Life cycle assessment of lightweight aggregates produced with ashes from municipal solid waste incineration
- PDF / 1,164,477 Bytes
- 10 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 95 Downloads / 202 Views
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Life cycle assessment of lightweight aggregates produced with ashes from municipal solid waste incineration Margarida J. Quina1 · Rita Garcia2 · Ana S. Simões1 · Rosa M. Quinta‑Ferreira1 Received: 25 July 2019 / Accepted: 9 July 2020 © Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Air pollution control residues (APCr) from municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration are hazardous waste, and their management requires holistic approaches within technical, economical, legislative, and environmental constraints. This work deals with the recycling of APCr for producing lightweight aggregates (LWA) commonly manufactured by firing natural clay. The main objectives are to evaluate the environmental impacts of LWA with and without incorporating APCr and assess whether APCr recycling in LWA is beneficial, based on the life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The system boundary included raw material extraction, grinding, mixture, firing, cooling, and packing (cradle-to-gate). Results were analysed following the impact assessment methods recommended by the International Reference Life Cycle Data System. Results pointed out a reduction of impacts in all categories when 3% of natural clay are replaced by APCr. The highest gains occurred for toxicity categories (HTc, HTnc) and resulted mainly from avoiding landfill of APCr. For non-toxicity categories, impacts were dominated by the emissions from the kiln firing process, which were similar for both LWA; therefore, impact reductions from APCr use in LWA in these categories were modest. LCA results show that the valorisation of APCr in LWA may be an environmentally sound solution to avoid landfill disposal practices. Keywords Life-cycle assessment · Lightweight aggregates · Recycling · APC residues · Incineration
Introduction Municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration in modern waste-to-energy (WtE) facilities has been increasingly used in developed countries [1, 2]. The worldwide capacity of nearly 2000 WtE plants is about 250 Mt/year, with a rising
* Margarida J. Quina [email protected] Rita Garcia [email protected] Ana S. Simões [email protected] Rosa M. Quinta‑Ferreira [email protected] 1
CIEPQPF, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Coimbra, Rua Sílvio Lima, Pólo II – Pinhal de Marrocos, 3030‑790 Coimbra, Portugal
ADAI, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Coimbra, Rua Luís Reis Santos, 3030‑788 Coimbra, Portugal
2
trend [3]. Flue gas cleaning systems contribute to environmental protection but create air pollution control residues (APCr). These residues may represent about 3–6% of the MSW incinerated and have been categorized as hazardous waste. According to Commission Regulation (EU) Nº 1357/2014, the likely properties that render it hazardous are HP 4—irritant—due to highly alkaline properties, and HP 14—ecotoxic—mainly due to the presence of heavy metals and soluble salts of acid gases. The hazardous nature of APCr limits its management options. A common technology is the solidification/stabilization (S/S
Data Loading...
