Municipal solid waste management in openLCA

Question

I want to understand whether Open LCA,  can be used in domain of municipal solid waste management. Also, are there example related to municipal solid waste management as it will create better understanding.

Comments

Hello,

I am also looking for examples about the use of OpenLCA for municipal solid waste management (supporting decision  making at the alternative technologies choice).

Cheers,
Jonatas

Answer 1

Well,

can be used in domain of municipal solid waste management

is probably somewhat broad (also a desk chair and a notebook computer can be used in the domain of waste management) - but openLCA allows to model waste flows related to life cycles, especially since version 1.7, with the flow type "waste flow". Some examples are in the openLCA 1.7 handbook, see the openLCA website.

Best wishes,

Andreas

Comments

I am sorry, but the documentation on municipal solid waste, specifically talking about how to model the inventory, is very scarce and not transparent. Most data are disperse. It has been very frustrating using OpenLCA to model waste management systems. There are specific softwars I found easier and more practical to use, such as WRATE. I still want to use OpenLCA but it is been harsh to find any useful example and up to date documentation.

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I see, it is however probably more a database than a software issue then, right? But I agree an example would be good.

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Andreas,

It is both software and database issue. OpenLCA (and other softwares such as SimaPro and GaBi) are not specific to model waste management processes. For example, they do not include modelling of waste composition and organic matter degradation. The user would have to proceed these process outside the software and bring these specific results into the LCI of OpenLCA. Further discussion can be found here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X13005710

For the ecoinvent, I am still trying to understand how treatment of municipal solid waste (landfill and anaerobic digestion) are set for different waste composition and site locations. I want to adapt the data to Brazil specific conditions (e.g. more than 50% of organic matter from municipal solid waste generation). But when I look on the input/output of the treatment process I can not find any flow for organic matter (or any other flow that is related to it). It is not clear how these compositions are made. Some times, there is five different flows (with different amounts) for graphical paper. Where do they come from? The documentation of ecoinvent is very poor.

The lack of examples make it all more difficult for me, as a user beginner.

Thanks,
Jonatas

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Dear Jonatas,

Were you able to find a way to do this in openLCA in the end? Or Andreas, do you know how it can be done?

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I have similar question here. The example provided by openLCA is waste as a part of production process, where it represents by waste flow. How about modeling municipal waste with zero burden approach?

For example, one will model plastic recycling process, and the rejected part from sorting process (output) goes into incinerator. Does the initial plastic waste is represented as product flow or waste flow since the rejected part from sorting process will be represented as waste flow (I guess) and goes into incinerator. Does it make sense to model this recycling process as if it is product (initial plastic waste input is product flow) and the rejected part is waste flow? or model it as waste where the plastic waste input is waste flow and the rejected part is waste flow as well?

Answer 2

Yes, OpenLCA can be used for municipal solid waste management. It is a generic software, therefore you might find drawbacks from using such a generic platform. There are specific softwares able to perform specific analysis and model specific processes such as EASEWASTE and WRATE.

I found these review article (part I and II) very interesting about LCA applied to solid waste management:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X1300559X#b0770

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X13005710

Both generic and specific softwares can deliver the same accurate results. It depends on the assumptions and modeling you use. 

Best regard,
Jonatas Marques

Comments

Hi Jonatas Marques

My name is Ade Brian M, I am from Indonesia, currently studying in Shanghai.
I would like to discuss more with you about waste management and LCA software? do you mind if we discuss by using email? I really appreciate if you are willing to provide your email contact.

Thank you in advance for your generous support and help

Best regard,
Ade Brian M