Gerasimov G., Khaskhachikh V., Kornilieva V., Tarasov G., 2019, Study of Pyrolysis of Components and Mixture of Medical Waste, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 76, 1423-1428.
The thermogravimetric study of the pyrolysis of typical components of medical waste was carried out in order to obtain detailed information on the process characteristics. Additionally, the pyrolysis of the medical waste mixture was conducted in the fixed-bed laboratory retorting system. It was shown that the main mass loss of medical waste mixture occurs in temperature ranges from 250 to 380 (C and from 400 to 500 (C. The first range is characterized by the yield of pyrolytic water and gas that contains hydrogen chloride and the bulk of HCl is released at temperatures up to 350 (C. In the second range, the bulk of the volatiles that consist mainly of pyrolytic oil are released. According to the results of the conducted study, the most environmentally safe, economical and best suitable method for solving the problem of utilization of medical waste was proposed. The method is based on two-stage pyrolysis of medical waste and includes the removal of chlorine-containing components before the main process of thermal decomposition of organic matter, which virtually eliminates the possibility of PCDD/Fs formation in the further process. The economic effect is achieved through the use of thermal potential of recyclable medical waste as an energy carrier for pyrolysis implementation.
