Effective waste management such as energy recovery from waste is not very successful in many cities of India. The present study is carried out in the Dhanbad city, India where all the generated wastes are managed unscientifically through open dumping. Most of the reported life cycle assessment-based studies for Indian cities have focussed on the common waste management options such as composting and recycling. This study aimed to evaluate the energy recovery potential and environmental impacts of mainly waste to energy options namely; anaerobic digestion, landfill gas to energy, mass incineration and refuse derived fuel incineration based on the characteristics and composition of wastes of the study area. The selection of waste to energy options is done based on the composition of waste suitable for the respective options, thus making it helpful in reproducing the present work in other cities as well. Anaerobic digestion technology is evaluated based on the biogas generation potential of total food waste generated in the study area using laboratory-scale batch experiments. Similarly, landfill gas to energy is evaluated based on the estimated landfill gas generation (using LandGEM model) from the existing landfill of the study area. While incineration (mass and refuse derived fuel) is evaluated based on the heating value of combustible waste fractions. For the comparison of energy recovery potential and environmental impacts, six scenarios are developed. The maximum energy recovery potential of 602 kWh/tonne of dry waste is found for the scenario mass incineration of combustible waste fractions (72%) and landfilling of remaining wastes (28%). This scenario also showed the maximum net environmental savings due to avoided electricity production. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the collection efficiency of generated landfill gas for electricity conversion significantly impacts the change in global warming and photochemical ozone creation potential. The outcomes of this study will help the concerned authorities in developing the efficient waste to energy system.

在印度的许多城市中，有效的废物管理（例如从废物中回收能源）并不是很成功。本研究在印度丹巴德市进行，所有产生的废物都通过露天倾倒进行不科学的管理。印度城市报告的大多数基于生命周期评估的研究都集中在常见的废物管理选项上，例如堆肥和回收利用。本研究旨在评估主要废物能源选择的能源回收潜力和环境影响，即；厌氧消化、垃圾填埋气发电、大规模焚烧和垃圾衍生燃料焚烧根据研究区废物的特征和组成。废物能源选项的选择是基于适合各个选项的废物组成，因此，它也有助于在其他城市复制当前的工作。厌氧消化技术通过实验室规模的批量实验，根据研究区域产生的总食物垃圾的沼气产生潜力进行评估。同样，垃圾填埋气转化为能源的评估基于研究区域现有垃圾填埋场估计的垃圾填埋气产生量（使用 LandGEM 模型）。而焚烧（质量和垃圾衍生燃料）是根据可燃废物部分的热值来评估的。为了比较能源回收潜力和环境影响，开发了六种情景。对于可燃废物部分的大规模焚烧 (72%) 和剩余废物的填埋 (28%) 情景，发现最大能量回收潜力为 602 kWh/吨干废物。这种情况还显示了由于避免了电力生产而最大的净环境节约。敏感性分析表明，产生的垃圾填埋气用于电力转换的收集效率显着影响全球变暖和光化学臭氧生成潜力的变化。这项研究的结果将有助于有关当局开发高效的垃圾发电系统。