Infectious Hospital Waste: Evaluation of a Tray Dryer for Volume and Microbiological Load Reduction

Abstract

To investigate the dryer performance for treatment of infectious hospital waste (IHW), drying kinetics, volume, and microbiological load reduction characteristics were studied. A surrogate waste and B. subtilis (BSN) were used for effectiveness testing of the drying. Satisfactory performance was found for microbiological load reduction. The study of a thermal inactivation kinetics of the BSN shows that a reduction of 6 orders of magnitude occurred in 42 min. The volume reduction obtained was equal to 30–50% after drying. The results obtained were comparable to results from IHW treatment technologies currently in operation.

Keywords:

• Drying
• Hospital waste
• Microbiological inactivation
• Treatment

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors acknowledge the technical and personal support received from the hospital solid waste management team at the State University of Campinas (Campinas, SP, Brazil), Adolfo Lutz Institute, Laboratory I, Campinas, SP, Brazil, and the financial support received from CAPES and FAPESP for this research.

Notes

NT, not tested.

∗Not achieved under normal operating conditions (<3 h exposure).

See text for explanation of levels.