posted on 2023-03-29, 19:43authored byJing Guo, Pinjing He, Nanlin Liao, Hua Zhang, Qiyong Xu, Xingyu Zhou, Qian Zeng, Fan Lü
For the beneficial utilization of food waste (FW), valorization
processes that output high-value products including carbon source
alternatives for biological nutrient removal, biochar, or refuse-derived
fuels (RDF) are reported to be technically and economically beneficial,
while the climate change impact of these emerging valorization technologies
is unclear and lacks a benchmark for comparison. In this study, the
climate change impacts of six diverse valorization scenarios for FW
were evaluated through a life cycle assessment and compared with that
of incineration and anaerobic digestion (AD). Six valorization scenarios
all exhibit better climate change benefits than incineration (−40.8
kgCO2-eq/t), and hydrolysis for the carbon source alternatives
production coupled with thermal drying-RDF scenario and thermal drying-RDF
scenario achieves the best (−276.8 kgCO2-eq/t) and
the second-best (−224.2 kgCO2-eq/t) climate change
benefits beyond AD with digestate incineration (−149.1 kgCO2-eq/t). Sensitivity analysis implies that the diverse total
solid content of FW, biodrying efficiency, hydrolysis efficiency,
dewatering efficiency, and energy efficiency of biomass power plants
are key parameters affecting the global warming potential results.
This study provided the data basis and insight for estimating the
climate change relating to FW valorization decision-making.