Design of Medical Wastes Incinerator for Health Care Facilities in Akure

Abstract

Health Care Facilities (HCFs) are primarily saddled with the responsibilities of providing medical care, thus ensuring sound health of individuals. Tremendous efforts have been made by the government to ensure her availability in nooks and crannies of every community, which have resulted into improved medical services. However, among other environmental challenges confronting health care facilities in developing countries is Medical Waste generated in the course of carrying out their duties which is often ignored and in most instances treated as municipal or domestic solid waste. Effective management of medical waste requires keen planning, training and tracking throughout the waste generation, segregation, storage, collection, transportation, treatment and disposal processes. The fundamental information for selecting and designing the most efficient treatment method of medical waste is obtained by means of Waste Composition Analysis. Results from this study revealed that the daily waste generation rate of Ondo State Specialist Hospital Akure (OSSHA) and Mother and Child Hospital Akure (MCHA) was 124.5 kg/day. The hospitals’ waste consists of 81.6% combustible wastes and 18.4% non-combustible wastes by mass. The combustible wastes are paper (6.50%), textiles (14.34%), cardboard (3.88%), plastics (6.04%) and food waste (19.08%). Since the ratio of combustible medical waste is higher than non-combustible medical waste, incineration (thermal destruction) at elevated temperature under controlled operational condition is considered the best disposal option to detoxify the medical waste. In other to prevent the release of harmful gases from burnt medical waste through incinerator, a counter-current packed bed wet scrubber is designed which operates by impaction and absorption.