UK: Technical data for waste incineration background for modelling of product-specific emissions in a life cycle assessment context

UK: In life cycle assessment (LCA) the environmental impacts from a product are assessed throughout the entire life-cycle of the product, i.e. from the extraction of the raw materials from which the product is made through manufacture and use of the product to the final disposal of the product and possible recycling hereof.

The assessment is based on an inventory of inputs and outputs (resource/material consumption and generation of energy and emissions) for all the processes that occur as part of the product life-cycle. A model is developed to estimate the inputs and outputs associated with the disposal of a product through waste incineration.

Based on knowledge of the material composition of the product and the technology applied in the waste incineration plant, the model estimates input of energy and auxiliary materials required for the incineration of the product and generation of energy and output of emissions to the environment caused by the incineration.

The work has been performed as part of the EUREKA project EUROENVIRON 1296: LCAGAPS, sponsored by the Danish Agency for Industry and Trade. This report presents a compilation of technical data on waste incineration that serve as background for a model of incineration processes to be used in the inventory analysis of LCA.