A life cycle assessment of the laboratory-scale oxidative liquefaction as the chemical recycling method of the end-of-life wind turbine blades.

According to the latest reports, estimated values of 50,000-66 000 t of end-of-life wind turbine blades (WTB) are expected to be decommissioned in Europe in 2025-2030, posing a significant threat from the environmental and waste management perspectives. This study aims to present the preliminary Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of the lab-scale oxidative liquefaction process of the WTB, as the original method to recover the high-quality glass fibers with simultaneous production of the secondary chemicals: phenols, ketones, acids, and fatty acids, from the oxidation of the epoxy resin from the polymer matrix. The LCA is based on the experimental results of the oxidative liquefaction process carried out on a laboratory scale using a Parr 500 ml batch reactor, at two different conditions sets for the functional unit (FU) of 1 kg of treated WTB. Each of the analyzed scenarios resulted in higher impact indicators compared to the landfilling. The highest quality fibers were obtained at 350 °C and 40 wt % H2O2 content resulted in 5.52 ± 1.20 kgCO2 eq Climate change impact and 97.8 ± 20.6 MJ of Resource use, fossil per kg of recycled WTB. The lowest quality fiber recovered in char, yet well separated from the matrix obtained at 250 °C and the lowest H2O2 content resulted in 0.0953 ± 0.487 kgCO2 eq Climate change impact and 8.84 ± 7.90 MJ of Resource use, fossil per kg of recycled WTB. The hot spot and sensitivity analysis indicated, that the oxidizer for the process - hydrogen peroxide, when acquired as a shelf product causes a significant burden on the whole process, with sensitivity ratios on the total impact indicators varying across the categories from 0.56 to 0.99. Substitution of H2O2 with theoretical 0-input oxidizer allowed to significantly lower environmental load of the recycling process, which in all of the analyzed scenarios presented environmental benefits compared to landfilling with recovery of the glass fiber and secondary chemicals.

Comparative life cycle assessment of alternative strategies for energy recovery from used cooking oil.

The separate collection of Used Cooking Oil (UCO) is gaining popularity through several countries in Europe. An appropriate management of UCO waste stream leads to substantial benefits. In this study, we analyse two different possibilities of UCO energy reuse: the direct feed to a reciprocating internal combustion engine (ICE) for cogeneration purpose, and the processing to generate biodiesel. Concerning biodiesel production, we analyse four among conventional and innovative technologies, characterised by different type and amount of used chemicals, heat and electricity consumptions and yields. We perform a systematic evaluation of environmental benefits and drawbacks by applying life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis to compare the alternatives. For the impact assessment, two methods are selected: the Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Cumulative Exergy Consumption (CExC). Results related only to the processing phases (i.e. not including yet the avoided effects) show that the recovery of UCO in cogeneration plant has in general lower values in terms of environmental impacts than its employment in biodiesel production. When products and co-products substitution are included, the savings obtained by the substitution of conventional diesel production, in the biodiesel cases, are significantly higher than the avoided effects for electricity and heat in the cogeneration case. In particular, by using the UCO in the biodiesel production processes, the savings vary from 41.6 to 54.6 GJex per tUCO, and from 2270 to 2860 kg CO2eq per tUCO for CExC and GWP, respectively. A particular focus is put on sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Overall, high uncertainty of final results for process impacts is observed, especially for the supercritical methanol process. Low uncertainty values are evaluated for the avoided effects. Including the uncertain character of the impacts, cogeneration scenario and NaOH catalysed process of biodiesel production result to be the most suitable solutions from the process impacts and avoided effects perspective.