WILCI

Waste incineration life cycle inventory tool

User guide
BRGM/RP-67092-FR
July, 2017

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 WILCI
Waste incineration life cycle inventory tool
User guide
BRGM/RP-67092-FR
July 2017
Study carried out as part of
the project “Progress for the Life Cycle Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste incineration in France
(PCI)”, co-funded by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME)
Convention n° 1406C0016

S. Muller, A. Beylot

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 Foreword

The use of the WILCI tool is free of charge; however, please cite the following publications
when using the tool:

1. Beylot A., Muller S., Descat M., Ménard Y., Michel P., Villeneuve J. 2017. WILCI: a LCA
tool dedicated to MSW incineration in France. Proceedings of the 16th International
waste management and landfill symposium. Sardinia, 2017.

2. Beylot A., Hochar A., Michel P., Descat M., Ménard Y., Villeneuve J. 2017. Municipal
Solid Waste incineration in France: an overview of Air Pollution Control techniques,
emissions and energy efficiency. Journal of Industrial Ecology. In press.

Keywords: WILCI, user guide, municipal solid waste, incineration, life cycle assessment, life cycle
inventory

In bibliography, this report should be cited as follows: Muller, S., Beylot, A., 2017. WILCI. Waste
incineration life cycle inventory tool. User guide. July 2017. BRGM/RP-67092-FR, p.34, 19 fig., 4 tabl.,
Orléans, France.

© BRGM, 2017. No part of this document may be reproduced without the prior permission of BRGM.

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 WILCI – User guide

Contents

1. Introduction : what is the WILCI tool ? ..................................................................8

2. How to use the WILCI tool ? ...................................................................................9

2.1. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE TOOL .............................................................9

2.2. HOW TO PERFORM A LCI CALCULATION? .................................................. 11

2.2.1. Inform the amount of treated waste and its composition ................... 12
2.2.2. Inform the characteristics of the air pollution control (APC) .............. 13
2.2.3. Inform the quantity and type of reagents used.................................. 15
2.2.4. Inform the characteristics of the energy production and consumption17
2.2.5. Inform the characteristics of the solid residues management ........... 18
2.2.6. Inform the uncertainty of the data ..................................................... 24

2.3. HOW TO USE THE RESULTS? ...................................................................... 26

2.3.1. Exploring the resulting LCI directly in the tool ................................... 26
2.3.2. Importing the resulting LCI in a LCA software .................................. 27

3. References ............................................................................................................ 31

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 WILCI – User guide

List of illustrations
Figure 1 Scheme of the model implemented in WILCI. Main inputs (raw data) and outputs
(elements of the resulting LCI) ........................................................................................................... 9
Figure 2 Global vision of the WILCI tool: elements that can be informed by the users and ways to
use the tool results ............................................................................................................................ 11
Figure 3 : Screenshot of the part of the « Waste Composition » worksheet where users can
inform the composition of the waste under study ............................................................................. 13
Figure 4 Screenshot of the « Emission Factors APC1 » worksheet with indication of the user-
modifiable data ................................................................................................................................. 14
Figure 5 Screenshot of the « Emission Factors APC2 » worksheet, with indication of the user-
modifiable data ................................................................................................................................. 15
Figure 6 Screenshot of the « Emission Factors APC3 » worksheet, reporting the user-modifiable
data ................................................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 7 Screenshot of the part of the « Reagents consumption » worksheet where users can
inform if the mass of reagents is known or not ................................................................................. 16
Figure 8: Screenshots of excerpts from the « Reagents consumption » worksheet where users
can inform characteristics of reagents consumptions (even if the masses of used reagents are
unknown) .......................................................................................................................................... 17
Figure 9 Screenshot of an excerpt from the « Energy » worksheet, where information on the
energy production and consumption can be entered by users ........................................................ 18
Figure 10 Overview of the interactions between WILCI and ecoinvent tools to account for water
emissions due to bottom ashes landfilling in WILCI ......................................................................... 19
Figure 11 Transport datum to be copy-pasted by users from the WILCI tool (“Bottom Ashes
Management” worksheet) to the tool developed by Gabor Doka for the ecoinvent Centre, referred
to as the “ecoinvent tool” in this document ....................................................................................... 20
Figure 12 Masses of oxidized descrapped bottom ashes (worksheet “Bottom Ashes
Management” of the WILCI tool) to be copy-pasted into the ecoinvent tool, worksheet “slag
compartment” .................................................................................................................................... 20
Figure 13 Resulting inventory of water emissions that needs to be exported from the ecoinvent
tool (“Synopsis exchanges” worksheet) to the WILCI tool (“Bottom Ashes Management”
worksheet) ........................................................................................................................................ 21
Figure 14 Overview of the interactions between WILCI and ecoinvent tools to account for water
emissions due to APC residues landfilling in WILCI ......................................................................... 22
Figure 15 Transport datum to be copy-pasted from the WILCI tool (“APC residues management”
worksheet) to the ecoinvent tool (“residual landfill” woksheet) ......................................................... 23
Figure 16 Masses of oxidized APC residues (worksheet “APC Residues Management” of the
WILCI tool) to be copy-pasted into the ecoinvent tool ( worksheet “residual landfill”) ..................... 23
Figure 17 Resulting inventory of water emissions that needs to be exported from the ecoinvent
tool (“Synopsis exchanges” worksheet) to the WILCI tool (“APC Residues Management”
worksheet) ........................................................................................................................................ 23
Figure 18 Screenshot of the « Uncertainties » worksheet................................................................ 26
Figure 19 Illustration of the type of results contained in the resulting LCI worsksheets (here
exemplified with worksheet “Emissions_Technology”) ..................................................................... 27

