Environmental, economic, and energy analysis of municipal solid waste incineration under anoxic environment in Tibet Plateau

The first Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) plant in Lhasa, Tibet, the plateau region of China, started its operation in 2018. Considering the elevation and extreme climate (low pressure and low oxygen content) in Tibet, noticeable differences may be envisaged compared to MSWI elsewhere. The aim of this study is to evaluate the environmental impacts, economic benefits, and energy efficiency of this MSWI project with three representative MSWI case in plain region using Life cycle assessment (LCA), Cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and energy analysis methods. The result showed that enhancing blast volume and cross-sectional area of the boiler help adapt to the oxygen-deficient environment. GaBi model was employed based on the CML 2001 methodology to perform LCA. LCA shows that the Lhasa MSWI project has lower positive environment impacts than the projects in plain region. More attention is needed for the deficiencies in flue gas emissions of MSWI in the plateau region. CBA shows that the payback period is 11.97 years and the internal rate of return is 8.75%. The energy analysis indicates that the boiler energy efficiency is up to 81.92%. MSWI subject to minor changes seems suitable to Tibetan plateau, and can be deployed further.

Automated summary

This study evaluates the environmental impacts, economic benefits, and energy efficiency of the municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) project in Lhasa, Tibet, and compares it with similar projects in plain regions using life cycle assessment (LCA), cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and energy analysis methods. The results show that the Lhasa MSWI project has lower positive environmental impacts than the projects in plain regions. However, attention is needed for the deficiencies in flue gas emissions in the plateau region. The cost-benefit analysis indicates a payback period of 11.97 years and an internal rate of return of 8.75%. The energy analysis shows a high boiler energy efficiency of 81.92%.