Research on the quantitative assessment of the carbon footprint of domestic waste incineration power generation
LIU Hanxiao
SHAN Sike
LIANG Dinghong
HUANG Rongming
CUI Ying
LIN Qingyang
LIU Meiling
WANG Shuai
YANG Li
LIU Xiaowei
Abstract：In recent years,waste incineration power generation has become one method for domestic waste treatment.The carbon footprint can provide a quantitative tool for evaluating greenhouse gas emis-sions from this process.A typical solid waste incineration plant in Jiangxi Province was chosen as the research object to calculate the carbon footprint and analyze the main stages of the life cycle of waste in-cineration power generation,aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in such plants.The life cycle assessment(LCA)method was adopted,and the life cycle boundary of the power products generated by waste incineration was defined using 1 kW·h of grid power as the functional unit.The results showed that the carbon footprint per unit of grid power generation was 0.841 kg CO2e/(kW·h),and the carbon footprint of per unit waste was 342.39 kg CO2e/t.This relatively low carbon footprint might be attributed to the low calorific value of the selected garbage.The waste incineration stage had the highest emissions,accounting for 78％of the total.Therefore,efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emis-sions from waste incineration should primarily focus on minimizing direct carbon emissions from waste combustion.Operating the incineration plant at its rated load as much as possible is crucial to achieve this goal,along with increasing the recycling rate of plastic components and transitioning from diesel vehicles to electric vehicles.
Keywords：Carbon footprintFull life cycleWaste incinerationGreenhouse gas emissionsWaste power generation
Publication Date：2024-06-28
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：10( 125-134 )