Energy or compost from green waste? - A CO{sub 2} - Based assessment

Journal Article · Thu Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Waste Management

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2009.09.046· OSTI ID:21357657

Kranert, Martin ^[1]; Gottschall, Ralf; Bruns, Christian ^[2]; Hafner, Gerold ^[1]

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1. Universitaet Stuttgart, Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste Management, Bandtaele 2, D-70569 Stuttgart (Germany)
2. Humus and Erden Kontor GmbH, Karlsbrunnenstrasse 11, D-37249 Neu-Eichenberg (Germany)

Green waste is increasingly extracted from the material recycling chain and, as a result of the financial subsidy arising from the German renewable energy law for the generation of energy from renewable raw materials; it is fed into the energy recovery process in biomass power stations. A reduction in climate relevant gases is also linked to the material recovery of green waste - in particular when using composts gained from the process as a new raw material in different types of potting compost and plant culture media as a replacement for peat. Unlike energy recovery, material valorisation is not currently subsidised. Through the analysis of material and energy valorisation methods for green waste, with particular emphasis on primary resource consumption and CO{sub 2}-balance, it could be determined that the use of green waste for energy generation and its recovery for material and peat replacement purposes can be considered to be on a par. Based on energy recovery or material oriented scenarios, it can be further deduced that no method on its own will achieve the desired outcome and that a combination of recycling processes is more likely to lead to a significant decrease of greenhouse gas emissions.

• OSTI ID: 21357657
• Journal Information: Waste Management, Vol. 30, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2009.09.046; PII: S0956-053X(09)00425-5; Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; ISSN 0956-053X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BIOMASS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CLIMATES
COMPOST
CULTURE MEDIA
ENERGY RECOVERY
FINANCIAL INCENTIVES
GREENHOUSE GASES
MATERIALS RECOVERY
ORGANIC WASTES
PEAT
RAW MATERIALS
RECYCLING
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
MATTER
ORGANIC MATTER
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PROCESSING
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
SOLID FUELS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTES