The comparison of fossil carbon fraction and greenhouse gas emissions through an analysis of exhaust gases from urban solid waste incineration facilities

Abstract

In this study, in order to understand accurate calculation of greenhouse gas emissions of urban solid waste incineration facilities, which are major waste incineration facilities, and problems likely to occur at this time, emissions were calculated by classifying calculationmethods into 3 types. For the comparison of calculation methods, the waste characteristics ratio, dry substance content by waste characteristics, carbon content in dry substance, and C-12 content were analyzed; and in particular, CO2 concentration in incineration gases and C-12 content were analyzed together. In this study, 3 types of calculation methods were made through the assay value, and by using each calculation method, emissions of urban solid waste incineration facilities were calculated then compared. As a result of comparison, with Calculation Method A, which used the default value as presented in the IPCC guidelines, greenhouse gas emissions were calculated for the urban solid waste incineration facilities A and B at 244.43 ton CO2/day and 322.09 ton CO2/day, respectively. Hence, it showed a lot of difference from CalculationMethods B and C, which used the assay value of this study. It is determined that this was because the default value as presented in IPCC, as the world average value, could not reflect the characteristics of urban solid waste incineration facilities. Calculation Method B indicated 163.31 ton CO2/day and 230.34 ton CO2/day respectively for the urban solid waste incineration facilities A and B; also, Calculation Method C indicated 151.79 ton CO2/day and 218.99 ton CO2/day, respectively. Implications: This study intends to compare greenhouse gas emissions calculated using C-12 content default value provided by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) with greenhouse gas emissions calculated using C-12 content and waste assay value that can reflect the characteristics of the target urban solid waste incineration facilities. Also, the concentration and C-12 contentwere calculated by directly collecting incineration gases of the target urban solid waste incineration facilities, and greenhouse gas emissions of the target urban solid waste incineration facilities through this survey were compared with greenhouse gas emissions, which used the previously calculated assay value of solid waste.