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 WILCI – User guide

List of tables
Table 1 The 23 worksheets composing the WILCI tool .................................................................... 10
Table 2 Cells colour convention applied in the WILCI tool ............................................................... 12
Table 3 : Pedigree matrix used to score the additional uncertainty of the datum under
assessment (from Weidema et al., 2013) ......................................................................................... 25
Table 4 : Illustrations of some steps of the resulting LCI import within Simapro .............................. 28

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 WILCI – User guide

1. Introduction : what is the WILCI tool ?

WILCI (for Waste incineration life cycle inventory tool) is an Excel-based tool dedicated to the
life cycle assessment (LCA) of municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration in the French situation.
In view of the similarities between French and other European MSW management systems, it
can be considered a robust tool to perform the LCA of MSW incineration in many European
countries.

This tool was developed during the project “PCI: Progress for the Life Cycle Assessment of
municipal solid waste incineration in France” co-funded by the French Environment and Energy
Management Agency (ADEME), coordinated by the BRGM and in partnership with the SVDU
(the French professional organization gathering the main operators of waste-to-energy
facilities).

WILCI enables users to build a life cycle inventory (LCI) relative to the incineration of a given
amount of MSW, considering technologies and performances (in terms of emissions, energy,
etc.) representative of the specific system under study. Users have the possibility to define
several parameters, including in particular: the type of waste that is treated, the air pollution
control (APC) technologies implemented, the corresponding level of emissions, the level of
energy recovery and delivery to the grid, the consumption of reagents, and the fate of solid
residues downstream the incinerator. Considering each of these parameters, default values, for
most of them based on datasets collected with respect to 90 French MSW incineration plants
considering the period 2012-2015, and therefore representative of average MSW incineration in
France, are pre-implemented in WILCI and can be used as such by LCA modellers. WILCI was
built considering the ecoinvent approach for LCI relative to MSW incineration. In particular,
uncertainty was quantified on each modeled flow (emissions and intermediate exchanges) in
line with the approach used in the ecoinvent database.

WILCI provides the resulting inventory in two different formats. The first one presents the
inventory in three main categories, respectively displayed in three different worksheets:

- Waste-specific emissions;
- Process-specific emissions;
- Intermediate exchanges.

A second format (taking the form of a single worksheet) enables users to directly import their
resulting inventory to the Simapro v8.2 software1 using the ecoinvent v3.1 database. This
second format accordingly enables practitioners to perform a complete LCA of their specific
system under study. Considering additional data manipulations, the inventory may also be
imported to other LCA software that support .csv format.

