Ying-Chu Chen
National Taipei University, Taiwan
Title: Potential of greenhouse gas emissions for lifecycle of municipal solid waste in Taiwan
Biography
Biography: Ying-Chu Chen
Abstract
Issues of municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment and climate change have drawn massive attention in the past decades. Taiwan is implementing waste minimization and recycling strategies to curb the waste management issues. In addition, the Taiwanese Government is taking concerted efforts to voluntary reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to meet relative global warming protocols. This research evaluated potential of GHG emissions from five proposed waste management scenarios, including a landfill site, a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant, and a material recovery facility (MRF) within a defined system boundary. On the basis of the data collected, the results indicate that the MRF (8.08 103 to 1.52 104 kg CO2-eq/day) and the landfill site (4.45 103 to 4.45 104 kg CO2-eq/day) released less GHG emissions than the WTE plant (1.10 106 to 4.39 106kg CO2-eq/day). The GHG emissions from the WTE plant are highly contributed by CO2 and N2O emissions but offset by generating electricity and energy recovery system. Furthermore, potential of GHG mitigation from recycling wastes in the MRF is more efficient than generated electricity in the WTE plant. This evaluation provides valuable insights into the applicability of a policy framework for MSW management practices in GHG mitigations.