Improving the global sustainability of the arezzo total recovery waste treatment plant

Abstract

The effectiveness of an existing integrated waste treatment plant aimed at the total recovery of waste to replace primary energy was investigated. The cumulative energy demand (CED) (MJ) was quantified using a life cycle approach. Mass and energy balances were determined for all the main inlet and outlet energetic and mass flows from the integrated plant. The current scenario was compared with a modified one where the amount of bio-waste processed was increased by using a new anaerobic digestion section for bio-methane production. The main results showed that there was a higher positive CED for the chemicals needed for operating the flue gas cleaning system. In particular urea gave the highest CED. In both the base and modified case the CED replaced by the recovered energy and fuels was higher than all the CED associated with the inlet flows, leading to a negative value of the net CED.