Medical waste treatment

Among the various types of waste the medical and biological refuse is isolated as a separate group due to special requirements towards its collection, storage and disposal. In accordance with Russian legislation, special sanitary and epidemiological requirements for the management of waste that is generated in the process of the medical or pharmaceutical activities, also in healthcare, medical and diagnostic treatment are set up. In addition, the requirements to waste depositing, waste processing equipment and ways of medical waste handling also are determined in the law.

Medical waste from state and private hospitals, clinics and medical stations within the project area should be collected separately from other waste.

Medical waste has its own internal classification (А,Б,В,Г,Д – subclasses), depending  on origin and hazardous qualities of waste). For each subclass certain collection and storage requirements are established in accordance with sanitary regulations and standards of Russian Federation:

Subclass A — non-hazardous waste. It includes the waste, which had no contact with the patient’s body fluids or contagious patients.

Subclass Б — hazardous waste. Pathological contagious waste, contaminated materials and tools, surgical and morbid department wastes. All waste from infectious disease wards, microbiological laboratories working with RG3 and RG4 germs.

Subclass B — extremely hazardous waste. These materials were exposed to especially dangerous infections. Waste from laboratories working with RG1 and RG2 germs.

Subclass Г — waste, by its composition close to the industrial waste. Expired medicines, waste from medicinal and diagnostic products, exempted to use or out of date sanitizers, chemicals. Mercury-containing items, appliances and equipment.

Subclass Д — all kinds of wastes containing radioactive components.

Safe Technologies Industrial Group offers an effective and safe solution — the thermal treatment of medical waste of A, Б and В hazard classes. The company’s experts have developed and organized the production of medical and biological thermal treatment facilities based on incineration plants. The equipment has all necessary certification, and solves the disposal problem without any risk to the personnel health and the environment.

Incineration is by far the most reliable and effective method for the treatment of medical waste. Specificity of MPI waste requires compliance with two important disposal rules: the materials must be disinfected and lose the original outlook, i.e. after processing medical waste should not be identifiable from other types of waste. The first rule is evoked by the need of infection spread prevention. The second ensures the elimination of the possibility of contaminated medical instruments re-use.

The peculiarities of medical waste treatment (epidemiological risk, the content of toxic substances, etc.) is given thorough consideration in process flow design.

Due to potential contagiousness of hospital waste, the personnel contact with it should be minimized. Automated control system provides the solution to this challenge. The entire process including waste loading is fully automated and does not require staff involvement. The waste is loaded into special containers still in hospital wards and then automatically fed into the combustion chamber.

Thermal treatment is carried out in the combustion chamber. The furnace type is determined by the amount and kind of waste:  hearth or rotary kiln. The process is conducted at temperatures of 800-900°C. IV hazard class residue is produced in the amount of not more than 10% of the original waste volume when the combustion is finished.

Incineration plants are equipment with multi-stage flue gas cleaning system for environmental purposes. With regard to medical waste, such gas cleaning is of particular importance, as materials may contain toxic substances. Combustion gases enter the afterburner chamber, where dioxins formed during combustion are destroyed at temperatures up to 1200°C. Then, a flue gas is quenched in the scrubber to the temperature not exceeding 300°C. Quenching of the flue gas to the said temperature is necessary to prevent the formation of secondary dioxins.

Then the gases enter the evaporation scrubber where they are cleaned of sulfur, chlorine and fluorine hydrides. Wet or semi-dry scrubber may be chosen depending on the content of acidic compounds in the flue gases.

Before release into the atmosphere, the flue gases pass the final cleaning stage in the dust-collecting unit. At this stage, the gas is cleaned from mechanical impurities by means of a vortex dust collector (cyclone) or a bag filter.

Our experience ensures successful cooperation with both private business and the State. The existing facilities are installed and successfully operated in different regions of Russia — Tyumen, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Tomsk and others.