Hurricane Futures 1' Lessons from Hurricane Katrina 2' Preparing for Climate Change

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Integrated LCA of WM strategies the NLWA case
study 19 May 2008 Simonetta Tunesi
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UCL Environment Institute primary aims

• Improving internal communication, networking and
  collaboration within Environmental science
• Research under the over-arching theme of Climate
  Change three key research areas identified as of
  international status at UCL Climate, Water and
  Cities
• Facilitate the starting of new environmental
  research areas and interdisciplinary
  investigations

• Enhance the external visibility of UCL
  Environmental science and improve links with UK
  Government, Local Bodies and Business

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Integrated Assessment of WASTE MANAGEMENT
strategies at the City level the North London
Waste Authority case study
Start up Meeting 19th May

• Agree on research objectives
• Illustrate the main policy documents and the
  results relevant for the several elements
  composing the project
• Select the key issues to reduce uncertainty of
  results
• Define the role of each participant and follow up
  actions

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Integrated Assessment of WASTE MANAGEMENT
strategies at the City level the North London
Waste Authority case study

• Waste Management strategies can be evaluated from
  several points of view cost, technical
  feasibility, bankability, energy efficiency, C
  balance, environmental and social impact
• LCA is a tool recommended by EU most recent WM
  policies
• UK Waste Strategy 2007 The use of the waste
  hierarchy should be informed by life-cycle
  thinking...
• LCA recommended for the C balance of WM policies
• London Plan and recent report by GLA advocates
  for advanced technological solutions need for a
  regular up-date of LCA tools
• From literature evidence of a need to test LCA
  as a supporting decision tool for policy makers
  at LOCAL level

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RESEARCH QUESTIONS and HYPOTHESYS

• Is LCA a tool that can support planners in WM
  strategies design and evaluation?

• Need to integrate LCA with techno-economic
  feasibility with spatial/social analysis

• Collection and Treatments are part of a single
  system collection can affect arisings and
  composition - source separation, comingled
• Analyse the full spectrum of the material and
  energy recovery system to determine C balance and
  energy efficiency recycling composting AD G
  P thermal treatment CHP H

• Waste hierarchy can the order between recycling
  and energy recovery be altered for specific
  fractions?

• To increase efficiency of WM consider more
  streams of waste

• Consider MSW and Commercial

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• UNCERTAINTY of any LCA and COST analysis
• Marginal energy substituted
• Feasibility of material recovery
• ....

EC - JRC 2008 LCA Guidelines
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NLWA is a relevant case study to formulate a
methodological proposal for an integrated
assessment of WMS
WASTE ARISING, DIMENSION and INFRASTRUCTURAL
CHARACTERISTICS

• the total population of the NL area is 1,675,200
  approximately 730,598 households
• 2007 800,000 ton of Household waste due to
  Borough recycling, decrease in HW disposal
• Current need to adopt innovative treatments
• ATT, AD,
• Current need to plan for small and large
  facilities
• currently 68 facilities, but the increase in
  recycling and energy recovery will require an
  increase in the number of facilities required to
  manage NLWA waste

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NLWA is a relevant case study to formulate a
methodological proposal for an integrated
assessment of WMS
PLANNING CAPABILITY and RANGE of STRATEGY
DOCUMENTS

• North London Joint Waste Strategy it could
  benefit from the evaluation of innovative
  technologies such as AD and Gas / Pyr
• Strategic Environmental Assessment of the North
  London Joint Waste Strategy
• North London Waste Prevention Plan
• North London Waste Plan
• NLJWS The challenge is to ensure that the
  planning framework enables the potential increase
  in sustainability to be fully realised.

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The formulation of an integrated methodology
requires the early involvement of the several
subjects NLWA, NLWP, GLA, EA, HPA, UCLEI,
UCLChemEng

• LCA has limitations that make it difficult to use
  its results to take decisions no geographical
  reference, no time scale, no cost analysis,...
• We will research on
• The feasibility of integrating LCA with spatial
  analysis working with North London Plan
  criteria to assess the feasibility of plants
  location, sensitivity of environmental impacts,
  social acceptance, ...
• The integration of LCA with UCL-ChemEng
  techno-economic analysis of ATT of energy from
  waste Gasification, CHP,
• The effect of MSW collection systems i.e. Source
  segregation of the organic fraction
• Outcome - methodological proposal can these
  tools be integrated? what degree of overlapping
  in evaluation criteria? effects in supporting
  decision in WM?

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Integration between LCA and spatial analysis
The North London Waste Plan will not be able to
dictate the exact range of facilities to be
provided but, in order to allocate sufficient
land, it needs to be based on an indicative
range of facilities. .... whether there is a
predominance of large facilities or small
facilities. This will affect the economics of the
schemes, the distance the waste has to travel,
the impact on neighbours and attraction to
private sector investors.

• The LCA prioritises Scenarios - each will
  indicate a given number of facilities but LCA
  outcomes are not geographically allocated LCA
  analyses data on stream of waste without relation
  to origen, destination, ...
• How does this prioritisation compares with the
  NLWPs criteria, the location actually available
  and the social acceptance...?

This methodological question has never been
addressed before
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NLWAS has published the assessment of 5
Options Baseline Scenario Household waste
collected by the 7 Boroughs delivered to the NLWA
for disposal either at the Edmonton EfW
incineration plant, the Edmonton bulky waste
facility or for loading onto rail containers at
the Hendon Rail Transfer Station for transport to
landfills outside of London. The NLWA also
receives kitchen and green waste collected
separately and composted at the invessel
composting facility at Edmonton. Dry recyclates
collected at Edmonton and the Hornsey Street
Transfer Station and sent for sorting (e.g.
paper, steel cans, glass, aluminium cans etc) at
a materials recycling facility and then onto
factories where they are made into new products
also outside the UK.

• Assess and prioritise several Scenarios where
  collection and treatments will both vary assess
  how collection scheme affect the efficiency of
  recycling for each fraction and energy recovery
  introducing techno-econiomic analysis of
  gasification as ATT

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FORMULATE RELEVANT SCENARIOS
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Preliminary ISSUES for NLWA Project

• Waste included are MSW and Commercial, introduce
  recycling of commercial by Boroughs
• Source segregation of biowaste and relevance for
  treatment expected increased relevance of
  arising data of different collection schemes in
  Boroughs
• The LCA functional unti is the total amount to
  design effective Scenarios including the whole
  collectin / treatment system
• Quality of data on waste apportionment, direct
  monitoring of NLWA. Each Borough in London has
  been apportioned a given of self-sufficiency
  from London Plan consider higher total waste
  amount?
• Define Relevant Scenarios i.e. assess also
  possibility of collection standardisation in the
  Boroughs?
• What parameters to consider for the Sensitivity
  Analysis of LCA - WRATE