Life Cycle Assessment of Post-Combustion Carbon Capture from Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators using Incineration Ashes via Calcium Looping

• Life cycle assessment of calcium looping CO 2 capture using ash-derived sorbents. • Net carbon abatement achieved in waste-to-energy plants with ash valorisation. • CPU vent identified as key GWP driver, despite overall net-negative emissions. • Sensitivity and Monte Carlo analyses reveal SRF energy use as main uncertainty. • On-site power integration further improves environmental performance. This study presents a calcium looping (CaL) system employing ash-derived sorbents aiming to capture approximately 674 kilotons of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) annually from the flue gas of a 200 MW th waste-to-energy (WtE) plant. A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment was conducted with 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity output from a steam turbine as the functional unit to assess environmental performance. The CO 2 processing unit presented a slightly positive global-warming potential resulting from venting CO 2 -containing, nitrogen rich off gas to increase CO 2 concentration in the product, but the entire system still achieved a net carbon abatement of 6.05 × 10 −1 kg CO 2 eq./kWh. Sensitivity and Monte Carlo analysis performed with ±20% variation in electricity and thermal energy consumption showed that the solid recovered fuel (SRF) production process had high variability across most impact categories. In Monte Carlo simulations, electricity consumption strongly influenced Freshwater Aquatic Ecotoxicity Potential (FAETP) and Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential, while thermal energy affected Marine Aquatic Ecotoxicity Potential, Terrestrial Ecotoxicity Potential, and FAETP. A scenario analysis replacing grid electricity with steam turbine-generated electricity to power an industrial furnace and SRF process improved carbon abatement to 6.11 × 10 −1 kg CO 2 eq./kWh. Overall, the CaL approach demonstrates strong potential for decarbonizing WtE operations while valorizing incineration residues and minimizing reliance on limestone.