Synthesis of the NRP 70 joint project “Waste management to support the energy turnaround (wastEturn)”

Author(s):  
Haupt Melanie ◽  
Hellweg Stefanie

A great deal of energy can be sourced both directly and indirectly from waste. For example, municipal waste with an energy content of around 60 petajoules is incinerated in Switzerland every year. The energy recovered directly from this waste covers around 4 % of the Swiss energy demand. However, the greatest potential offered by waste management lies in the recovery of secondary raw materials during the recycling process, thus indirectly avoiding the energy-intensive production of primary raw materials. In order to optimise the contribution to the energy turnaround made by waste management, as a first step, improvements need to be made with respect to the transparent documentation of material and cash flows, in particular. On the basis of this, prioritisation according to the energy efficiency of various recycling and disposal channels is required. Paper and cardboard as well as plastic have been identified as the waste fractions with the greatest potential for improvement. In the case of paper and cardboard, the large quantities involved result in considerable impact. With the exception of PET drinks bottles, plastic waste is often not separately collected and therefore offers substantial improvement potential. Significant optimisation potential has also been identified with regard to the energy efficiency of incineration plants. To allow municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) plants to use the heat they generate more effectively, however, consumers of the recovered steam and heat need to be located close by. A decisive success factor when transitioning towards an energy-efficient waste management system will be the cooperation between the many stakeholders of the federally organised sector. On the one hand, the sector needs to be increasingly organised along the value chains. On the other hand, however, there is also a need to utilise the freedom that comes with federal diversity in order to test different solutions.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (157) ◽  
pp. 109-121
Author(s):  
E. Mykhailova

Тhe article is devoted to the global environmental problem of plastic waste pollution. Now, about 9 billion tons of primary plastic have been produced. Of this amount, 6.3 billion tons is plastic waste, of which 9 % was recycled, 12 % incinerated, and 79 % accumulated in landfills or in the environment. The main feature of plastic materials is their stability. Once in the environment as waste, plastic can be in its original state for more than 450 years. The purpose of the article is to study the current state of production and use of plastics, as well as the field of plastic waste management; identification of perspective methods for solving the problem of plastic pollution. Plastics are organic macromolecular compounds that have high quality characteristics. Due to this, they became widespread. There are different types of plastics: thermoplastics, thermosets, foams and bioplastics. Currently, 40% of plastic is used once, after which it is discarded. Under the influence of various factors in the environment plastic slowly breaks down into small fragments, known as microplastics. Microplastic particles get into the soil, water, and through food chains can enter the human body. Potentially microplastics can negatively affect the human body. To solve the problem of accumulation of plastic waste in the environment, many countries around the world, including Ukraine, are implementing a waste management system based on the European waste management hierarchy. The hierarchy reflects five approaches to waste management: Removal (waste disposal and incineration without energy production), Recovery (waste incineration with energy production), Recycling (waste conversion into secondary raw materials for reuse), Reuse (waste reuse without recycling) and Prevention (waste amount minimization). Disposal is the least efficient way of waste management, and recycling and prevention are the most effective ways. Keywords: plastic, waste, pollution, environment, landfill, recycling.


2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (12) ◽  
pp. 2941-2947
Author(s):  
George Ungureanu ◽  
Gabriela Ignat ◽  
elena Leonte ◽  
Carmen Luiza Costuleanu ◽  
Nicoleta Stanciu ◽  
...  

The problem associated with the household behavior on solid waste disposal site in today�s society is complex because of the large quantity and diverse nature of the wastes. Due increase the population, rapid development, global agricultural development has moved rapidly, limitations of financing, emerging limitations of both energy and raw materials and also add to the complexity of any waste management system, large quantities of wastes are being generated in different forms such as solid, liquid and gases. This research explored factors affecting the level of participation in solid waste segregation and recycling of households in Romania, as well as examining current Romania households waste management practices and their knowledge of waste management. This study investigated the solid waste situation and the organization of solid waste management in both urban and rural settings from the perspective of households. Solid waste management is a key component of public services which needs to serve the urban and rural municipalities in an efficient way in order to maintain a decent standard of public health.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Nur Fatoni ◽  
Rinaldy Imanuddin ◽  
Ahmad Ridho Darmawan

Waste management is still defined as limited to collection, transportation and garbage disposal. The follow-up of the meaning is the provision of facilities such as garbage bins, garbage trucks and waste collection land. Waste management has not included waste separation. Segregation of waste can minimize the amount of waste that must be discharged to the final place. Segregation of waste can supply recyclable raw materials and handicrafts made from garbage. The manufacture of handicraft products from garbage is still local and requires socialization and training. It is needed to increase the number of craftsmen and garbage absorption on the crafters. Through careful socialization and training, citizens' awareness of waste management becomes advanced by making handicrafts of economic value from waste materials.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samir M. El-Gazzar ◽  
Rudolph A. Jacob ◽  
Scott P. McGregor