1 Available on https://simapro.com/

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 WILCI – User guide

2. How to use the WILCI tool ?

2.1. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE TOOL

WILCI is an Excel macro-enabled workbook2 (developed with Microsoft Excel 2010 and
compatible with previous and new versions of the software) where user inputs on waste and
incineration plants characteristics are transformed into a resulting LCI as depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Scheme of the model implemented in WILCI. Main inputs (raw data) and outputs (elements of
the resulting LCI)

To apply this model, WILCI is based on three different kinds of worksheets (see Table 1):

1. User-modifiable worksheets: that enable users to inform the different characteristics of

both the waste and incineration plants under study (i.e. the inputs of the model). These
worksheets are indicated by different varieties of orange colours.
2. Worksheets detailing resulting outputs: that provide the resulting inventory (directly
readable by users in the worksheet or in a format that enables the inventory import to the
Simapro software). These worksheets are indicated by a green colour.
3. Worksheets used for calculation purposes only: these worksheets are hidden and
can be displayed by users if necessary (but they cannot be modified by users).

Besides these three different kinds of worksheets, an “Intro” woksheet provides a global
overview of the tool and a “Data sources” worksheet provides the list of all references used in
the tool (see Table 1).

2 Meaning that some macros (i.e. specific programming instructions), already present in Excel, are used in this tool
for list management and specific formatting.

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 WILCI – User guide

Table 1 The 23 worksheets composing the WILCI tool

Worksheet
User - Description
modifiable
? Name
It gives information on the tool by making a census of the different
NO Intro worksheets
Waste
Composition Amount and composition, by waste category (functional unit)
Emission APC technology for dust and acid gases, and relative emission factors by
Factor APC1 technology
Emission APC technology for NOx and dioxins, and relative emission factors by
Factor APC2 technology
Emission Emission factors relative to CO and NMVOC, common to all APC
Factor APC3 technologies
YES Reagents
Type and quantities of reagents consumed
Consumption
Energy Parameters relative to energy consumption and production
Bottom Ashes
Management of bottom ashes : proportion by management technique
Management
APC Residues
Management of APC residues : proportion by management technique
Management
Uncertainties Calculation of uncertainty figures
ResultingLCI_ Provides the life cycle inventory (LCI) relative to the incineration of waste,
ForSimapro whose quantity and composition are specified in sheet "Waste Composition"
Emissions_ Provides "waste-specific" emissions (calculated by use of transfer
Waste coefficients)
NO
Provides "process-specific" air emissions (calculated by use of emission
(results)
Emissions_ factors) and emissions relative to bottom ashes and APC residues
Technology management
IntermediateEx
changes Provides all other intermediates exchanges
Provides an average overview of the inputs needed to build the incinerator
Infrastructures infrastructure
French Waste Provides the average French municipal solid waste (MSW) composition by
Composition waste category
Waste
Composition by Provides, by type of waste, the elemental composition of the assessed
NO Element fraction of waste
(for Transfer
calculation Coefficients Makes a census of the transfer coefficients needed in calculations
purposes
only) Molar Masses Makes a census of the molar masses needed in calculations
Enables the calculation of the flue gas volume induced by the user-defined
Vi_Calculation waste
VM_ Enables the calculation of the flue gas volume induced by average French
Calculation MSW
Emissions_ Enables the calculation of “waste-specific” emissions, by use of transfer
WasteSpecific coefficients
NO Data Sources List of data sources used in the WILCI tool

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 WILCI – User guide

2.2. HOW TO PERFORM A LCI CALCULATION?

Figure 2 offers an overview of the type of information users can put in the tool and how the
results can be treated. As WILCI contains some macros, please make sure to enable macros
when opening the workbook. Also make sure to keep the original version of the tool in your files
if there is a need to retrieve the original default values.

1. INFORM THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS

The amount of treated waste The characteristics of air The quantity and type of
and its composition pollution control (APC) reagents used
a. Dust and acid gases abatement
b. NOx and dioxins abatement
c. CO and NMVOC abatement
See chapter 2.2.1 See chapter 2.2.2 See chapter 2.2.3

The energy consumption and The characteristics of the The uncertainty on the
production solid residues management different exchanges
a. Bottom ashes management
b. APC residues management

See chapter 2.2.4 See chapter 2.2.5 See chapter 2.2.6

2. USE THE RESULTS

By importing them in a LCA

Directly in the tool
software

See chapter 2.3.1

See chapter 2.3.2

Figure 2 Global vision of the WILCI tool: elements that can be informed by the users and ways to use the
tool results

In the different user-modifiable worksheets, the colour convention mentioned in Table 2 below is
applied. All salmon-coloured cells (i.e. all cells that can be informed by users) can also be
refreshed to the default values representing the French average situation using the button:

Clicking on this button will ONLY affect cells in salmon.

