Investigation of solid waste disposal alternatives in lavan island using life cycle assessment approach

Escalating development of tourism and petroleum industries in small islands such as Lavan-Iran requires sound solid waste management. In the present investigation, three scenarios which consist of the combination of landfill, recycling, incineration and composting and their environmental impacts have been evaluated for 7514 Kg/day of waste generation in Lavan island. For this purpose, life cycle assessment was used. The environmental impact assessment was carried out by Eco-indicator 99. The impacts include health [organic substances, inorganic substances, climate change, ionizing radiation, and ozone layer depletion], ecosystem quality [ecotoxic emissions, acidification, eutrophication and double coating] and resources [extraction of minerals and the fossil fuels]. Although all three scenarios have positive impacts on the environment, the third one causes the least damage. Introduced Scenario one has the most adverse effects on human health and ecosystem quality. However, introduced scenario Two has less than the others. In general, the effects of scenario three [landfilling plus recycling, incineration and composting] is less than the other two scenarios which makes it a better candidate for further investigations

Electricity generation from leachate treatment plant

Tehran has a population of over 12 million and produces more than 7500 tons of waste every day. Tehran's municipal solid waste is processed and landfilled at Kahrizak disposal center. Due to inappropriate waste management, a lake with a leachate volume of 180,000m3 has been formed. To solve this problem a leachate treatment plant is currently under construction. A byproduct of leachate treatment is biogas. In this study, the feasibility of electricity generation using biogas has been investigated. Considering that 68.81% of the waste is degradable, the produced leachate has a high organic load [COD = 53900 mg/L and BOD = 34400mg/L]. The results showed that a power plant with a capacity of 1.8 MW could be constructed in the site. This electricity can be utilized in Kahrizak Disposal Site and also sold to the network [10 US cents/ kilowatt]. Financial analysis using ProForm software shows 1.3 years of payback period and emission reduction of carbon dioxide equal to 5752 tones/year in comparison with the natural gas power plant. Therefore this project is financially feasible for private investors with internal rate of return equal to 77% or more