This report details the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the proposed Kwinana Waste to Energy plant (WtE Plant).
Report extract
Kwinana WTE Project Co commissioned a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of their proposed Kwinana Waste to Energy plant (WtE Plant) to meet funding requirements of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). The WtE Plant will be located in Kwinana, Australia. It will have two lines, each line estimated to generate 138,220 MWh of electricity annually from 25,000 kg per hour of municipal solid waste. The Western Australian grid is primarily supplied by black coal and gas, with a small portion of wind as illustrated in Figure 1.
The objective of the LCA study is to meet the requirements of ARENA, which are to show the overall environmental impact profile, primarily for embodied fossil energy and GHG balance and to provide a benchmark on fossil energy used, energy return on energy invested (EROEI), and GHG performance.
Whilst the Western Australian market is supplied with a blend of fuel types, the functional unit of the study is to compare the cradle to grave impacts of 1 MWh of electricity supplied to the Western Australian grid from proposed WtE Plant electricity production versus electricity production using black coal. The WtE Plant impacts include collection and transportation of the municipal solid waste as well as the displacement of municipal solid waste to landfill per the ARENA requirements.