Environmental performance assessment of waste-to-energy plants in Europe by using the Cleaner Treatment Concept

摘要

The aim of this paper is to present the evaluation of waste-to-energy (WTE) plants concerning -environmental performance in the light of the Cleaner Treatment Concept by using the Cleaner Treatment Index. This index is formed by the combination (aggregation) of several indicators. Fifty WTE plants from 12 European countries were evaluated. It is observed that the average and standard deviation of CTI are 0.73 and 0.13, respectively, which corresponds to the environmental performance class "Good". Results show that Nordic countries present a better environmental performance in terms of CTI values than the average level of the European WTE evaluated. The indicators with the worst performances for the majority of plants were related to energy recovery, indicating that this aspect needs to be better managed. In addition, from the results, it was found that the Cleaner Treatment Concept is an important tool to help environmental performance assessments of waste treatment technologies. The CTI index, in turn, allows the application of the Cleaner Treatment Concept in quantitative studies being an important instrument for practical uses of this treatment management approach.