Special Price for Therese Schwarzböck

The dissertation of Therese Schwarzböck deals with the validation and further development of a method to determine the climate-relevant CO2 emissions from combustible waste.
The thermal recovery of waste is globally increasing and goes along with lower greenhouse gas emissions from landfilling (methane) and a substitution of fossil energy carriers in the industry (e.g. cement industry). At the same time, CO2 emissions from energy recovery of waste are increasing. These emissions are only partly regarded as climate-relevant by the IPCC as they origin to some extent from the combustion of biogenic matter (like paper or wood), which is considered as carbon neutral.
The comparably simple and cost-efficient “Balance method” was developed at the Research Center of Waste and Resource Management of TU Wien and allows the climate relevance of combustible wastes to be determined. Focus of the research work of Therese Schwarzböck is the validation of the “Balance method” and the identification of potentials and limitations of the approach. Thereto, extensive investigations, utilizing artificially prepared and real waste mixtures, have been conducted recently; the method has been applied to all Austrian waste-to-energy plants, and necessary input parameters for European waste have been verified. In order to assess the practicability also in countries with significantly different waste composition, it is planned to investigate waste in Indonesia and China and to adapt and improve the “Balance method” accordingly. Both countries are among the top 10 greenhouse gas emitters worldwide and their formulated CO2-reduction targets have led their energy and waste sector into a transition stage, from landfilling to ever more thermal recovery.

The funds granted by Lions Club will be used by Therese Schwarzböck to finance a research stay in Indonesia (Banda Aceh) in order to take waste samples and to conduct analyses for her research.

Link of publications , opens an external URL in a new window
Link to the PhD-thesis, opens an external URL in a new window