WO2004109184A1

WO2004109184A1 - Clinical wastes processing device and box containing said wastes

Info

Publication number: WO2004109184A1
Application number: PCT/ES2003/000276
Authority: WO
Inventors: Francisco Moreno Bardaji; Francisco CAMACHO JUÁREZ
Original assignee: Francisco Moreno Bardaji; Camacho Juarez Francisco
Priority date: 2003-06-09
Filing date: 2003-06-09
Publication date: 2004-12-16
Also published as: AU2003240851A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a device for processing clinical wastes, said device being configured in the form of a small, parallelepiped piece of equipment that can be easily installed without requiring any modifications in the ventilation devices or anti-blaze systems and that reaches a temperature enabling full incineration of all wastes. The inventive device comprises a combustion chamber, a compartmentalized refrigeration area in which refrigeration of gases is performed with water, in addition to a top area in which a water tank, a chimney and an extractor are provided and in which a constant air current is generated by extractors, wherein said air is filtered and refrigerated and the refrigerating water is guided to a conventional drainage system. Due to its structure, the box increases the combustion temperature and performs oxireduction of furans, which are the precursors of dioxins.

Description

CLINICAL WASTE PROCESSOR AND SAID CONTAINER BOX

WASTE

DESCRIPTION OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is a clinical waste processor, responsible for incinerating sanitary waste by oxirection, as well as the container containing said waste, a box in which the waste is deposited prior to its introduction into the processor.

Sanitary waste is generated at a high level in clinics, hospitals, outpatients, consultations etc. being conformed by syringes, dressing, gauze, bandages, tubes, vials, and other products and materials necessary for medical activity. These materials are highly polluting, both for the drugs with which they have been in contact and for the organic materials from the patients or treated animals.

Given the high contaminating nature of the aforementioned and sometimes dangerous products, they must be collected in specific containers and collected by authorized and specialized companies, being incinerated in large treatment plants.

The present invention of the clinical waste processor characterizes its special configuration and design, obtaining a small incineration equipment that can be installed anywhere without the need for a special adaptation of the construction of the facilities in which they are available, where They offer safety guarantees, there being no possibility of escape of toxic gases or fires. On the other hand, the waste container box is characterized by the materials used in its manufacture and by the construction characteristics presented by the box, facts that favor in combination with the processor the incineration of waste since they enhance the incinerator capacity of the processor .

Therefore, the present invention is limited within the scope of small incinerator equipment, and more particularly those designed for the processing of sanitary waste, as well as within the boxes used to contain clinical waste for Joint incineration in a waste processor.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Sanitary waste, given its high pollutant nature and sometimes dangerous, is considered special waste whose disposal along with the rest of normal waste or "solid urban waste" is prohibited, so it must be collected in specific containers, which are removed by companies authorized and specialized or public bodies, being finally incinerated in large treatment plants.

The problems related to the handling of clinical waste are multiple and varied, such as its handling, handling, intermediate storage, transport, as well as the incineration itself, since much of the waste is composed of polymeric materials, which when burned at temperatures not too high they produce polluting gases (dioxins and pcb). It also happens that when the incineration is carried out in small furnaces, in the same place, often that waste is insufficiently combusted, being covered or impregnated with non-flammable liquids at low temperatures.

In addition there are numerous problems related to the transport of waste, since there are situations in which these wastes are disposed together with urban solid waste, being a clear source of contamination risks to health and the environment.

Small incineration furnaces are known in the market, however they have the disadvantage that for their installation they require a modification of the construction characteristics of where they are going to be installed, since it is necessary to have ventilation means, fire systems, etc. being its installation in general a source of risks, accidents and escapes of toxic gases. Furthermore, in the event that they reach high temperatures for the incineration of the waste, they have means of cooling the generated gases, said refrigeration must be reliable.

Therefore, one of the objectives of the present invention is to overcome the above inconveniences related to the incineration of clinical waste, especially all aspects related to transport, and incineration of waste, developing for this purpose a team in charge of the processing of clinical waste, which has a small size, that does not require special structural and constructive modifications of the area where it is going to be installed and of its ventilation and fire systems, being able to be installed as one more household appliances, offering guarantees of security and operation, where the ventilation means are incorporated in the equipment itself, and that has reliable means of cooling the gases, so as to allow reaching the temperatures necessary for the incineration of said waste.

With regard to the boxes currently used where clinical waste is disposed for joint incineration in a waste processor, they do not have constructive characteristics that favor the combustion of waste, not raising the combustion temperature sufficiently, so that Oxyreduction of the precursor furans of dioxins is not achieved.

Therefore, the other object of the invention is to overcome the above drawbacks as regards the combustion box used, in order to achieve a box that favors combustion inside the processor, raising the combustion temperature reached and achieving the oxirection of furans.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The clinical waste processor object of the invention basically consists of a set of small size, parallelepipedic shape perfectly isolated on its outer and inner walls. It has a combustion chamber, whose walls are covered with sheets of refractory steel with a thickness between 4 and 6 mm.

