Life cycle assessment of food waste-based biogas generation

Life cycle assessment was performed by using the ReCiPe model to estimate the environmental effects of three food waste (FW)-based biogas generation scenarios. Uncertainty analysis was also conducted to confirm and add credibility to the study. Results showed that the potential impacts of human toxicity, freshwater eutrophication, marine ecotoxicity, and fossil depletion had dominant contributions to the overall environmental impact. Electricity consumption during anaerobic digestion (AD) and the transportation of raw materials during landfill stage exhibited high potential impacts. The FW to landfill scenario with and without energy recovery had the highest environmental impact. Moreover, uncertainty analysis indicated that landfill was unsuitable for treating FW. Increasing biogas generation capacity, improving electricity generation efficiency, optimizing the energy structure of China, and decreasing electricity consumption during the AD stage are effective ways for reducing the adverse effects on the environment.