Yano, J.; Aoki, T.; Nakamura, K.; Sakai, S. (2015) Presented at 3rd International Conference on Final Sinks, Taipei, Taiwan, August 24, 2015
Abstract
Waste to energy (WTE) approach contributes to reduce waste generation finally disposed in landfill site.
Especially, Biomass to liquid (BTL) technology, which produced from waste biomass, is expected to
nationally and regionally reduce fossil fuel consumption. There are some BTL technology has been
globally developed. Hydrogenated biodiesel (HBD, ) consists mainly of paraffins, and free of aromatics,
oxygen, and sulfur, can substitute fossil derived diesel fuel. Unlike fatty acid methyl esterstype
BDF, one
of the benefits is that HBD can be applied not only to vegetable oil but also to animal fats. Therefore, the
HBD production is expected to contribute to the expanding feedstock of BTL and resulting increases in
fuel supplies. HBD production can be also combined with other waste management methods, anaerobic
digestion (AD) of food waste, in order to use byproducts (highand
lowboiling
point oil and offgas) with
higher efficiency. The purpose of this study was to clarify the environmental performance of HBD
production and utilization system from waste biomass such as waste cooking oil and animal fats.
A life cycle assessment was conducted after estimating the amount of each waste biomass generation
which can be used for feedstock of HBD. A combined functional unit was established, which included "the
treatment of waste biomass (waste biomass which can be used for feedstock for HBD) annually generated
in Japan" and "running a diesel vehicle." Global warming, fossil fuel consumption, acidification, and urban
air pollution were considered as environmental impacts. The calculation utilized the characterization,
damage, and integration factors identified by LIME2, which was developed by national LCA project in
Japan. The system boundary included the collection, treatment or recycling, final disposal, and the fossilderived
diesel fuel and/or BDF consumption of a collection vehicle. The base scenario was that all waste
biomasses were incinerated. Inventory data for HBD production was obtained from a threeyear
demonstration project, involving Kyoto city, ASTEM, and other companies between April 2012 and March
2015. The results indicated that compared with the base scenario, utilizing the combined HBD production system could bring about a reduction of 41.8% in the integrated environmental effects (global warming, fossil fuel consumption, acidification, and urban air pollution) when waste cooking oil was used as feedstock and combined with the AD of food waste. Among the environmental impact categories, global warming had the highest environmental burden, followed by acidification and urban air pollution.