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The plant, module of BIOZIMMI system, is designed specifically for the treatment of medical and / or hospital waste and has been designed to offer maximum production capacity thanks to a high level of automation.
The treatment of medical and / or hospital waste is regulated by extremely strict legislation. This requires that the waste at the end of processing, given its dangerous and / or potentially infectious nature, must be sterilized and disposed of.
For Chemical Empowering this is not enough as there is no sterilization system able to compete with the guaranteed inertization thanks to the temperatures of thousands of degrees released inside a plasma chamber: only using a plasma torch is there the mathematical certainty to eliminate any risk of pathogens spillage and, therefore, to be able to offer a total relief of responsibility for the operators involved.
Medical and / or hospital waste must be definitively inerted and, to date, the most economically sustainable and safer system, both for operators and for the environment and which, at the same time, ensures their definitive inertization and also allows recovery of parts of the elements that form them in the form of energy or chemicals is represented by plasma treatment.
Through the system developed by Chemical Empowering, the sanitary and / or hospital waste, at infectious and / or dangerous risk, is pre-treated in a vacuum environment by shredding and, once deprived of any liquids present, moved through hermetic augers, until to the grinding and placing first in the storage container and then in the real plasma chamber.
The ambient air in depression, as well as all liquids contained in the shredded medical and / or hospital waste, are introduced into the plasma torch without the possibility of leaks or spills.
From the torch, on the other hand, only lava that can be molded into objects of common use, and syngas with a very high level of purity will come out.
This system is not "cold", avoid incinerators and applies plasma technology for the final inertization of waste, thus also skipping the possible step of creating RDFs because they will be the syngas released by the organic component of medical waste and / or hospital to be subsequently and possibly used in the endothermic engine to produce electricity.
The syngas obtained from the treatment and introduced into the endothermic engines or into a turbine is, in its own right, to be considered a green energy as it derives from the synthesis of the syngas obtained from the treatment of organic waste using a plasma torch.
For a better understanding of the process, refer to the attached flow chart PTGFMSW50FC-EN. The numbering indicated below refers to the one present in the aforementioned flowchart.
Hospital waste must be sent to the plant in disposable containers and approved for the transport of dangerous medical waste. These can be indifferently made of cardboard or plastic and have a maximum standard capacity of 60 liters.
The individual containers, after being unloaded by the carrier (1), must be positioned on a conveyor belt (2) without the need for preventive screening or any emptying of any liquids contained.
Glass and metal contained can be introduced without any problem into the plasma torch causing as a sole contraindication a lower yield in terms of syngas production and therefore of energy.
By passing through a flow regulator (3), the access of the containers to the automatic processing environment placed, in its entirety, in depression is facilitated and ordered in order to avoid the spread of any infectious agents.
Inside said environment, the conveyor belt (4) introduces the containers which have now been ordered and properly spaced from each other, by means of the flow regulator action, into a single-shaft grinder (5) which will provide for a first dimensional homogenization of the waste introduced by shredding both the containers and the waste contained therein.
The liquids are collected and forwarded by centrifugal pumps and piping (10) to the appropriate silo designed to collect the liquids (11) and then dose their constant outflow to feed the plasma torch (16) by means of the pump (14) according to commands given by the PLC.
A watertight auger (6) will carry the solid part of the waste to a multi-shaft shredder (7) capable of chopping and further uniforming the size of the pre-treated material in the single-shaft grinder (5) thus providing a product with a constant size. In some case we could opt for a ball mill instead of the multi-shaft shredder without however changing the process.
Similarly to what happens in the single-shaft grinder (5), any liquids are collected and forwarded via centrifugal pumps and piping (10) to the special silo set up to collect the liquids (11) and then to dose their constant flow towards the plasma torch (16) by means of the pump (14) according to the commands given by the PLC.
The waste thus completely homogenized in their dimensions, by means of a watertight auger (8) is sent to the appropriate silo designed to collect the solids (9) and then dose their constant outflow to feed the plasma torch (16) by means of a further sealed screw (13) according to the commands given by the PLC.
A slow but constant air recirculation system (12) will allow to introduce more fresh air from the outside while at the same time preventing it from escaping and to forward all the air in the depression zone directly to the plasma torch by means of a specific pump (15) thus contributing to its feeding.
A peculiar syngas cleaning system (17) will allow them to be purified to a level that does not allow impurities to pass. The almost completely pure syngas is thus sent to the internal combustion engine or to a gas turbine (18) and to the relative electricity production system (19). From the plasma torch, the non-organic material and therefore that cannot be transformed into syngas will flow outside in the form of lava (20) which is completely inert and can be molded into objects, tiles or simple construction material.
Except for the artificially created depression to prevent internal air from escaping from the system, the whole system can work at atmospheric pressure (in case we want to obtain high pressure steam, only that plant sector will be pressurized).
The supply includes the unit for the production of compressed air necessary for the operation and maintenance of the system.