Bridging the Energy Benefit and POPs Emission Risk from Waste Incineration

Cui Li; Lili Yang; Xiaoyun Liu; Yuanping Yang; Linjun Qin; Da Li; Guorui Liu

doi:10.1016/j.xinn.2020.100075

Bridging the Energy Benefit and POPs Emission Risk from Waste Incineration

Innovation (Camb). 2020 Dec 30;2(1):100075. doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2020.100075. eCollection 2021 Feb 28.

Authors

Cui Li^{1

2}, Lili Yang¹, Xiaoyun Liu^{1

2}, Yuanping Yang^{1

2}, Linjun Qin^{1

2}, Da Li¹, Guorui Liu^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China.
² College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
³ School of Environment, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou 310000, China.

Abstract

Incineration has been the globally controversial and concerned method of solid waste disposal. Energy recovery and volume reduction are the benefits from waste incineration, but risk due to release of persistent organic pollutants is the major public concern in the world. In this study, the emission of organic pollutants including dioxins and polychlorinated naphthalenes from solid waste incineration in China was comprehensively evaluated, and a relationship between energy benefit and pollutant emission was firstly established. The results show that production of medical and industrial waste was smaller than that of municipal waste but yielded comparable or even higher emission of dioxins. The energy benefit-to-emission index for organic pollutants (EBEI_OP) for evaluation of solid waste management on a local or regional scale was proposed. Significant correlations between net energy benefit and pollutant emission for provinces with higher EBEI_OP values were found. Furthermore, higher EBEI_OP values were associated with economic factors while lower values were influenced by emission from incineration of medical and industrial waste. We suggest that an EBEI_OP value of ≥60 can serve as a reference for "profitable" solid waste management, assisting decision making during energy benefit and environmental risk assessment.

Keywords: energy benefit; persistent organic pollutant emission; solid waste incineration.