Thermochemical treatment of daily COVID-19 single-use facemask waste: Power generation potential and environmental impact analysis

The utilization of single-use face masks as the standard PPE to minimize the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased facemask waste. Improper management of the increased facemask waste has a consequential environmental impact. This requires swift actions to invest and implement innovative technologies to manage single-use facemask waste. Thermochemical treatment of disposable face masks could minimize COVID-19 plastic waste and produce value-added products. The present study evaluates the power generation potential and environmental impact of treating estimated daily single-use facemask waste in Africa and Asia via incineration. The environmental assessment was expressed as global warming potential and acidification potential. The formulation of the model equations method was used to estimate the power generation potential. The IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventory methodology and EPA “compilation of air pollutant emissions factors” (AP-42) were used to compute greenhouse and acid gases. The key findings show that the daily single-use facemask waste produced in Asia was 19.12 million kg/day, generating 32.65 million kWh/day of electricity. In Africa, 3.53 million kg/day of single-use facemask waste was produced, generating 6.03 million kWh/day of power. The results also show Asia's total global warming potential was 787,097.6 kt CO(2)eq/day, and 145,687.7 kt CO(2)eq/day was recorded in Africa. Besides, the total daily acidification potential of the incineration process in Asia was 7,078,904 kg SO(2)eq/day, while that in Africa was 1,308,362 kg SO(2)eq/day. This study will provide scientific guidance for environmental sustainability for treating single-use facemask waste via incineration technology for power generation.