| Title |
Application of life cycle assessment to high quality-soil conditioner production from biowaste |
| ID_Doc |
24948 |
| Authors |
Arfelli, F; Cespi, D; Ciacci, L; Passarini, F |
| Title |
Application of life cycle assessment to high quality-soil conditioner production from biowaste |
| Year |
2023 |
| Published |
|
| DOI |
10.1016/j.wasman.2023.10.033 |
| Abstract |
The recent large-scale urbanization and industrialization resulted in an impressive growth of solid waste generation worldwide. Organic fraction generally constitutes a large fraction of municipal solid waste and its peculiar chemical properties open to various valorization strategies. On this purpose, life cycle assessment is applied to an innovative industrial system that processes 18 kt/y of agricultural and livestock waste into a highquality soil conditioner. The high-quality soil conditioner production system consists of a series of processes, including anaerobic digestion and vermicomposting, allowing the generation of a peat-like material with high carbon content, porosity, and water-holding capacity. The presence of a photovoltaic plant and a cogeneration plant, fed with the biogas produced in the anaerobic digestion, makes the system entirely self-sufficient from the national grid and generating a surplus of electricity of 1177MWh/y. The high-quality soil conditioner showed better environmental performances in 15 out of 18 impact categories when compared to alternative scenarios. In particular, the high-quality soil conditioner and the related biowaste management resulted in a carbon saving of around 397 kg CO2 eq/ton compared with a scenario involving the employment of peat in place of the highquality soil conditioner and a traditional biowaste management, and 165 kg CO2 eq/ton compared with a scenario where cogeneration is replaced by biomethane upgrading. This study demonstrates the possibility of using organic waste as an environmentally sustainable and renewable source for energy and carbon to soil conditioning. |
| Author Keywords |
Biowaste valorization; Life cycle thinking; Agricultural waste; Circular economy; Vermicomposting |
| Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
| Document Type |
Other |
| Open Access |
Open Access |
| Source |
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) |
| EID |
WOS:001107827900001 |
| WoS Category |
Engineering, Environmental; Environmental Sciences |
| Research Area |
Engineering; Environmental Sciences & Ecology |
| PDF |
https://hdl.handle.net/11585/949039
|