Page 13 - Environmental_Ecology

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Chapter 3 Energy recovery

3.1 The concept of energy recovery

The concept refers to a form of resource recovery in which the organic fraction of waste is converted to
some form of usable energy. Recovery may be achieved through the combustion of processed or raw
refuse to produce steam through the pyrolysis of refuse to produce oil or gas; and through the anaerobic
digestion of organic wastes to produce methane gas.
1

Figure 1. Waste hierarchy 2

In 2015 the European Commission issued a package of documents on Circular Economy concerning an
integrated revision of legislative proposals on waste management. Three indicators are proposed in this
paper to contribute to the assessment of the energy recovery management performance in a scenario of
circular economy. The above indicators, proposed and discussed in this paper, have to be integrated with
other ones in order to complete the quantification of the role of Municipal Solid Waste management in
term of energy recovery under a circular economy strategy.
3

1 https://www.eea.europa.eu/help/glossary/eea-glossary/energy-recovery
2 https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/19/3718/htm
3 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319012192_Energy_recovery_from_Municipal_Solid_Waste_in_EU_propo-
sals_to_assess_the_management_performance_under_a_circular_economy_perspective