With few, if any environmentally-friendly, low-cost options for safe disposal of infectious wastes that might be used in resource-poor regions, there has for many years been a need for technical developments that deliver a meaningful mid- to high-throughput, low-cost and maintenance free solution that is not in itself demanding of energy resources.
Enter Davao-based inventor Engr. Ricky Dayot and his team at Rad Green Solutions in Davao City with what they claim is an environmentally-safe, low cost, medical waste management system, the Pyroclave.
The Pyroclave is a medical waste processor that uses pyrolysis — the process of decomposing organic material using extreme heat in the absence of oxygen. It is this same process that is used in the creation of charcoal and in the
conversion of coal to coke.
conversion of coal to coke.Unlike incineration or burning, which requires oxygen and creates harmful by-products like dioxin, furans and carbon dioxide; pyrolysis produces fewer by-products. The process effectively carbonizes all solid material and produces 50% less carbon dioxide, it is claimed.
Pyrolysis has been touted as a viable option for medical waste management, but the cost has so far been prohibitive.
With the Pyroclave, the waste material is placed inside a sealed rotating chamber. Once the machine is turned on, it goes to work and starts heating the rotating chamber. The intense heat within the chamber (up to 1,200 degrees Celsius) starts carbonizing the medical waste.
The gas (called synthesized gas or “syngas”) produced by the intense heat and decomposition process is recycled and fed into the burners, thereby serving as added fuel to continue the process and help boost combustion. After 15 to 45 minutes (depending on the type of material and amount), what’s left is the carbonized, soil-like remnants of the medical waste that the inventors claim is safe enough to be disposed of anywhere and can even be used as soil conditioner.
Good luck to the inventors and developers of the Pyroclave. There is a desperate need for a low-capital low-running cost solution that might be provided by this device, which must now be subject to extensive field trial. If proved successful, the Pyroclave should then become a focus for intervention by WHO and the World Bank, to ensure the availability of this or some other suitable device in resource-poor regions.