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 WILCI – User guide

Table 2 Cells colour convention applied in the WILCI tool

Cells that can be informed by the user. As of now, default values representing
the average French situation are entered in these specific cells.

Cells for which no value needs to be entered (any values modification will have
no impact on calculations)

Cells in which a value is inconsistent. The red colour indicates a warning in the
calculations (for example when the total of a sum is different from 100%)

Cells in which data need to be manipulated before their use in the model (see
following sections).

2.2.1. Inform the amount of treated waste and its composition

Worksheet

1. Inform, in tons, the quantity of treated waste in cell B3

2. Inform how to set up the assessed waste category by choosing an element in the list in
cell B6 (see : Figure 3)
 “By waste category, aggregated, user-defined”: fill in salmon cells B12 to B15 by
entering the share (in %) of the different aggregated waste categories. If the sum of the
shares are different from 100%, cell B16 will be red-coloured as a warning;
 “By waste category, user-defined”: fill in salmon cells F12 to F24 by entering the share
(in %) of the different waste categories. If the sum of the shares are different from 100%,
cell F25 will be red-coloured as a warning;
 “Average French situation, default”: no data need to be entered.

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 WILCI – User guide

Must be informed in case the

« By waste category, aggregated,
user defined » option is chosen

Must be informed in case the

« By waste category, user
defined » option is chosen

Figure 3 : Screenshot of the part of the « Waste Composition » worksheet where users can inform the
composition of the waste under study

2.2.2. Inform the characteristics of the air pollution control (APC)

a. For the abatement of dust and acid gases

Worksheet

1. Inform the share (in %) of dust and acid gas abatement technologies (cells D5 to D10 )
in the treatment of the waste
2. Inform the dust emission factors (in g by ton of waste) for each group of technology in
cells H5 to H10
3. Inform, for each group of technology, the water consumption (in m3 by ton of waste) in
cells B16 to B19

The three steps are mentioned in Figure 4. As a default, average data relative to the French
MSW incineration sector are pre-implemented.

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 WILCI – User guide

Figure 4 Screenshot of the « Emission Factors APC1 » worksheet with indication of the user-modifiable
data

b. For the abatement of NOx and dioxins

Worksheet

1. Inform the share (in %) of each DeNOx/Dediox technology in cells E6 to E10

2. Inform the different pollutants emission factors (in g by ton of waste or in mg by Nm 3 of
flue gas) for each group of technology in cells I6 to M10

The two steps are mentioned in Figure 5. As a default, average data relative to the French
MSW incineration sector are pre-implemented.

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 WILCI – User guide

1 2

Figure 5 Screenshot of the « Emission Factors APC2 » worksheet, with indication of the user-
modifiable data

c. For the abatement of CO and NMVOC

Worksheet

1. Inform the different pollutants emission factors (in gram by ton of waste) in cells B5 to J5
(see Figure 6)

Figure 6 Screenshot of the « Emission Factors APC3 » worksheet, reporting the user-modifiable data

2.2.3. Inform the quantity and type of reagents used

Worksheet

1. Inform, by choosing an element in the list in cell E3, whether you know the masses of
reagents used or not:

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 WILCI – User guide

 If you choose “known”, inform the masses of reagents consumed (in kg) in cells
B8 to B17 (see Figure 7)
 If you choose “unknown”, calculations will automatically be performed. However,
some information can still be informed by the user (see Figure 8):
a. The share (in %) of reagents by type of acid gas and dust abatement
technology in cells G25 to L29
b. The share (in %) of reagents by DeNOx/Dediox technology in cells B31 to
F36
c. The factor of catalysts consumption (in kg by ton of waste) in cells P24
and Q24

To be filled in if the masses of used reagents

are known

Figure 7 Screenshot of the part of the « Reagents consumption » worksheet where users can inform if the
mass of reagents is known or not

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 WILCI – User guide

1b
1a

1c

Figure 8: Screenshots of excerpts from the « Reagents consumption » worksheet where users can inform
characteristics of reagents consumptions (even if the masses of used reagents are unknown)

2.2.4. Inform the characteristics of the energy production and consumption

Worksheet

1. Inform the efficiency (in %) in the energy (electricity + heat) recovery and delivery to the
network in cells B5 to C8 depending on the type of energy recovery that is implemented
2. Inform the efficiency (in %) in the energy recovery for use at the plant in cells D5 to E8
depending on the type of energy recovery that is implemented
3. Inform the rate (in % of the total mass of waste treated) in energy production
technologies in cells F5 to F8
4. Inform the share of consumed electricity (in %) as a function of electricity source (from
the grid or from internal production) in cells G5 to H8

These four steps are illustrated in Figure 9.

