LCA Tools for Decision Support in Waste Management

Doctoral Thesis of Michael Bösch

Furthermore, this project was part of the doctoral Thesis of Carl Vadenbo

The substitution of energy carriers and raw material with wastes and industrial by-products has the potential to mitigate many of the environmental burdens arising from resource-intensive industries. At the same time, such resource substitution might serve as a waste management solution, and thus reducing the need for conventional waste treatments like waste incineration or landfilling. To identify the industries optimal local energy and raw material mix, the environmental assessment includes:

• Analysis of the impacts of resource substitution on the process and the resulting change in the environmental performance
  
• Comparison of resource substitution with alternative waste treatment solutions
  

This project aims at the development of a set of User-friendly software tools for the assessment of environmental impacts of the co-processing of various alternative fuels and raw materials (AFRs). The 'tool box' is intended to encompass several industrial processes. In the project, LCA-based mass flow models of the following industries are being developed:

• Clinker production
• Cement production
• Hot metal production in blast furnace
• Municipal solid waste incineration
• Waste disposal in landfill