SYNOPSIS European life insurers began disclosing embedded value information (EV) over a decade ago due to concerns with traditional local accounting standards. EV is an estimate of the present value of future net cash flows from in-force life insurance business. However, U.S.-based life insurers have yet to adopt this disclosure, although several surveys and empirical studies suggest that EV disclosure provides valuable information in assessing life insurers' performance. This paper examines the incremental valuation effects of EV disclosure in the presence of U.S. GAAP. We utilize a sample of cross-listed life insurers as surrogates to assess the valuation effects of EV disclosures for U.S. life insurers. Our empirical results show a higher association between EV and stock market prices than those of traditional accounting metrics such as earnings or book value. The results also show that EV has incremental explanatory power beyond those of traditional U.S. GAAP accounting measures. Our findings provide vital input to FASB and IASB as they currently engage in a joint project to develop uniform globally acceptable, comparable accounting standards for life insurers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7251
Author(s):  
Mushk Bughio ◽  
Muhammad Shoaib Khan ◽  
Waqas Ahmed Mahar ◽  
Thorsten Schuetze

Electric appliances for cooling and lighting are responsible for most of the increase in electricity consumption in Karachi, Pakistan. This study aims to investigate the impact of passive energy efficiency measures (PEEMs) on the potential reduction of indoor temperature and cooling energy demand of an architectural campus building (ACB) in Karachi, Pakistan. PEEMs focus on the building envelope’s design and construction, which is a key factor of influence on a building’s cooling energy demand. The existing architectural campus building was modeled using the building information modeling (BIM) software Autodesk Revit. Data related to the electricity consumption for cooling, building masses, occupancy conditions, utility bills, energy use intensity, as well as space types, were collected and analyzed to develop a virtual ACB model. The utility bill data were used to calibrate the DesignBuilder and EnergyPlus base case models of the existing ACB. The cooling energy demand was compared with different alternative building envelope compositions applied as PEEMs in the renovation of the existing exemplary ACB. Finally, cooling energy demand reduction potentials and the related potential electricity demand savings were determined. The quantification of the cooling energy demand facilitates the definition of the building’s electricity consumption benchmarks for cooling with specific technologies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salma Khalid ◽  
Najibul Haq ◽  
Zia-ul-Ain Sabiha ◽  
Abdul Latif ◽  
Muhammad Amjad Khan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Hospital waste management (HWM) practices are the core need to run a proper health care facility. This study encompasses the HWM practices in teaching hospitals of Peshawar, Pakistan and examine the enforcement of Pak HWM (2005) rules and risks through transmission of pathogens via blood fluids, air pollution during waste incineration and injuries occurring in conjunction with open burning and dumping. Methods A questionnaire based on World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations was used to survey the selected private and public teaching hospital (n = 16). Site visits and personnel observations were also included in the data. It was spatio-statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics, Krushkal-wallis and Fisher’s exact tests. Results The findings revealed that the lack of HWM practices in all surveyed hospitals (p > 0.05), besides statistical difference (p < 0.017) in waste generation/day. No proper segregation of waste from generation point to final disposal was practiced. However, the performance of private teaching hospitals (50%) was found better in terms of HWM personnel and practices. In surveyed hospitals, only nine hospitals (56.3%) were found with the incinerator facility while rest of the hospitals (43.7%) practiced open dumping. Moreover, operational parameters of the incinerators were not found satisfactory and located in densely populated areas and emitting hazardous gases. Conclusion Proper HWM practices are not being followed in the light of WHO guidelines. Hospital waste impose serious menace to healthcare workers and to nearby population. WHO issued documents for improving HWM practices but triggered no change in Pakistan. To improve the situation, insights in this context is need for enforcement of rules.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3852
Author(s):  
Daniel Plörer ◽  
Sascha Hammes ◽  
Martin Hauer ◽  
Vincent van Karsbergen ◽  
Rainer Pfluger