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 WILCI – User guide

1 2 4
3

Figure 9 Screenshot of an excerpt from the « Energy » worksheet, where information on the energy
production and consumption can be entered by users

2.2.5. Inform the characteristics of the solid residues management

In order to determine the LCI relative to the downstream treatment of bottom ashes and APC
residues (in particular, water emissions from these solid residues landfilling), users are asked to
use a complementary Excel tool external to WILCI. This complementary Excel tool, entitled
“Calculation Tool for waste disposal in Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators MSWI for ecoinvent
v2.1”, was developed by Gabor Doka for the ecoinvent Centre. It is freely available for all
ecoinvent users (downloadable at http://www.ecoinvent.org/login-databases.html3) and is
attached to the “Waste Incineration” report of the ecoinvent database (Doka, 2002; Doka, 2003).
In the following, this tool is referred to as the “ecoinvent tool”.

a. Management of bottom ashes

Worksheet

In this worksheet, pieces of information provided by users enable the calculation of the mass of
bottom ashes sent to landfill after descrapping. Bottom ashes landfilling is responsible for water
emissions, whose composition and quantities must be calculated by use of the ecoinvent tool,
and then copy-pasted to the WILCI tool (as described in the following procedure and in Figure
10).

3 To download the ecoinvent Excel tool, log into the « Version 1+2 » and go the « Files » tab

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 WILCI – User guide

ecoinvent tool ("slag

compartment" and
"Synopsis exchanges"
worksheets)
•Transport to landfill (cell F4) •Water emissions due to the
•Mass of oxidized descrapped bottom ashes sent to
bottom ashes to landfill, by •Mass of oxidized descrapped landfill, copied from the
element (cells E49-E89) bottom ashes copied from ecoinvent tool and pasted in
WILCI, and pasted in the WILCI
ecoinvent tool ("slag
compartment" worksheet),
•Calculation of resulting
WILCI tool ("Bottom water emissions ("Synopsis
WILCI tool ("Bottom
Ashes Management" exhanges" worksheet) Ashes Management"
worksheet) worksheet)

Figure 10 Overview of the interactions between WILCI and ecoinvent tools to account for water emissions
due to bottom ashes landfilling in WILCI

1. Detail bottom ashes management by reporting the proportions of each management

technique in cells B4 to B7
2. Inform the average distance (in km) between the incinerator and the facility where
bottom ashes are landfilled, in cell F4
3. Inform the resulting water emissions and transport due to the fraction of bottom ashes
sent to landfill
a) Obtain the ecoinvent tool from ecoinvent website (http://www.ecoinvent.org/login-
databases.html)
b) In the WILCI tool, worksheet “Bottom Ashes Management”, copy cell F4 and
paste it in the “slag comportment” worksheet, cell D81 of the ecoinvent tool. The
“slag compartment” worksheet might be hidden and must be displayed by the
user (Figure 11). To display a hidden worksheet: right click on the worksheet bar
and then click on “display”.
c) In the WILCI tool, copy cells E49 to E89 (worksheet “Bottom Ashes
Management”) and paste them (by using the command "Ctrl+Alt+V" and select
"Value" in the dialog box) in the “slag compartment” worksheet, cells B21 to B61
of the ecoinvent tool (see Figure 12).
d) In the ecoinvent tool, copy cells F69 to F153 of the “Synopsis exchanges”
worksheet (the “Synopsis exchanges” worksheet might be hidden and must be
displayed by the user) and paste them (by using the command "Ctrl+Alt+V" and
select "Value" in the dialog box) in the WILCI tool (worksheet “Bottom Ashes
Management”), cells J49 to J153 (see Figure 13).

