn & Anna Hnydiuk-Stefan & Marcin Szega & Tomasz Popławski, 2020. "Power and Frequency Control in the National Power System of the 370 MW Coal Fired Unit Superstructured with a Gas Turbine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-35, May.
    19. Barbara Mendecka & Lidia Lombardi & Paweł Gładysz & Wojciech Stanek, 2018. "Exergo-Ecological Assessment of Waste to Energy Plants Supported by Solar Energy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-20, March.
    20. Rocco, Matteo V. & Casalegno, Andrea & Colombo, Emanuela, 2018. "Modelling road transport technologies in future scenarios: Theoretical comparison and application of Well-to-Wheels and Input-Output analyses," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 583-597.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:205:y:2020:i:c:s0360544220311099. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.