Chari, Suviti;
Sebastiani, Alex;
Paulillo, Andrea;
Materazzi, Massimiliano;
(2023)
The Environmental Performance of Mixed Plastic Waste Gasification with Carbon Capture and Storage to Produce Hydrogen in the U.K.
ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c05978.
(In press).
Preview |
PDF
acssuschemeng.2c05978.pdf - Published Version Download (3MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Hydrogen of a high purity can be produced from the advanced gasification of nonrecyclable mixed plastic wastes (MPW). Due to the fossil nature of MPW, carbon capture and storage (CCS) capabilities need to be employed for the process to be considered a low-carbon hydrogen production route. This study analyzes the environmental performance of a semicommercial process that (a) provides an end-of-life (EoL) for MPW, (b) produces hydrogen as the main product (for sustainable manufacturing, heating, and transport applications), and (c) captures carbon dioxide emissions which are injected into geological sites for permanent sequestration. The climate change impact result is −371 kg CO2 per 1 tonne of MPW treated. The process was competitive against a similarly modeled Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plant coupled with CCS─an alternative future end-of-life scenario. WtE with CCS produced a corresponding impact of 17 kg CO2 per 1 tonne of MPW. The two technologies were also compared alongside a decarbonizing electricity grid mix.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Environmental Performance of Mixed Plastic Waste Gasification with Carbon Capture and Storage to Produce Hydrogen in the U.K. |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c05978 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c05978 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society under a Creative Commons licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | life cycle assessment, waste to energy (WtE), incineration, nonrecyclable plastics, advanced thermochemical treatment |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Chemical Engineering |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10165494 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
