Generally,plastics pose a variety of environmental impacts due to their increased use and non-biodegradability.End-of-life treatment is a viable way of recovering energy from plastics while at the same time reducing t...Generally,plastics pose a variety of environmental impacts due to their increased use and non-biodegradability.End-of-life treatment is a viable way of recovering energy from plastics while at the same time reducing the amount of plastics disposed of in landfills.This paper studies the environmental impact of Non-Recycled Plastics(NRP)-to-energy processes.Three waste treatment processes were considered for NRP:pyrolysis,waste-to-energy(WtE),and landfill.The environmental impact assessment results indicated that conversion technologies such as pyrolysis and WtE are preferred over landfill.The total energy consumed in the pyrolysis process was 24635.7 MJ/tonne.The conversion technologies have a lower environmental impact and produced net positive energy from NRP.The global warming potential shows that pyrolysis(3.91 kg eq.CO_(2))contributes the least to global warming than waste-to-energy(18.56 kg eq.CO_(2))and landfill(17.5 kg eq.CO_(2)).However,sensitivity analysis suggested that the inefficiencies of the current conversion technologies should be addressed.Between the two technologies studied,pyrolysis contributed less environmental burden,having a lower global warming potential,a higher efficiency in energy conversion,and less harmful emissions such as selenium and methane.展开更多
文摘Generally,plastics pose a variety of environmental impacts due to their increased use and non-biodegradability.End-of-life treatment is a viable way of recovering energy from plastics while at the same time reducing the amount of plastics disposed of in landfills.This paper studies the environmental impact of Non-Recycled Plastics(NRP)-to-energy processes.Three waste treatment processes were considered for NRP:pyrolysis,waste-to-energy(WtE),and landfill.The environmental impact assessment results indicated that conversion technologies such as pyrolysis and WtE are preferred over landfill.The total energy consumed in the pyrolysis process was 24635.7 MJ/tonne.The conversion technologies have a lower environmental impact and produced net positive energy from NRP.The global warming potential shows that pyrolysis(3.91 kg eq.CO_(2))contributes the least to global warming than waste-to-energy(18.56 kg eq.CO_(2))and landfill(17.5 kg eq.CO_(2)).However,sensitivity analysis suggested that the inefficiencies of the current conversion technologies should be addressed.Between the two technologies studied,pyrolysis contributed less environmental burden,having a lower global warming potential,a higher efficiency in energy conversion,and less harmful emissions such as selenium and methane.
