Sustainability: Projects
Life-Cycle and Market Impact Assessment of Waste Conversion Technologies
Client
California Integrated Waste Management Board
Description
California statutes require the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) to prepare a report on new and emerging technologies to convert organic wastes to usable energy and products, referred to as conversion technologies (CTs). We supported CIWMB by conducting life-cycle and market impact assessments. We
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Analyzed CTs, including catalytic cracking of plastic wastes (to produce low-sulfur diesel), concentrated acid hydrolysis (to produce ethanol), and gasification (followed by combustion to produce electricity)
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Evaluated environmental impacts to all media (air, water, and solid waste)
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Collected waste and economic data from the Los Angeles and San Francisco regions and CT data from technology vendors and patent applications
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Constructed computer models to estimate the life-cycle environmental and market impacts
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Assessed these impacts compared to those of existing MSW management practices (e.g., landfill disposal, composting, recycling, and waste-to-energy combustion)
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Evaluated their economic, financial, and institutional impacts on recycling and composting markets.
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