Life Cycle Sustainability Evaluation of Potential Bioenergy Development for Landfills in Colombia

Abstract

The Colombian energy matrix faces significant changes toward meeting its energy needs while fulfilling its pledges in the Intended National Determined Contributions linked to the Paris Agreement. The country has developed a plan for energy transition with a 2050 horizon, a strategy reflected and supported by new legislative packages. Within its design, biomass and biomass waste play a vital role in bioenergy production; however, the benefits of deploying new bioenergy production facilities have not been fully accounted for, including only an economic and climate change perspective. In this work, a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of a potential bioenergy plant for industrial symbiosis with the largest landfill in the country is undertaken, avoiding environmental burden shifting between environmental damage categories and exposing the social potential of such projects. The results show how these types of projects are economically feasible and have the potential to boost the sustainable development of local communities, which under the Colombian context, have been structurally relegated from conventional economic growth for decades.