Economic and environmental assessment of waste biomass recycling system in Aizuwakamatsu city

Abstract

 Waste biomass recycling has been one of the urgent environmental issues. The recycling plants such as combustible waste incineration and excreta treatment facility are built in some cities, but biomass wastes such as food waste and raw sludge are still underutilized. In this research, we survey the collection of biomass waste material and set 5 model cases applying methane fermentation facility. Their feasibilities are analyzed through a method concludes both environmental load evaluation and economic evaluation perspectives. As a case study, we select Aizuwakamatsu city that located in Fukushima prefecture, Japan. And conduct investigations in terms of venous facilities disposing waste and centralized treatments. The results of Aizuwakamatsu city study are concluded as following: 1) it is hard to conduct models with excreta and remaining sludge raw materials because of aging equipment; 2)it is necessary to guarantee the raw material collections; 3) it is necessary to improve households' motivations for separated recycling.