Life cycle assessment analysis for remediation technology choice: a case study

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) may be helpful in the choice of a remediation technology, because remediation itself entails impacts. Presently, government and public institutions involved in the decisional workflow focused their attention on minimizing risks at site and for the receptors but do not consider environmental effects in a temporal context. The aim of this study was to compare the estimated Global Warming Potential (kgCO2eq.) for excavation and disposal, in situ and off site soil washing configuration, from a site contaminated by heavy metals. For a significant comparison, all the obtained values were normalized for the m3 of soil to treat. The analysis showed a clear advantage in soil washing technology: GWP from 10.96 kg CO2 eq/m3 for in situ treatment, up to 36.20 kgCO2 eq/m3 for ex-situ treatment. In the case of excavation and landfilling the GWP was about 1654 kgCO2eq/m3. Therefore, the environmental advantage shown in the soil washing technology compared to the excavation and disposal in landfills are immediately evident.