Title:
Retrofitting Waste-to-Energy with carbon Capture and Storage in the UK: a Techno-economic and Environmental Assessment
Author(s):
Sebastiani, A., Paulillo, A., Lettieri, P., Materazzi, M.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
Waste incineration facilities are the prevailing technology for disposing of non-recyclable or unsorted fractions of municipal solid waste: waste is combusted and, in the case of Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plants, the resulting energy can be used to generate electricity and excess heat recovered. This work aims at understanding the technical, environmental, and economic values of retrofitting an existing WtE facility equipped with a carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility in the UK. The study is based on advanced process simulation using Aspen Plus and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to understand integration challenges and the impact of several variables (e.g. waste composition, carbon capture rate) on the techno-environmental performance of the plant. The results show that for the WtE-CCS system to operate self-sufficiently, substantial energy penalties are required with the reduction of the heat and electricity export to power the CCS. The significant additional economic penalty makes CCS unfavourable, considering the current lack of negative emissions market mechanisms and incentives in the UK. The LCA results show that CCS contributes to reducing the overall climate change impact of WtE from 68 to -816 kgCO2 eq per tonne of MSW treated. The biogenic nature of the waste feedstock plays a key role in determining the environmental performance of WtE plants with and without carbon capture.
Keywords:
municipal solid waste (MSW), climate change, waste to energy, life cycle assessment (LCA), carbon capture and storage (CCS)
Topic:
Biomass Conversion for Bioenergy
Subtopic:
Advanced biomass combustion
Event:
31st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
4CO.3.2
Pages:
628 - 634
ISBN:
978-88-89407-23-3
Paper DOI:
10.5071/31stEUBCE2023-4CO.3.2
Price:
FREE
