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LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT AND INTEGRATED SUSTAINABILITY EVALUATION OF COAL-SLUDGE CO-FIRING POWER GENERATION

  • Hongting Jiang - School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, China
  • Shuai Che - School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, China
  • Junhong Liu - School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, China
  • Pengfei Yv - School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, China

DOI 10.31025/2611-4135/2026.20618

Released under All rights reserved

Copyright: © 2026 CISA Publisher

Abstract

The co-firing of municipal sewage sludge in coal-fired power plants is considered a potential pathway for waste management and low-carbon transition, yet comprehensive sustainability evaluations under China's dual-carbon goals remain limited. This study fills this gap by quantifying the environmental, economic, and integrated performance of a typical 2×330 MW co-firing plant in northern China using a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The results show that global warming potential dominates the total environmental impact (82.3%). Co-firing reduces internal costs by 1.1% while slightly increasing external costs by 0.8%. The integrated sustainability score of the co-firing scenario (0.5021) is marginally superior to that of conventional coal power, with all coefficients of variation below 5.5%. The evidence indicates that coal-sludge co-firing represents a viable transitional co-processing solution for sewage sludge, providing quantitative evidence for policy support without a significant net increase in environmental burdens.

Keywords

Editorial History

  • Received: 08 Jun 2026
  • Revised: 04 Aug 2026
  • Accepted: 07 Sep 2026
  • Available online: 30 Sep 2026

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