1 / 11

The Environmental Effects of Organic Waste In Waste Treatment Systems

The Environmental Effects of Organic Waste In Waste Treatment Systems. Harrison Elba SHWPCE Spring 2014. 3 Systems. Composting Aerobic decomposition Landfill Gas Energy Anaerobic decomposition Waste to Energy Combustion. Assumptions. 1 metric ton MSW subject to all 3 systems

janina
Download Presentation

The Environmental Effects of Organic Waste In Waste Treatment Systems

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Environmental Effects of Organic Waste In Waste Treatment Systems Harrison Elba SHWPCE Spring 2014

  2. 3 Systems • Composting • Aerobic decomposition • Landfill Gas Energy • Anaerobic decomposition • Waste to Energy • Combustion

  3. Assumptions • 1 metric ton MSW subject to all 3 systems • Contains 25% organic waste (560 lbs) • Composting reduces mass by 20% • Divert 100% organic matter from waste stream for USA • Average heating content of unsorted MSW is 4500 BTU/ dry lb

  4. Composting • 560 lbs organic waste • Subjected to aerobic decomposition yields 448 lbs mature compost and 1350 scf methane • Diversion produces 103 billion lbs • Application depth of 1 foot allows 18,000 acres of farmland to be covered each year

  5. Landfill Gas Energy • Anaerobic decomposition yields 2,200 scf methane • 2 MMBTU • 10 days worth of gas energy for average home if captured, or high emissions if not captured • Diversion to compost prolongs landfill life by 25% but makes LGE projects obsolete

  6. Incineration • Combustion of 1 ton of unsorted MSW yields 10 MMTU • 1 ton CO2 + fine particulate, heavy metals, dioxins, acid gasses • Cogen is best practice • Diversion to compost reduces combustion heat value potential of waste stream by approx 50%

  7. Conclusions • Lack of emissions data • One method is not superior to the other 2 • Combination is necessary • Compost organic, combust the rest, landfill ash

  8. Yucca Mountain Controversy

  9. Risks • Radiation emissions • Water infiltration • Seismic activity • Vulnerability to attack

  10. Why Yucca? • DOE estimated public dose of .24-.98 mrem/year over 1 million years is less than EPA acceptable dose of 350 mrem/year • Would take thousands of years for water to infiltrate site • All fault lines were out of critical zones • Easy to defend location near military bases

  11. Conclusions • Public and political overreaction to slightly adverse unanticipated discoveries disregarded the ability to engineer solutions • The ensuing political dance regarding “Precautionary Principle” did not account for inherent risk in current distributed storage methods • Will not necessarily discover a more favorable storage site, and the earth was not designed for this purpose

More Related