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Dynamic assessment of waste-to-energy schemes in current european landfill-dominated regions

Abstract:

Even when European regulation has been encouraging landfill reduction in the last decades, 13 out of 28 EU countries still landfill more than 50% of their municipal solid waste (MSW), mainly located in Southern and Eastern Europe. In this paper, waste-to-energy (WtE) schemes based on gasification are proposed in order to minimize the landfill disposal in European landfill-dominant regions. These schemes are assessed by means of a dynamic GHG emissions methodology since comparing with a dynamic reference system (i.e. methane emissions are delayed several years after the landfilling of the wastes and the emissions continue unevenly for at least 20 years more). The evolution of current waste management system and mix of electricity production is also modeled. The results reveal that the incorporation of gasification-based WtE plants in dominated-landfill European countries has a positive climate impact compared to current waste management in the short term. The long-term climate impact is, however, not secure since it depends on the evolution of the reference system in the analyzed region. Among the assessed configurations, the fluidised bed gasifier with internal combustion engine (FBG/ICE) configuration achieves the best climate benefit since has the highest energy efficiency.