IMPROVED COMBUSTION PROCESSES IN MEDICAL WASTES INCINERATORS FOR RURAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract

The emergence of sustainable development programmes and the problem associated with continued steady increase in population have increased public awareness and concern for the environment. In particular, the demand for health services has increased to an extent that the health sector produces large quantities of biomedical wastes that can have severe impact on the environment if not properly disposed. Although incineration is not a clean process of disposing these wastes, it is still a preferred method especially when operated at elevated temperatures. The problem in developing countries is that several incinerators either in rural or urban areas operate at low temperatures and are therefore sources of environmental pollution. This paper describes the use of cost effective and appropriate pollution control systems to achieve acceptable combustion conditions. A small rig was designed for conducting tests on the incineration of rural clinical wastes in Botswana. Experimental results showed that if proper combustion conditions are applied to low technology rural clinical waste incinerators, the operating temperatures could increase from around 400 to above 850^oC. It was concluded that by increasing the operating temperatures of the current disposal methods and using wet scrubber in rural clinical waste incinerators, the combustion conditions could be improved significantly.

African Journal of Science and Technology Vol.5(1) 2004: 67-72