Life cycle assessment of hydrothermal carbonization of municipal solid waste for waste-to-energy generation

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is a major concern for Bangladesh, given its high population density and increasing waste production rate. Conventional waste management methods, such as landfilling, result in high carbon emissions for the environment. With over 70% of MSW being organic, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) has emerged as a promising technology for recovering energy and nutrients from such heterogeneous waste streams. This study aimed to compare the environmental effects of HTC coupled with electricity generation (HTC-EG) from MSW with traditional landfilling using life cycle assessment in the context of Bangladesh. The HTC-EG scenario showed lower environmental impacts in three out of five impact categories, specifically reducing climate change, freshwater ecotoxicity, and photochemical ozone formation. For a functional unit of…