Jan-Olov Sundqvist1 Case Studies on Waste Management in Sweden Jan-Olov Sundqvist IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Stockholm E-mail: [email protected]

Jan-Olov Sundqvist 1

Case Studies on Waste Management in Sweden

Jan-Olov Sundqvist

IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Stockholm

E-mail: [email protected]


This presentation

1. General overview of Swedish case studies and their results

2. Deeper presentation of one of the studies: ORWARE


Part 1. Case studies in Sweden

Three research groups:• ORWARE: cooperation between

– IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

– Royal Institute of Technology

– Swedish Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering

• fms (Environmental Strategies Research Group)• Chalmers University of Technology (MIMES/Waste,

Natwaste)

In a special co-operation project we penetrated our studies, to find general conclusions and to analyse differences.Totally 8 case studies were analysed


The studies have some different scopes

• environment and/or economy

• societal perspective (“from the cradle to the grave”) or actors perspective (e.g. municipality or waste company)


Different scopes

Environ-ment

Economy (financial)

Societal perspective Actor’s perspective

fms

NatWaste MIMES/Waste

ORWARE


Some assumptions in all studies

• Time perspective: best choices to build up a waste system now for the next 10 - 15 years

• Best available technology• Incineration: high energy recovery - district heating• Material recycling: the same virgin material is

recycled• Landfilling: gas recovery with heat and/or electricity

production. Only emissions during the closest 100 years are shown


…more assumptions

• Anaerobic digestion: gas for bus fuel alternatively production of heat and electricity. The digestate is used on arable land and substitutes chemical fertiliser.

• Composting: compost is used on arable land and substitutes chemical fertiliser.


General conclusions

1. Landfilling should be avoided for wastes that can be recycled, incinerated (with energy recovery), anaerobic digested or composted.

This is motivated from both environmental and economic reasons.


2. Anaerobic digestion and incineration is difficult to compare (~”equal”) - both have environmental advantages and disadvantages. The financial costs for anaerobic digestion is higher than for incineration.

3. Composting has no environmental or economic advantages compared to incineration or anaerobic

digestion.


4. Material recycling is generally preferable to incineration from an environmental point of view. The result can be varying for different materials.

Non-renewable materials such as plastic and metals are especially favourable to recycle.

For renewable materials, e.g. paper and cardboard, the differences between material recycling and incineration are smaller than for non-renewable materials such as plastics and metals.


5. Transports of waste is of very low importance energetically and environmentally. Private transports of waste, from home to the collection site can play a role.


6. The landfill can in some cases work as a carbon sink, which can affect the results for renewable and slowly degradable materials such as paper.

In a short time perspective landfilling also can have some advantages for some materials since the emissions are postponed to the future.


7. Phosphorus is a non-renewable resource. The domestic waste, however, plays a very minor role for the total phosphorus balance.

In Sweden

1000 tons P in domestic waste, about 100 ton is recycled

6000 tons P in sewage sludge, about 2000 tons are recycled

20 000 tons in manure, almost all is recycled

20 000 tons chemical fertiliser are used


Part 2. Results from ORWARE


Computerised model: ORWARE

Calculates • material, substance and energy flows• emissions• costs

System perspective• LCA - from the cradle to the grave


Waste core system in ORWARE

Landfilling

Wastesource 1

Wastesource 2

Wastesource 3

Wastesource 4

Wastesource n

Transport Transport Transport Transport Transport

Materialsrecovery

Thermalgasification Incineration

Anaerobicdigestion Composting

Sewagetreatment

Transport Transport Transport Transport Transport Transport

Biogasusage

Organic fertiliserusage

Materials

Energy

Costs

Products

Emissions

Energy


Not only the waste system…..

• The waste system can produce: district heating, bus fuel (biogas), electricity, plastic, cardboard, fertiliser

• How shall the spared resources be handled?? In all scenarios the same products are produced,

either by the waste system or the compensatory system (external system)

Waste system Compensatory system

Product


Total system

Waste sources

Waste managementsystem

Emissions

Energy Fertiliser Material

Material

Energy

Energy Fertiliser Material

Costs

Compensatory system

Alternativeenergy raw

material

Alternativefertiliser raw

material

Alternativematerial raw

material

Alternativeproductionof material

Alternativeproductionof energy

AlternativeproductionofN-,P- fertiliser

System boundary


All scenarios produce the same amount of products and services:

• Waste from 186 000 people• District heating 762 TJ• Electricity 48 TJ• Bus fuel for: 4 100 000 km• Chemical fertiliser, P 15 ton• Chemical fertiliser, N 77 tons• Cardboard pulp 2 030 ton• Plastic granules 896 ton


Upstream and downstrean processes

Examples pre-process:• emissions and energy consumption from extraction of

crude oil

Examples: post-process• landfilling of ash from coal combustion for electricity

production

”cradle”pre-process

Core processwaste system or

compensatory system

”grave”post-process


Questions of issue

• How shall different materials in the waste be treated to make the energy utilisation (or material utilisation or plant nutrient utilisation) of waste as effective as possible with respect to environment and economy


Scenarios

1. All waste is incinerated

2. All waste is landfilled

3. Degradable waste is anaerobically digested. Biogas is used for bus fuel. Other waste is incinerated

4. Degradable waste is anaerobically digested. Biogas is used for electricity/heat. Other waste is incinerated

5. Degradable waste is composted. Other waste is incinerated

6. Cardboard is recycled. The other waste is incinerated

7. Plastic (PE-plastic) is recycled. The other waste is incinerated.


Some assumptions

• Alternative district heating is produced by biofuel (wood chips) in the compensatory system.