A significant proportion of the total energy consumption in office buildings is attributable to lighting. Enhancements in energy efficiency are currently achieved through strategies to reduce artificial lighting by intelligent daylight utilization. Control strategies in the field of daylighting and artificial lighting are mostly rule-based and focus either on comfort aspects or energy objectives. This paper aims to provide an overview of published scientific literature on enhanced control strategies, in which new control approaches are critically analysed regarding the fulfilment of energy efficiency targets and comfort criteria simultaneously. For this purpose, subject-specific review articles from the period between 2015 and 2020 and their research sources from as far back as 1978 are analysed. Results show clearly that building controls increasingly need to address multiple trades to achieve a maximum improvement in user comfort and energy efficiency. User acceptance can be highlighted as a decisive factor in achieving targeted system efficiencies, which are highly determined by the ability of active user interaction in the automatic control system. The future trend is moving towards decentralized control concepts including appropriate occupancy detection and space zoning. Simulation-based controls and learning systems are identified as appropriate methods that can play a decisive role in reducing building energy demand through integral control concepts.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3311
Author(s):  
Víctor Pérez-Andreu ◽  
Carolina Aparicio-Fernández ◽  
José-Luis Vivancos ◽  
Javier Cárcel-Carrasco

The number of buildings renovated following the introduction of European energy-efficiency policy represents a small number of buildings in Spain. So, the main Spanish building stock needs an urgent energy renovation. Using passive strategies is essential, and thermal characterization and predictive tests of the energy-efficiency improvements achieving acceptable levels of comfort for their users are urgently necessary. This study analyzes the energy performance and thermal comfort of the users in a typical Mediterranean dwelling house. A transient simulation has been used to acquire the scope of Spanish standards for its energy rehabilitation, taking into account standard comfort conditions. The work is based on thermal monitoring of the building and a numerical validated model developed in TRNSYS. Energy demands for different models have been calculated considering different passive constructive measures combined with real wind site conditions and the behavior of users related to natural ventilation. This methodology has given us the necessary information to decide the best solution in relation to energy demand and facility of implementation. The thermal comfort for different models is not directly related to energy demand and has allowed checking when and where the measures need to be done.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3796
Author(s):  
Mudassar Azam ◽  
Asma Ashraf ◽  
Saman Setoodeh Setoodeh Jahromy ◽  
Sajjad Miran ◽  
Nadeem Raza ◽  
...  

In connection to present energy demand and waste management crisis in Pakistan, refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is gaining importance as a potential co-fuel for existing coal fired power plants. This research focuses on the co-combustion of low-quality local coal with RDF as a mean to reduce environmental issues in terms of waste management strategy. The combustion characteristics and kinetics of coal, RDF, and their blends were experimentally investigated in a micro-thermal gravimetric analyzer at four heating rates of 10, 20, 30, and 40 °C/min to ramp the temperature from 25 to 1000 °C. The mass percentages of RDF in the coal blends were 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%, respectively. The results show that as the RDF in blends increases, the reactivity of the blends increases, resulting in lower ignition temperatures and a shift in peak and burnout temperatures to a lower temperature zone. This indicates that there was certain interaction during the combustion process of coal and RDF. The activation energies of the samples were calculated using kinetic analysis based on Kissinger–Akahira–Sunnose (KAS) and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO), isoconversional methods. Both of the methods have produced closer results with average activation energy between 95–121 kJ/mol. With a 30% refuse-derived fuel proportion, the average activation energy of blends hit a minimum value of 95 kJ/mol by KAS method and 103 kJ/mol by FWO method.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4394
Author(s):  
Margarita Ignatyeva ◽  
Vera Yurak ◽  
Alexey Dushin ◽  
Vladimir Strovsky ◽  
Sergey Zavyalov ◽  
...  

Nowadays, circular economy (CE) is on the agenda, however, this concept of closed supply chains originated in the 1960s. The current growing quantity of studies in this area accounts for different discourses except the holistic one, which mixes both approaches—contextual and operating (contextual approach utilizes the thorough examination of the CE theory, stricture of the policy, etc.; the operating one uses any kind of statistical data)—to assess the capacity of circular economy regulatory policy packages (CERPP) in operating raw materials and industrial wastes. This article demonstrates new guidelines for assessing the degree level of capacity (DLC) of CERPPs in the operation of raw materials and industrial wastes by utilizing the apparatus of the fuzzy set theory. It scrupulously surveys current CERPPs in three regions: the EU overall, Finland and Russia; and assesses for eight regions—the EU overall, Finland, Russia, China, Greece, France, the Netherlands and South Korea—the DLC of CERPPs in operating raw materials and industrial wastes. The results show that EU is the best in CE policy and its CERPP is 3R. The following are South Korea and China with the same type of CERPP. Finland, France and the Netherlands have worse results than EU with the type of CERPP called “integrated waste management” because of the absence of a waste hierarchy (reduce, recover, recycle). Russia closes the list with the type of CERPP “basic waste management”.


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