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 WILCI – User guide

3.b

Figure 11 Transport datum to be copy-pasted by users from the WILCI tool (“Bottom Ashes Management”
worksheet) to the tool developed by Gabor Doka for the ecoinvent Centre, referred to as the “ecoinvent
tool” in this document

3.c

Figure 12 Masses of oxidized descrapped bottom ashes (worksheet “Bottom Ashes Management” of the
WILCI tool) to be copy-pasted into the ecoinvent tool, worksheet “slag compartment”

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 WILCI – User guide

3.d

Figure 13 Resulting inventory of water emissions that needs to be exported from the ecoinvent tool
(“Synopsis exchanges” worksheet) to the WILCI tool (“Bottom Ashes Management” worksheet)

b. Management of APC residues

Worksheet

In this worksheet, the pieces of information provided by users enable the calculation of the
mass of APC residues sent to hazardous waste landfills. APC residues landfilling is responsible
for water emissions, whose quantities and composition must be calculated by use of the
ecoinvent tool, and then copy-pasted to the WILCI tool (as described in the following procedure
and in Figure 14).

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 WILCI – User guide

ecoinvent tool
("residual material"
and "Synopsis
exchanges"
•Transport to landfill (cell G5) worksheets) •Water emissions due to the
•Mass of oxidized APC residues to landfilling of APC residues ,
hazardous waste landfill , by copied from the ecoinvent tool
element (cells E15-E55) and printed in WILCI
•Mass of oxidized APC residues
copied from WILCI and pasted in
the ecoinvent tool ("residual
material" worksheet)
•Calculation of resulting water
WILCI tool ("APC emissions ("Synopsis WILCI tool ("APC
Residues Management" exchanges" worksheet) Residues Management"
worksheet) worksheet)

Figure 14 Overview of the interactions between WILCI and ecoinvent tools to account for water
emissions due to APC residues landfilling in WILCI

1. Inform the percentage of APC residues that are landfilled or valorized in cells B5 to B7
2. Inform the resulting water emissions and transport due to the fraction of APC residues
disposed of in hazardous waste landfills
a) Obtain the ecoinvent tool from the ecoinvent website
(http://www.ecoinvent.org/login-databases.html ; tab “Files”)
b) In the WILCI tool (worksheet “APC Residues Management”), copy cell G5 and
paste it in the “residual material” worksheet, cell W6 of the ecoinvent tool (see
Figure 15). The “residual material” worksheet might be hidden and must be
displayed by the user. To display a hidden worksheet: right click on the
worksheet bar and then click on “hide”.
c) In the WILCI tool, copy cells E15 to E55 and paste them (by using the command
"Ctrl+Alt+V" and select "Value" in the dialog box) in the “residual material”
worksheet, cells B21 to B61 of the ecoinvent tool (see Figure 16).
d) In the ecoinvent tool, copy cells J69 to J177 of the “Synopsis exchanges”
worksheet (the “Synopsis exchanges” worksheet might be hidden and must be
displayed by the user) and paste them (by using the command "Ctrl+Alt+V" and
select "Value" in the dialog box) in the WILCI tool (worksheet “APC Residues
Management”), cells M15 to M123 (see Figure 17).

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 WILCI – User guide

2.b

Figure 15 Transport datum to be copy-pasted from the WILCI tool (“APC residues management”
worksheet) to the ecoinvent tool (“residual landfill” woksheet)

2.c

Figure 16 Masses of oxidized APC residues (worksheet “APC Residues Management” of the WILCI tool)
to be copy-pasted into the ecoinvent tool ( worksheet “residual landfill”)

2.d

Figure 17 Resulting inventory of water emissions that needs to be exported from the ecoinvent tool
(“Synopsis exchanges” worksheet) to the WILCI tool (“APC Residues Management” worksheet)

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2.2.6. Inform the uncertainty of the data

Worksheet

The WILCI tool quantifies the uncertainty using the same approach as the one used in the
ecoinvent database (referred in the following text as the “pedigree approach”). The pedigree
approach allows quantifying and combining two types of uncertainty: 1) the basic uncertainty,
represented by a probability density function (PDF) and that stands for the epistemic and
systematic uncertainty and; ii) the additional uncertainty that qualifies the fact that the used
datum does not represent the system under study. Additional uncertainty is coded through five
characteristics: reliability, completeness, temporal correlation, geographical correlation and
further technological correlation. For a detailed description of the pedigree approach, readers
should refer to Weidema and Wesanes (1996) and Muller et al. (2016). In the WILCI tool, all
parameters that help determining elementary flows and intermediate exchanges are identified in
the “Uncertainties” worksheet and their uncertainty can be quantified following these steps:

1. Inform, in column C, for each parameter, if the basic uncertainty is known or not
 If you know the basic uncertainty, choose the option “YES” and fill in the value in
cell E (in the same line)
 If you do not know the basic uncertainty, choose the option “NO”, the basic
uncertainty factor will automatically be assigned a value
2. Score the additional uncertainty by choosing between scores 1 to 5 in columns G to K.
To score the additional uncertainty, please refer to the matrix available in ecoinvent data
quality guidelines report (Weidema et al., 2013; p.76; see Table 3 below).

