Life cycle assessment of waste to energy micro-pyrolysis system: Case study for an Italian town

Waste disposal represents an important aspect of the policies of politics of developed countries. It is well known that waste management entails several social, economical and environmental aspects. Many different technical solutions have been proposed and evaluated, more or less complicated, from a social and economic point of view, but the environmental burden linked to these solutions still remains an open problem not definitively resolved yet. One of the most promising ways for investigating and comparing the environmental consequences connected to different human activities seems to be represented by the LCA analysis. In this work the LCA analysis of a micro-pyrolysis with micro-gas turbine waste to energy plant, has been performed with the aid of a commercial simulation code. The scenario is analysed with regard to a small, isolated, Italian town. A comparison between the current and proposed case has also been carried out. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.