Carbon Footprint and Energy Balance of Different Methods in the Treatment of Biodegradable Waste

Composting is still the most relevant process for the treatment of biodegradable waste. During the last decade further methods attracted increasing interest. Namely these are the techniques of fermentation and combustion, which both focus on the production of energy. However these processes imply higher technical expenditures and different outputs are generated.

The target of this publication is the ecological evaluation and comparison of four different methods in the treatment of biodegradable waste. "Greenhouse gas emissions" (CO2 equivalents) and "cumulated energy demand" have been chosen as impact indicators. Following four treatment concepts have been specified for the comparison:
- Concept 1: Composting,
- Concept 2: Biological drying for the production of biomass fuel fractions,
- Concept 3: Full fermentation including a post-rotting of the solid fermentation residues and
- Concept 4: Fermentation with a conveyor dryer for the fermentation residues.

To ensure a direct comparability the same amount of waste (40,000 mg/a biodegradable waste) and composition have been modeled for all concepts concerned. For the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) adequate impact categories had to be defined. Positive and negative environmental impacts were taken into account in the balance as credits and debits.
The following steps of the process line have been assessed:
- the biological treatment (fermentation, composting),
- the transport of the produced outputs to the appropriate treatment facilities and
- the material and thermal utilization of the outputs.

Copyright:	© Lehrstuhl für Abfallverwertungstechnik und Abfallwirtschaft der Montanuniversität Leoben
Quelle:	Depotech 2012 (November 2012)
Seiten:	6
Preis:	€ 3,00
Autor:	Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Müller Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Anke Bockreis Maria Ortner

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