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Home > Case Study > Improving the Measurement of Muncipal Waste Across France

Improving the Measurement of Muncipal Waste Across France

Envea_waste_incinerator_mercury_monitoring

The program “UIOM 14C” featured a measurement campaign of the fossil and biogenic CO2 emitted by French incinerators. The study, implemented under the sponsorship of ADEME, FNADE and local partner communities, took place in 2018 and 2019, across 11 sites. It represented a population of 10 million inhabitants and 10% of the waste incinerated in France.

11

sites measured

10M

inhabitants affected

2M

tonnes of waste incinerated

Challenge

In this study, 148 representative samples of more than 2 million tonnes of waste incinerated at 10 French WtE plants were collected through a monthly measurement campaign.

 

A study of the biogenic and fossil content in the waste found that the average biogenic content of the CO2 emissions emitted by the WtE plants was 58%. This corresponds to an average biomass content of 67% of the total residual waste treated and an average share of renewables of 55% of the energy production done at WtE plants.

 

The project was developed by Cabinet Merlin and ENVEA and done in collaboration with ADEME and FNADE, which represents the private waste management industry in France.

Solution

In practice, measurements were made in collaboration with Cabinet Merlin, thanks to ENVEA’s AMESA-B system, including:
 
  • continuous sampling in the exhaust gas flow, by periods of one month
  • a filter cartridge for CO2 adsorption

 

The AMESA B collects all the CO2 in the cartridge and the laboratory later determines the proportion of biogenic CO2.

 

The 14C analysis of the CO2 was made in compliance with ISO 13833 and NF EN 15440.

Benefits

It allowed to determine precisely the biogenic and fossil share of the emissions and the energy, and to quantify the plastic content in solid waste thanks to the Massbio2® solution from Cabinet Merlin.

 

The preliminary results have thus contributed to provide very informative data to the partner cities, including in terms of waste sorting and CO2 emissions.