The inner walls of the combustion chamber are separated from the outer walls by ribs of refractory steel with thermal break, being the rest of the space filled with thermal insulating material, such as glass wool or refractory cement.

In the part immediately above the combustion chamber is a cooling zone of the combustion gases, connected by a longitudinal groove. In said cooling chamber, a series of parallel sheets or plates are arranged that go from side to side of the processor and have openings in the ends arranged alternately or counterbalanced, so that they form a sinuous pipe between which the gases pass of combustion and by means of a series of sprayers arranged in the compartmentalized spaces the combustion gases are cooled.

The above gases are taken out of the cooling zone by means of an extractor connected to a chimney, which in turn is routed to a second extractor, passing said gases through a calcium hydroxide filter and activated carbon, entering the chamber again of combustion through the air inlet with which said chamber has.

In the space immediately above the compartmentalized refrigeration zone, where the extractor and the chimney are arranged, a tank is defined, inside which water is stored, which has a supply duct from the general network. Above said tank and within said machine there is a pressure pump, in charge of sucking the water from the tank and supplying it to the sprayers through the feed line that penetrates through the ceiling in the compartmentalized cooling zone.

To carry out the oxirection process, they are deposited clinical waste in a container or fuel box, which is disposed on a tray, together with an ignition tablet, introducing tray and box through the door into the combustion chamber.

Once the chamber door is closed the process starts automatically and with a delay of a preset period the gas extractors and the water pump are started, which begins to supply water to the sprayers. That is when the ignition of the tablet occurs through an automatic system. Thanks to the air flow caused by the action of the extractors, an oxygen supply is produced that produces the ignition of the waste and the container, forcing the combustion gases to describe the path through the opening in the roof of the combustion chamber through the compartmentalized refrigeration zone going to a first extractor and chimney to continue to a second extractor and filter, said gases being again entered into the combustion chamber.

The gases in their passage through the compartmentalized refrigeration zone, where the pressurized water sprayers are located, are subject to three actions: the oxygenation of the precursors of the polychlorodibenzodioxins (due to the reaction and process temperature) leaving them inactive and not letting them transform into dioxins. - The progressive cooling of gases up to 35 ° C in the chimney.

The decantation of suspended solids that are deposited in the stream of spray water that runs in the opposite direction to the direction of the gases. This stream of water runs through the openings of the plates, to the water outlet that the equipment has, said outlet being connected to the general drain.

Once all components have been oxidized, combustion will be progressively reduced, until it is completely extinguished, the extractors and the water pump will continue to operate, until the temperature of the chamber is less than 32 ° C. Thanks to a delay mechanism, the camera door cannot be opened until after five minutes. After this time you can proceed to remove all processed waste from the tray.

With regard to the waste container box, this is a box constructed from a sheet of die-cut cardboard shaped as a tray that prevents fluid loss, and with the traditional means of closing based on tabs and flaps.

The box once formed, has one of its smaller faces with a trepanada window, while in the upper part it has another window also trepanada of greater proportions, which when withdrawing and being the box properly loaded makes a chimney shot favoring the combustion.

The structure of the box has an outer layer of "kraft" cardboard, a second layer of low density polyethylene, another microchannel layer with grooves arranged vertically along the main axis of the assembly, a new layer of low density polyethylene and an inner final layer of aluminum. Thanks to the configuration of the die-cut cardboard sheet and the folds that it has, as well as the structure of the cardboard, which has layers of polyethylene, an impermeable structure with puncture resistance is achieved, suitable characteristics to serve as a container for clinical waste

On the other hand, the low density polyethylene layers apart from providing impermeability to the assembly provide a higher calorific point, substantially higher than that of the cardboard.

As regards the micro-channeled layers, they form a plurality of small chimneys through which the air flow caused by the vacuum cleaners and the incinerator air intake will flow, favoring combustion in the face of the greatest oxygen supply.

Finally, the last layer of aluminum manages to increase the internal temperature of the container box by raising the combustion temperature to 1100 ° C, the temperature at which the oxirection of the precursor furans of the dioxins is achieved, also achieving stabilization and cooling of the gases by means of water spray, preventing the incineration from reaching 1320 ° C, a temperature at which a possible dissociation of the water molecule can occur. Thanks to the oxirection of the furans, and after cooling the gases with water spray, it will have approximately a pH = 6, which is acceptable for it to enter the conventional drain.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To complement the description that follows to be carried out and in order to help a better understanding of its characteristics, this descriptive report is accompanied by a set of drawings in whose figures, in an illustrative and non-limiting manner, the most significant details of the invention are represented.

