Application of Plasma Gasification Technology in Handling Medical Waste as an Approach to Handle the Waste Generated by COVID-19 Pandemic

摘要

Medical waste generation has seen a rapid increase during recent decades. India is also observing a CAGR of 7% and medical waste generation in the country is set to cross the 775 tons per day mark in 2022. This is quite a huge number considering the infectious nature of medical waste. COVID-19 pandemic has further worsened the situation as the plastics are increasing as percentage composition in medical waste. WHO and UNEP has further shown concern to handle such a humongous amount of waste and its treatment. In this scenario, Plasma Gasification technology proves out to be a viable alternative for the treatment of medical waste. It has the advantage that it can treat almost any kind of waste with volume reduction post- processing to be as good as 95% is observed. It can reduce the need for landfills and is termed a quite safe technology as it has negligible impact on the environment. The byproduct is vitrified slag which can be utilized for building aggregates, tiles, and brick, etc. Synthesis gas generated during the process can be further utilized to run internal combustion engines [44]. A lot of difficulties such as lack of proper standards, return on investment are hampering the growth of technology. Plasma Gasification requires intervention from the government to make it commercially successful. There is further scope of studying the cost of technology for treating medical waste in India as there is a dearth of work in this field. Further standards and design can be studied to develop a design that caters to the Indian perspective.