ANAEROBIC DIGESTION OF INCONTINENCE WASTE: ENERGY BALANCE AND LOGISTICS CONCEPT WITH REGARD TO CO2-EMISSIONS

摘要

Due to the demographic change in Europe the amount of incontinence waste is expected to increase drastically. In Germany, the incontinence waste stream is currently estimated as 200,000 metric tonnes per year. The “INKOCYCLE”-project focuses on a combination of energy and material recovery from adult incontinence waste. Energy recovery is pursued by anaerobic digestion of the biodegradable fraction of the waste whereas material recovery options are targeted for the digestion residue. Two different scenarios were considered to calculate the energy and CO2-balance. In the reference scenario the incontinence waste is collected together with the household refuse and transported to the next waste incinerator. In the alternative scenario the segregated incontinence waste is transported to a digestion plant. The digestion residue is then delivered to a nearby incinerator for refuse-derived fuel. The reference scenario produces 3.2 MJ/kg of incontinence waste; the alternative scenario generates 3.9 MJ/kg. The CO2-balance shows that the reference scenario releases 0.62 kg CO2/MJ and the alternative scenario only 0.49 kg CO2/MJ.