Biopower and biofertilizer production from organic municipal solid waste: An exergoenvironmental analysis Mortaza Aghbashlo a, * , Meisam Tabatabaei b, c, d, ** , Salman Soltanian b , Hossein Ghanavati b, c a Department of Mechanical Engineering of Agricultural Machinery, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran b Biofuel Research Team (BRTeam), Karaj, Iran c Microbial Biotechnology Department, Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (ABRII), Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran d Faculty of Plantation and Agrotechnology, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia article info Article history: Received 25 August 2018 Received in revised form 7 March 2019 Accepted 20 April 2019 Available online 4 May 2019 Keywords: Biopower Biofertilizer Environmental impact rate Exergoenvironmental analysis Municipal solid waste abstract In this study, the environmental performance of a genset-coupled anaerobic digestion plant is analyzed at component-level using an exergoenvironmental method. The plant digests organic municipal solid waste (MSW) while producing two main products, i.e., biopower and biofertilizer. A comprehensive exergoenvironmental modeling of the plant is conducted using actual operating data in order to high- light the main units consuming exergy and causing environmental burdens. The exergoenvironmental indicators of all units of the system are computed by integrating exergy and environmental impact balances. The unitary exegetic environmental impact of biopower and biofertilizer are determined at 11.10 and 0.36 mPts/GJ, respectively. This means that the biofertilizer generation causes less environ- mental burden over the biopower due to the ease of its production. The highest total environmental impact rate (37.05 mPts/h) is caused by the genset followed far behind by the digester (8.56 mPts/h). Although the genset has the highest operation-related environmental impact rate (36.97 mPts/h), the highest component-related environmental impact rate (7.87 mPts/h) is associated with the digester. Therefore, the exergoenvironmental performance of the plant can be boosted by minimizing the rate of exergy dissipation of the genset while mitigating the environmental impacts related to the development and construction of the digester. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The quantity of municipal solid waste (MSW) has increased dramatically worldwide as a consequence of the expanding popu- lation, growing urbanization, rapid industrialization, and rising living standards. MSW management is undoubtedly one of the most critical issues of the global environment, particularly in urban areas. If not handled properly, it can seriously affect environmental quality by releasing unpleasant odor, generating leachate, and emitting greenhouse gases. Landfilling is the main disposal route to deal with MSW in the majority of the countries worldwide regardless of the per capita income [1]. However, this treatment method has been criticized because of its high environmental im- pacts and incompatibility with the concept of circular bioeconomy. During the past few decades, numerous environmentally- friendly biochemical (anaerobic digestion, fermentation, compost- ing) and thermochemical (gasification, pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbonization) pathways have been developed and commercialized throughout the globe to mitigate the problems associated with MSW disposal. Among the various technologies developed, anaer- obic digestion has gained more adherents worldwide because of a high biodegradable organics fraction (40e50%) of MSW collected from households and municipal areas [2]. Using this technically- * Corresponding author. Department of Mechanical Engineering of Agricultural Machinery, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, College of Agri- culture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran. ** Corresponding author. Microbial Biotechnology Department, Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (ABRII), Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran. E-mail addresses: maghbashlo@ut.ac.ir (M. Aghbashlo), meisam_tabatabaei@ abrii.ac.ir (M. Tabatabaei). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Renewable Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.04.109 0960-1481/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Renewable Energy 143 (2019) 64e76