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Environmental impact assessment of emissions from non-recycled plastic-to-energy processes

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A Correction to this article was published on 27 August 2021

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Abstract

Generally, plastics pose a variety of environmental impacts due to their increased use and non-biodegradability. End-of-life treatment is a viable way of recovering energy from plastics while at the same time reducing the amount of plastics disposed of in landfills. This paper studies the environmental impact of Non-Recycled Plastics (NRP)-to-energy processes. Three waste treatment processes were considered for NRP: pyrolysis, waste-to-energy (WtE), and landfill. The environmental impact assessment results indicated that conversion technologies such as pyrolysis and WtE are preferred over landfill. The total energy consumed in the pyrolysis process was 24635.7 MJ/tonne. The conversion technologies have a lower environmental impact and produced net positive energy from NRP. The global warming potential shows that pyrolysis (3.91 kg eq. CO2) contributes the least to global warming than waste-to-energy (18.56 kg eq. CO2) and landfill (17.5 kg eq. CO2). However, sensitivity analysis suggested that the inefficiencies of the current conversion technologies should be addressed. Between the two technologies studied, pyrolysis contributed less environmental burden, having a lower global warming potential, a higher efficiency in energy conversion, and less harmful emissions such as selenium and methane.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Montgomery High School, Skillman, NJ, 08558, USA

    Henry Zhang

  2. Earth Engineering Center, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Nikolas J. Themelis & Athanasios Bourtsalas

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  1. Henry Zhang
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  2. Nikolas J. Themelis
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  3. Athanasios Bourtsalas
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Zhang, H., Themelis, N.J. & Bourtsalas, A. Environmental impact assessment of emissions from non-recycled plastic-to-energy processes. Waste Dispos. Sustain. Energy 3, 1–11 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42768-020-00063-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42768-020-00063-8

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