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 WILCI – User guide

Table 3 : Pedigree matrix used to score the additional uncertainty of the datum under assessment (from
Weidema et al., 2013)

The two steps to be undertaken by users in order to feed the “Uncertainties” worksheet are
illustrated in Figure 18.

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 WILCI – User guide

1 2

Figure 18 Screenshot of the « Uncertainties » worksheet

2.3. HOW TO USE THE RESULTS?

2.3.1. Exploring the resulting LCI directly in the tool

Worksheets

The resulting inventory, referring to the waste defined in worksheet “Waste Composition”, is
provided in three worksheets, as illustrated in Figure 19:

1. Worksheet “Emissions_waste” provides, for each compartment of emissions (air and

water), the emissions resulting from the incineration of the specific fraction of waste
under study
2. Worksheet “Emissions_technology” provides on the one hand air emissions specific to
the technology used for pollutants abatement, and on the other hand water and soil
emissions due to the landfilling of bottom ashes and APC residues, and to the use of
bottom ashes in road construction.
3. The worksheet “Intermediate exchanges” provides all the data on materials, transport
and energy required to incinerate the fraction of waste under study in the specific context
of incineration facilities defined by the user

These three worksheets provide both the value and the uncertainty associated to each
exchange of the resulting LCI.

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Figure 19 Illustration of the type of results contained in the resulting LCI worsksheets (here exemplified
with worksheet “Emissions_Technology”)

2.3.2. Importing the resulting LCI in a LCA software

Worksheet

This worksheet provides a resulting inventory that can be directly imported into the Simapro
software coupled with the ecoinvent database. It was built using the conventions from Simapro
v8.2 and ecoinvent v3.1 using the system model ‘allocation, recycled content’, also named as
‘cut off’). These results can be imported into other LCA softwares after (possibly) some data
manipulations (the import was only tested with the combination of Simapro v8.2 and ecoinvent
v3.1).

In order to import the resulting inventory into Simapro, the following different steps must be
considered by WILCI users (some are illustrated in Table 4):

1. If you are using a comma as a decimal separator in Excel, change the “.”. in cell A3 to “,”
2. Copy the entire Excel worksheet
3. Open a new Excel workbook
4. Paste the entire worksheet in this new Excel workbook by clicking “Ctrl+Alt+V“ and
choosing “values” in the dialog box
5. Save this file as a “.csv” (separator: semicolon)
6. Open Simapro and import the csv file
 In Simapro menu bar, select “File > Import”
 In the box “File import”,
o Tick ”SimaPro CSV”
o Find the path of the file by clicking “Add”
o In the “Object link method” part, tick “Try to link imported objects to
existing objects first”
o Tick “Semicolon” as the CSV format separator
o In the “Other options”, tick “Skip process identifier”
o Then click on “OK” to import the process
7. You will find the process in the "Use > Others" category. If you want to import the file
several times, you need to change the name of the process in cell A59 each time you
import it into Simapro

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Table 4 : Illustrations of some steps of the resulting LCI import within Simapro

Steps Illustration

Indicate the correct decimal

separator (cell A3)

Tick
« Values »

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 WILCI – User guide

Change the name of the process

in case of multiple imports (cell
A59)

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3. References

This list of references combines both the references cited in this present guide and the
references used in the WILCI tool (and that are specifically listed in the « Data sources »
worksheet of the WILCI tool).

ADEME. (2010) La composition des ordures ménagères et assimilées en France. Campagne

nationame de caractérisation 2007. ISB 978-2-35838-093-5. Angers, 2010 [In French]

ADEME (2015). Les installations de traitement des ordures ménagères en France. Données
2012. Résultats d’enquête. ADEME Éditions, Angers 2015. [In French]

Allegrini, Vadenbo, Boldrin, Fruergaard Astrup (2015). Life cycle assessment of resource
recovery from municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash. Journal of Environmental
Management 151(2015) 132-143

AMORCE (2012). La gestion des REFIOM des UIOM françaises. Enquête. Série Technique DT
42. Mars 2012.Réalisé avec le soutien financier de l’ADEME. [In French]

AWAST. http://awast.brgm.fr/ 2002

Beylot, A ; Hochar,A ; Michel,P ; Descat, M ; Ménard,Y. & Villeneuve,J. (2017) Municipal Solid
Waste incineration in France: an overview of Air Pollution Control techniques, emissions and
energy efficiency. Journal of Industrial Ecology. In press.