Figure 1 represents a partially sectioned elevation view, where the interior of the waste processor object of the invention is observed.

Figure 2 shows a perspective representation of the container box where clinical waste is disposed for its introduction and joint incineration in the processor, along with a detail of the box materials.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

In view of the aforementioned figures, a preferred embodiment of the invention and the explanation of the drawings are described below.

In Figure 1, we can see how the waste processing equipment (1), has an essentially parallelepiped shape covered externally by sheets (2) of thickness between 0.7 to 0.9 mm.

Inside, the assembly is basically divided into three zones, a lower or combustion chamber (4), the gas cooling zone that is compartmentalized by means of plates (lia, 11b and 11c) and the upper zone where the water tank (21) and extractor

(19) together with the fireplace (18). The combustion chamber (4) is manufactured in refractory steel sheet (6) with a thickness of 4 mm to 6 mm, the entire internal assembly forming an equally parallelepiped assembly separated from the outer plates (2) by means of beams (7) of refractory steel with thermal break. The interior space between both sets is filled with an insulating thermal material (8) such as fiberglass wool or refractory cement.

The combustion chamber (4) has on one of its sides a drain (3) closed by measuring the door

(5) through which the interior of the chamber is accessed.

The chamber has side walls (4a) and (4b) and a ceiling (9) that has a longitudinal opening (10) along its connection with the wall (4a) of the chamber.

The roof is also covered by a sheet of refractory steel and has a downward inclination from the opening (10) to the wall (4b), at which point at the top of the roof it connects with a water outlet (26), which connects to the conventional domestic drain.

At the bottom of the chamber and at the edge opposite the opening (10) there is an air inlet (25), through which the air coming from the extractor (40) enters.

The area that is accessed through the opening (10) is the compartmentalized refrigeration zone, so named because it is where the cooling of the flue gases takes place and is divided by three plates

(lia, 11b and 11c) of refractory cooling, which have rectangular openings (12a, 12b and 12c) at one of its ends, said openings being arranged counterbalanced with respect to each other, so that they form a step that goes from side to side of said area. The ends of the plates are supported at their ends in guides (31) in solidarity with the main body.

In order to favor the evacuation of the spray water, the plates (lia, 11b and 11c) are arranged with an inclination of about 3%, towards their openings (12a, 12b and 12c) respectively.

In the space between the plates, there are a series of ducts (13) connected to sprayers (32). The conduits (13) are in turn connected to a distribution line (14), which is connected to the supply line (15), from the pressure pump (16).

The upper part of the compartmentalized refrigeration zone has a roof (17) of refractory sheet in which there is an opening that constitutes a gas extraction chimney (18), by means of an electric extractor (19) (24v), 1200 rpm and with extraction capacity of 3500 1 / minute.

The gases extracted in the chimney (18) are routed to a second extractor (40) by previously passing the gases through a filter (41) of calcium hydroxide and activated carbon, entering the combustion chamber again through the inlet of air (25).

The area above the compartmentalized refrigeration zone, together with the roof (17) and the walls (2) of the assembly (1), forms a reservoir (21) where water (22) is stored, which is fed through a conduit (23) connected to the distribution network. This stored water (22) constitutes a reserve for cases of interruption of the water supply of the network, in case of a process in progress.

On the upper roof of the tank (21) there is a support platform (30) for the pressure pump (16), which is protected by a sealed housing (20). Said pressure pump (16) by means of the duct (24) draws water from the reservoir (21) and sends it to the sprayers (31) through the ducts (13,14 and 15).

Inside the camera is a tray

(28), which is removable and on which a container or box (27) containing the sanitary waste is disposed. The container or box (27) must be specially designed for combustion.

The entire electrical assembly, that is to say, the pump (16) and the extractors (19) and (40) can operate at 24V ce, being connected by a transformer to the distribution network, being provided in the event of a power failure , the power supply of said equipment from an accumulator that will automatically enter in the event of a power failure.

In Figure 2, we look at the container box (27) where the clinical waste is disposed, for its joint introduction into the waste processor. The structural and constitutive characteristics of this box together with those of the processor favor the combustion of the whole reaching temperatures of the order of 1100 ° C, temperature at which the oxirection of the precursor furans of the dioxins is achieved.

The container box (27) is made from a die-cut and subsequently folded sheet that forms a parallelepipedic structure that makes its interior is configured as a tray that prevents the loss of fluids, has a window (27.1) climbed for the introduction of waste, as well as another window (27.2) arranged at the top and that Once the box has been inserted into the processor, it separates the chimney window, favoring combustion and raising the temperature reached.

The structure of the box, counts from outside to inside with an outer layer of "kraft" cardboard (27.3), followed by a layer of low density polyethylene (27.4), then a layer of small multiple chimneys

(27.5) arranged aligned and vertically in relation to the major axis of the assembly that favor the draft of air and therefore the supply of oxygen and combustion. Then a layer (27.6) of low density polyethylene is arranged to finally inside the box provide an aluminum layer (27.7) that acts as a refractor layer raising the combustion temperature reached inside the box (27).

