ecoinvent Forum Archive

Hello,

in my LCA-study i am using lots of datatset for the end of life like:

CH: treatment of waste plastic, mixture, municipal incineration ecoinvent

CH: treatment of waste polyvinylfluoride, municipal incineration ecoinvent

I would like to know if electricity and heat recovery is considered in this datasets?

At https://nexus.openlca.org/ for this datasets the net energy production is mentioned.

Net energy production: 3.93MJ/kg electric energy and 7.66MJ/kg thermal energy

But it the produced energy credited in this dataset?

Or do I have to do this separatley ?

Thanks

Regards

Andreas

I would be interested to know more about that issue, too.

There are datasets that seem to include this, e.g. "treatment of waste plastic, mixture, municipal incineration with fly ash extraction | electricity, for reuse in municipal waste incineration only" and "electricity, from municipal waste incineration to generic market for electricity, medium voltage | electricity, medium voltage" (which is changing internally produced electricity into market electricity). But it remains unclear to me how this relates to the ordinary dataset were no electricity/heat is mentioned?

best, Maik

Hello Andreas and Maik, 

Did you ever get an aswer on this topic? I am also looking into this now.

Regards,

Niklas

Dear Niklas, Andreas and Maik,
Electricity and heat in cut-off system model come burden free. In other system models those by-products behave differently. Please have a look in our dedicated page about system models.

Best regards,
Avraam Symeonidis,
Data analyst, ecoinvent

Dear Avraam,

I have looked up the documentation you suggested and one thing is still not clear to me. If MSWI is producing energy and it is used internally only (closed loop), then are the requisite amounts of heat and electricity from external sources required to process 1 kg of MSW reduced in the MSW's LCI? For example, 0.131 MJ of natural gas from the market for heat industrial, natural gas is an input for MSW incineration included in the inventory. Is that the TOTAL amount of natural gas needed to process 1 kg of MSW, or the amount of natural gas needed from the market to supplement the internal generation of heat?

Thank you very much for your help.

Best,

Nicole

Dear Nicole, 

Thank you for continuing this thread. I do not find this specific amount in the datasets under discussion so it might be that you are talking about another incineration dataset. Even in in that case, my experience say, that the input of heat is coming from the market to supplement the total need of the heat in the MSWI. If still in doubt, you can send me directly an email at: symeonidis@ecoinvent.org

Please include the name of the activities you are using, which version and system model. 

Best regards,

Avraam Symeonidis,

Data analyst, ecoinvent

Hello,

I have also problems to understand the waste incineration processes, more specifically how the by-products el and heat are considered. I would like to point out several points:

1)     - There are processes in the APOS model where heat and energy are not free of any burden. (for example: heat, for reuse in municipal waste incineration only [MJ])

2)    -  The justification that generated heat and el is free of any burden is taken from a report that is outdated.

3)    -  In the consequential model, a credit is given for the total amount of energy redistributed internally (for example heat, for reuse in municipal waste incineration only). Shouldn’t the credit be given only for the net output that is put on the market?

Kind regards, vanessa

Dear Vanessa,

Regarding your questions though:

1) Yes, APOS delivers electricity with a burden and this is how it is supposed to work. In cut-off though (I received the impression that users in this thread were using this model) electricity and heat is coming burden free.

2) You can disregard this justification from the report as long as you comprehend the way the models work. I will modify the thread, so it is valid to more general situations.

3) No. The incineration plant takes full credit for the total amount of BPs produced and not only to what finally ends up delivered to the market. Just consider that the plant itself is also part of the market.

Feel free to send me a private email if you have further questions. 

Please include the name of the activities you are using, which version and system model. 

Best regards,

Avraam Symeonidis

Data analyst, ecoinvent

Hello everybody,

I have a similar problem but from the thread still I am not sure how I have to proceed. I give you some informations about the context:

 -Software: OpenLCA 1.10; Database: Ecoinvent 3.5 cut-off

I need to build a process that represent the Incineratotion of Plastic wast and that consider the energy and heat produced from this incineration. I am using the following data as input:

 "treatment of waste plastic, mixture, municipal incineration | waste plastic, mixture | Cutoff, U". According the description in "General infrmation" of this data: Net energy produced in MSWI: 3.48MJ/kg waste electric energy and 7.03MJ/kg waste thermal energy.

 I noted that when I calculate the impacts no credit for the net energy produced describet in the General Information of the data are considered. If I understood well that is due to my database "Cut-Off".

Because I want to consider them in my model I put the amount of energy and heat in the outputs as "avoided product". Is this a correct way to proceed?

 I inserted as output and seleting avoided product the followinf data:

-treatment of municipal solid waste, incineration | heat, for reuse in municipal waste incineration only | Cutoff, U.

-treatment of municipal solid waste, incineration | electricity, for reuse in municipal waste incineration only | Cutoff, U

But...I realized that they are empty (they don't consider any input so their related impact/credit is =0).  So what data I am supposed to use?

Thank you very much for your help.