Beylot, A. ; Muller,S. ; Descat,M. ; Ménard,Y. ; Michel,P. (2017) L’outil WILCI pour l’Analyse du
Cycle de Vie de l’incinération des Déchets Ménagers et Assimilés en France. Rapport final du
projet de recherche PCI. 80 pages [In French].

Boesch ME, Vadenbo C, Saner D, Huter C, Hellweg S (2014) An LCA model for waste
incineration enhanced with new technologies for metal recovery and application to the case of
Switzerland. Waste Management 34 (2) 378-389, 2014

Brogaard, Riber and Christensen. 2013 "Quantifying capital goods for waste incineration" Waste
management 33(2013) 1390-1396

CEREMA (2014). Gestion des mâchefers d'incinération de déchêts non dangereux (MIDND).
Application de l'arrêté ministériel du 18 novembre 2011: bilan des pratiques. Rapport d'enquête.
CEREM Direction territorile Centre Est. [In French]

Doka G. (2002). Calculation Tool for waste disposal in Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators
MSWI. For ecoinvent v2.1 (2008). Programmed by Gabor Doka, 2002. with corrections as of
October 2008

Doka G. (2003) Life Cycle Inventories of Waste Treatment Services. Ecoinvent report No. 13.
Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, Dübendorf, 2003

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 WILCI – User guide

Doka (2013). Updates to Life Cycle Inventories of Waste treatment services. Part II "Waste
incineration". Doka Life Cycle Assessments, Zürich, 2013. Available at
http://www.doka.ch/ecoinventMSWIupdateLCI2013.pdf

Frischknecht R., Jungbluth N., Althaus H.-J., Doka G., Heck T., Hellweg S., Hischier R.,
Nemecek T., Rebitzer G., Spielmann M., Wernet G. (2007) Overview and Methodology.
ecoinvent report No. 1. Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, Dübendorf, 2007

Keijzer, E.E., Kok, H.J.G (2011). Environmental impact of different funeral technologies. TNO
report TNO-060-UT-2011-001432. Retrieved from
http://www.petmemorialcenter.ca/aquamation/TNO_report_Environmental_impact_of_different_f
uneral_technologies.pdf

Koehler A, Peyer F, Slazmann C, Saner D. (2011). Probabilistic and Technology-Specific

modeling of missions from municipal solid-waste incineration. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2011, 45
3847-3495

Muller, S., Lesage, P., Ciroth, A., Mutel, C., Weidema, B. P. and Samson, R. (2016) ‘The
application of the pedigree approach to the distributions foreseen in ecoinvent v3’, The
International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 21(9), pp. 1327–1337. doi: 10.1007/s11367-
014-0759-5.

Muller, S., Lesage, P. and Samson, R. (2016b) ‘Giving a scientific basis for uncertainty factors
used in global life cycle inventory databases: an algorithm to update factors using new
information’, The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 21(8), pp. 1185–1196. doi:
10.1007/s11367-016-1098-5.

Personal communication with experts of French MSW incineration from SUEZ R&V France,
TIRU and VEOLIA (2017)

Weidema, B. P. and Wesnaes, M. S. (1996) ‘Data quality management for life cycle inventories-
-an example of using data quality indicators’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 4(3–4), pp. 167–
174. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VFX-3VWNFWR-
88/2/bf4935bdacfacd37407450a7973bd3d2.

Weidema, B. P., Bauer, C., Hischier, R., Mutel, C., Nemecek, T., Reihard, J. and Vadenbo, C.
O. (2013) Data quality guideline for the ecoinvent database version 3. Ecoinvent Report 1(v3).
St. Gallen. Available at:
http://www.ecoinvent.org/files/dataqualityguideline_ecoinvent_3_20130506.pdf.

Zimmermann P., Doka G., Huber F., Labhardt A., Menard M. (1996) Ökoinventare von
Entsorgungsprozessen, Grundlagen zur Integration der Entsorgung in Ökobilanzen. ESU-
Reihe, 1/96, Zürich: Institut für Energietechnik, ETH Zürich

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