Study on Thermal Plasma Combined Treatment for Medical Waste

A thermal plasma combined treatment of medical waste proposed here combines the advantages of pyrolysis and gasification technologies, which provides an option for the harmless, reduction and recycling treatment of medical waste. In addition, a simulation model based on the Gibbs free energy minimiz...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on plasma science 2022-09, Vol.50 (9), p.2926-2931
Main Authors: Wang, Jianwei, Wang, Pingyang, Peng, Li, Hang, Guanrong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ablation
Analytical models
Calorific value
Combined treatment
Gases
Gasification
Gibbs free energy
Medical treatment
medical waste
Medical wastes
Plasma
plasma combined treatment
Plasma temperature
Plasma torches
Plasmas
Pyrolysis
Simulation models
Solids
Syngas
Synthesis gas
Temperature distribution
thermal plasma
Thermal plasmas
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Summary:A thermal plasma combined treatment of medical waste proposed here combines the advantages of pyrolysis and gasification technologies, which provides an option for the harmless, reduction and recycling treatment of medical waste. In addition, a simulation model based on the Gibbs free energy minimization method was developed to explore the characteristics of plasma pyrolysis, gasification, and combined treatment methods. Compared with the plasma pyrolysis method, the plasma combined treatment method can not only produce more syngas with high calorific value but also achieve higher process efficiency. Different from the plasma gasification method, the combined treatment method uses nonoxidizing gas as the working gas for plasma torches, which helps slow down the ablation of plasma torch cathode. Besides, three main components of medical waste were analyzed through the plasma combined treatment model. Simulation results show that materials with high carbon and hydrogen content, such as plastic and rubber, can not only help to increase syngas output and calorific value but also improve system efficiency to a certain extent.
ISSN:0093-3813
1939-9375
DOI:10.1109/TPS.2022.3194641