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| The system is especially suited to small municipal needs. |
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| The system is especially suited to small municipal needs. |
A unique Canadian system that destroys dangerous medical waste and non-recyclable municipal and industrial waste cost-effectively, has been granted a United States patent. The patent was announced in Toronto, March 7, 2000, by Frank D. Sherman, President of Eco Waste Solutions Inc. of Burlington, Ontario.
"This system delivers an environmentally-responsible waste management process with emissions that are odourless and clear. Rigorous, independent scientific testing has shown that their dioxin and furan concentrations are only one tenth of allowable EPA limits," says Mr. Sherman.
Eco Waste's double-burn process reduces waste volumes by 90 percent, yielding inert by-products recyclable ash, colourless/odourless exhaust, and thermal energy that can be converted into electricity or used to heat buildings. Designed for on-site operation, the basic system is configured in two steel modules, one for each phase of the burn. Each module is roughly the size of a dumpster. This means the system can be readily transported to different sites.
The configuration for medical waste contains a third module, which houses scrubbers to complete the destruction of the toxic heavy metals and chlorinated gases found in the waste streams.
Frank Sherman, an engineer, and Executive Vice President Lucy Casacia, a metallurgist, developed the Eco Waste process system which is especially suited to small municipal needs and has proved particularly useful in isolated locations where garbage processing on-site is necessary.
Phase One of the two-stage process consists of a slow, starved-air burn at about 1,000°F in the first module, where the garbage is reduced to ash and vapours over 8-10 hours. That is hot enough to get rid of pathogenic and all other waste materials but leave glass and metals intact for harvesting and recycling. Phase Two, a flash fire in the second chamber two seconds at 1,850°F obliterates the vapours and toxins.
The whole computer-driven process takes about 12 hours, from loading, to cleaning, to preparing for the next load. Different garbage burns in different ways. The computer monitors and controls each burn, keeping it consistent automatically and producing the most complete burn, the cleanest outcome. It is the waste management equivalent of cruise control on a car producing the best gas mileage.
The system can take on a wide range of solid and liquid wastes body fluids, bandages, gauze, needles, plastic, live biological materials and such residential, commercial, and industrial refuse as tires (which are gasified rather than converted to liquid), motor oil, coolants, dye, and paint sludge. It is at its most cost-effective dealing with up to 50 tons a day, equivalent to about 10 garbage truckloads of solids that have up to 60 percent moisture content.
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