• Electricity is produced from nature gas (marginal electricity).


Global warming

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Inci

nerat

ion

Landfil

l

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion, b

us

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion, h

eat/e

lect

ricity

Compost

ing+F

b

Plast

ic re

cycl

ing

Cardboar

d recy

clin

g

kg CO2-equivalents/person,year

Electricity

Virgin cardboard

Virgin plastic

Chemical fertiliser n,P

External vehicle fuel

External heat

Waste system


Energy

0

1 000

2 000

3 000

4 000

5 000

6 000

Inci

nerat

ion

Landfil

l

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion, b

us

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion, h

eat/e

lect

ricity

Compost

ing

Plast

ic re

cycl

ing

Cardboar

d recy

clin

g

MJ/person, year

Households Transports

Electricity

Virgin cardboard

Virgin plastic

Chemical fertilser N,P


External heat

Waste system


And a lot more diagrams….

0

200

400

600

800

1 000

1 200

1 400

Inci

nerat

ion

Landfil

l

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion, b

us

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion, h

eat/e

lect

ricity

Compost

ing+F

b

Plast

ic re

cycl

ing

Cardboar

d recy

clin

g

g SO2-equivalents/person, year

Electricity

Virgin cardboard

Virgin plastic

Chemical fertiliser n,P


External heat

Waste system

0

2 000

4 000

6 000

8 000

10 000

12 000

14 000

16 000

Inci

nerat

ion

Landfil

l

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion, b

us

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion, h

eat/e

lect

ricity

Compost

ing+F

b

Plast

ic re

cycl

ing

Cardboar

d recy

clin

g

g O2-equivalents/person, year Elektricitet

Virgin cardboard

Virgin plastic

Chemical fertiliserN,P


External heat

Waste system

0

50

100

150

200

250

Inci

nerat

ion

Landfil

l

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion, b

us

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion, h

eat/e

lect

ricity

Compost

ing+F

b

Plast

ic re

cycl

ing

Cardboar

d recy

clin

g

g ethene-equivalents/person, year

Electricity

Virgin cardboard

Virgin plastic



External heat

Waste system

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Inci

nerat

ion

Landfil

l

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion, b

us

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion, h

eat/e

lect

ricity

Compost

ing+F

b

Plast

ic re

cycl

ing

Cardboar

d recy

clin

g

g N-NOx

/person, yearElectricity

Virgin cardboard

Virgin plastic



External heat

Waste system


Life Cycle Costs LCC

• All costs from the cradle to the grave• Both waste system and external system• Included pre-processes and post-processes• Same system boundaries as the LCA part• Shows the costs for the society to produce the

functional units


Financial Life Cycle Costs

Financial Life Cycle Costs, total system

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Inci

nerat

ion

Landfil

l

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion,

bus

Anaero

bic d

iges

tion,

hea

t/e...

Compos

ting

Plast

ic re

cycl

ing

Cardbo

ard re

cycl

ing

SEK/person, year

Virgin plastic

Virgin cardboard

Chemical fertiliser N

Chemical fertilser P

Vehicle fuel

Electricity

Heat

Waste system

1 SEK 1 € 1 US$


• Welfare economy = Life Cycle Costs + Environmental costs

• Environmental costs by three different methods– ORWARE– ECOTAX– EPS 2000


Welfare (societal) costs - ORWARE

Welfare economy (ORWARE)

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Incin

eratio

n

Landfill

An, dig

- bus fu

el

An. dig

.- heat/e

l.

Compostin

g

Plastic re

cycling

Cardboard

recyclin

g

SEK/person,year

Environmental valuation

External system

Waste system

1 SEK 1 € 1 US$


Welfare (societal) costs - EPS

Welfare economy (EPS)

0

200

400

600

800

1 000

1 200

1 400

Inci

nerat

ion

Landfil

l

An, dig

- bus

fuel

An. dig

.- hea

t/el.

Compost

ing

Plast

ic re

cycl

ing

Cardboar

d recy

clin

g

SEK/person, year

Emissions

Energy resources

External system

Waste system

1 SEK 1 € 1 US$


Welfare (societal) costs - Ecotax

Welfare economy (Ecotax)

0

200

400

600

800

1 000

1 200

1 400

1 600

1 800

Inci

nerat

ion

Landfil

l

An, dig

- bus

fuel

An. dig

.- hea

t/el.

Compost

ing

Plast

ic re

cycl

ing

Cardboar

d recy

clin

g

SEK/person, year

Emissions

Energy resources

External system

Waste system

1 SEK 1 € 1 US$


0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Inci

nerat

ion

Landfil

l

An, dig

- bus

fuel

An. dig

.- hea

t/el.

Compost

ing

Plast

ic re

cycl

ing

Cardboar

d recy

clin

g

SEK/person, year

Time spent by householdsEnvironmental valuationExternal systemWaste system

1 SEK 1 € 1 US$

If people’s time is valued to ~7 €/h


Thank You

Documents

Jan-Olov Sundqvist1 Case Studies on Waste Management in Sweden Jan-Olov Sundqvist IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Stockholm E-mail: [email protected]