Optionally, and in order to favor the combustion of the assembly, a compressor or air injector element is associated from the outside that regulates the combustion inlet, managing to regulate the combustion values.

It is not considered necessary to make this description more extensive so that any person skilled in the art understands the scope of the invention and the advantages derived therefrom.

The materials, shape, size and arrangement of the elements will be subject to variation as long as they do not alter the essentiality of the invention. The terms in which this report has been described must always be taken in a broad and non-limiting sense.

Claims

1.- Clinical waste processor characterized in that it incinerates clinical waste by oxireduction, being formed as a small-sized equipment in a parallelepipedic form that is easily installable without the need for modifications to ventilation devices or fire systems, which reaches a temperature for complete incineration of all waste, and which is made up of a combustion chamber, a compartmentalized refrigeration zone, where the cooling of the gases is carried out by means of water, and an upper area where there is a water tank along with a chimney and a extractor, where a continuous stream of air is produced by means of extractors, said air being filtered and cooled and where the cooling water is taken to a drain.

2. Clinical waste processor, according to claim 1, characterized in that the combustion chamber is made of refractory steel sheet, forming a separate set of the outer plates of the processor by means of refractory steel beams with thermal bridge breakage , the interior space being defined by both sheets filled with thermal insulating material.

3. Clinical waste processor, according to claim 1 and 2, characterized in that the combustion chamber has a drain on one of its sides, closed by the processor access door, counting on the ceiling with a longitudinal groove along of its union with the wall that presents the emptying, presenting the roof an inclination and being connected by its upper part with a water outlet, connected to the drain

4. Clinical waste processor, according to claim 1, characterized in that the compartmentalized refrigeration zone has a series of refractory cooling plates, which have rectangular openings at one of its ends and said openings placed in counterbalanced ones with with respect to the others, defining a path that goes from side to side of the team, the plates being supported at the ends in some guides in solidarity with the main body.

5.- Clinical waste processor, according to claim 4, characterized in that the plates have an inclination towards the rectangular openings, defining an evacuation path towards the water outlet connected to a drain.

6. Clinical waste processor, according to claim 5, characterized in that in the space defined between the previous plates there are some conduits connected to some sprayers, said conduits being connected to other distribution ducts and these to other feeding ducts.

7. Clinical waste processor, according to claim 1 or 6, characterized in that in the ceiling of the compartmentalized cooling zone there is an opening in which an extractor connected to a chimney is connected, which in turn is routed to another extractor , by previously passing the gases through a filter of calcium hydroxide and activated carbon, the gases again entering the combustion chamber through the air inlet (25).

8.- Clinical waste processor, according to claim 1, characterized in that in the upper area of the equipment there is a water tank, which receives the water through a power line connected to the distribution network, on the roof of the tank there is a support platform where an extraction pump is provided covered by a sealed housing and that by means of a conduit extracts the water sending it towards the sprayers.

9. - Clinical waste processor, according to claim 1, characterized in that inside the combustion chamber there is a removable tray on which a box or container specially designed for combustion is arranged, which houses the clinical waste.

10.- Clinical waste processor, according to claim 1, characterized in that the extractors together with the pump are fed from a battery with which the equipment has in case of failure of the supply network.

11.- Clinical waste processor, according to claim 1, characterized in that the gases in their passage through the compartmentalized refrigeration zone, where there are pressurized water sprayers, are subjected to three actions: the oxygenation of the precursors of the polychlorodibenzodioxins (due to the reaction and process temperature) leaving them inactive and not allowing them to become dioxins. The progressive cooling of the gases up to 35 ° C outlet in the chimney. - The decantation of suspended solids that they become deposited in the stream of spray water that runs in the opposite direction to the direction of the gases. This stream of water runs through the openings of the plates, to the water outlet that the equipment has, said outlet being connected to the general drain.

12.- Clinical waste processor, according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that an additional compressor or air injector element from outside that regulates the combustion inlet is provided to the processor, managing to regulate the combustion values.

13.- Container box of clinical waste for the processor according to the preceding claims characterized in that it achieves the oxirection of furans, precursors of dioxins.

14.- Container box for clinical waste according to claim 12, characterized in that it is made up of a series of layers that from the outside to the inside are: - An outer layer of cardboard ^w kraf t ".

A second layer of low density polyethylene A third layer of multiple small grooves in vertical arrangement along the major axis of the box - Another layer of low density polyethylene. Finally an inner layer of aluminum.

15.- Waste container box, according to claim 12, characterized in that it has a structure parallelepipedic with a trepanned front window and with an upper window that separates when it is inserted into the processor as chimney functions.