Estimation of CO2 emissions from waste incinerators: Comparison of three methods.

Climate-relevant CO2 emissions from waste incineration were compared using three methods: making use of CO2 concentration data, converting O2 concentration and waste characteristic data, and using a mass balance method following Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines. For the first two methods, CO2 and O2 concentrations were measured continuously from 24 to 86 days. The O2 conversion method in comparison to the direct CO2 measurement method had a 4.8% mean difference in daily CO2 emissions for four incinerators where analyzed waste composition data were available. However, the IPCC method had a higher difference of 13% relative to the direct CO2 measurement method. For three incinerators using designed values for waste composition, the O2 conversion and IPCC methods in comparison to the direct CO2 measurement method had mean differences of 7.5% and 89%, respectively. Therefore, the use of O2 concentration data measured for monitoring air pollutant emissions is an effective method for estimating CO2 emissions resulting from waste incineration.