Life Cycle Assessment of Advanced Circulating Fluidized Bed Municipal Solid Waste Incineration System from an Environmental and Exergetic Perspective

The production of clean and efficient energy from municipal solid waste (MSW) is extremely urgent matter due to an increasing energy demand and environmental concerns. In this study, a high steam parameter (520 °C, 7.9 MPa) circulating fluidized bed (CFB) MSW incineration system, equipped with a mechanical, biological treatment and external heat exchanger systems, was introduced and a comparative study with a typical mechanical grate (450 °C, 5.3 MPa) incineration system and conventional CFB (485 °C, 5.3 MPa) incineration system was carried out from a life-cycle, environmental and exergetic perspective which could assess different energy and material outputs based on real operating data. Moreover, the potential system optimization of this advanced CFB system was proposed. The results showed that the advanced CFB system was more environmentally friendly and resource-efficient than conventional MSW incineration systems. The recovery of material should be given priority over energy recovery. According to the assessment of the environment, and energy and material recovery, a process improvement with an incinerated refuse-derived fuel and a semi-compost produced by MBT as a soil conditioner was highly recommended.