ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF DRY REFORMING OF METHANE WITHIN A WASTE MANAGEMENT AND VALORIZATION SYSTEM FROM AN LCIA AND ENERGY PERFORMANCE PERSPECTIVE

This work aims to elucidate the potential of dry reforming of methane system within a municipal solid waste management system, from an energetic and life cycle assessment point of view. To do so, a set of Aspen plus simulations were developed and transposed into a computationally lighter artificial neural network regression model. This model was integrated within a MATLAB mass flow analysis superstructure representative of a modern waste management system. The superstructure is also a life cycle impact analysis tool capable of providing the performance of the system as a whole. This integrated assessment was elaborated for different scenarios, comparing the performance of different biogas valorization pathways for different energy uses. The fossil energy ratio was also calculated for the different energy products considered (electricity, biomethane and hydrogen).