Scenarios of bioenergy recovery from organic fraction of residual municipal waste in the Marche region (Italy)

This paper assesses alternative scenarios for the bioenergy recovery by anaerobic digestion (AD) from the organic fraction of residual municipal waste (OFRMW) in the Marche Region (Central Italy, Adriatic Sea Side). The OFRMW investigated consists in the undersize fraction derived from the mechanical selection of the unsorted residual municipal waste (RMW), which is currently treated aerobically before being landfilled as biostabilised waste (bios-OFRMW). This study aims to investigate at what extent the OFRMW produced in the Marche Region could be bio-energetically recovered by AD, or, in the alternative scenario, how much residual methane generation could be expected by aerobically treated bios-OFRMW once landfilled, thus contributing also to the potential environmental impact connected with possible uncontrolled emissions from the regional landfills. With the potential diversion from aerobic to anaerobic biostabilisation, the OFRMW would contribute to the regional energy production with a total electric power equal to 4.8 MW. On the contrary, the current management approach involves greenhouse gases emissions equal to 284 kg CO2 eq per ton of landfilled bios-OFRMW