Patients with this debilitating virus produce 440 gallons of medical waste daily, including instruments, gowns, gloves, body fluids, sheets, mattresses and more. That’s a substantial amount of medical waste in any situation, but it’s especially daunting in this case because it needs to be disposed of extremely cautiously, to avoid the risk of spreading infection. What do you do with a problem like Ebola waste? Because you don’t want to toss it in the garbage.

Somewhat surprisingly, says Bausch, the United States actually faces bigger problems when it comes to safely disposing of Ebola waste, which is simply burned in large pits in Africa: “In the United States, of course, we are somewhat beholden to higher tech solutions, which in some ways are a little bit more problematic in terms of treating all that waste, and we need autoclaves or incinerators that can handle that sort of thing. It’s not the actual inactivation that’s particularly difficult; it’s just the process of getting the waste from, of course, the frontline of care and interaction with the patients safely to the place where it can be incinerated or autoclaved.”

The problem in the United States is ironically compounded by the increased access to medical care, and the higher quality of medical services, available. In the United States, patients are treated by medical teams with access to a huge volume of supplies they use for protection, including masks, gowns, booties, and gloves, along with sanitizers and other tools. Moreover, patients receive extensive medical interventions that generate waste like needles, tubing, medical tape, empty IV bags, and more. The very care that has helped most of the handful of Ebola patients in the United States conquer the disease has contributed to the huge amount of waste generated, highlighting a critical hole in U.S. medical infrastructure — while African hospitals may have lacked the supplies and personnel needed to supply aid to Ebola patients, they’re at least prepared to handle the waste.

The CDC just issued guidelines to help clinicians and administrators decide upon how to handle Ebola waste, but The New York Times notes that many facilities don’t have the autoclave, and incinerator, capacity to handle medical waste on this scale. Some states prohibit the burning of medical waste altogether, or have barred incineration of Ebola waste, leading to the transport of waste across state borders to facilities that can handle it, which poses its own risks; with every mile added to transport, there’s a greater risk of spreading disease to previously unexposed communities.

Surprisingly, defenders of burning the waste come from surprising corners. Environmentals like Allen Hershkowitz, National Resources Defense Council senior scientist, point out that: “There’s no pollutant that’s going to come out of a waste incinerator that’s more dangerous than the Ebola virus. When you’re dealing with pathogenic and biological hazards, sometimes the safest thing to do is combustion.”

The argument in defense of incineration can be bolstered by the fact that medical waste companies specialize in high-efficiency incineration with equipment designed to minimize and trap byproducts of combustion, reducing overall pollution considerably. Fears about Ebola, rather than genuine environmental or public health concerns, are driving the decision to push against incineration of ebola waste in many regions, but eventually, the United States is going to have to face facts: The mounting waste that accumulates in facilities where Ebola patients receive treatments needs to be disposed of safely, and promptly.

by: http://www.care2.com/causes/an-unexpected-ebola-infrastructure-problem-waste.html

Pet Animal After Cremation

Recently a dream came true for me. I had the opportunity to participate in a guided tour through the waste incineration plant in Cologne. That may seem strange. Sometimes I catch myself when I get stuck on documentary programs about recycling methods in the (rare) zapping through the TV channels. Obviously this topic fascinates me.

The BVMW (Federal Association of Medium-Sized Enterprises) invited to a lecture on the topic of generation Y. Host and the venue was the waste recycling company in Cologne, AVG, which offered additionally a guided tour through their waste incinerator. Since I am also very interested in the topic Generation Y, I could kill two birds with one stone.
In a small group, we were led by the spokesman of the AVG through the various sections of the waste incineration plant and the procedures were explained in detail. Initially skeptical, because in previous years there was so much negative about this facility (excessive construction costs, lack of capacity), the mood among the participants changed gradually into fascination.

To clarify: It’s just about waste. Not about recycle materials such as paper, plastics, recycled glass or compostable organic waste.

Precision and cleanliness

What I noticed during the tour: In the plant, each step is carefully considered, it is worked with great precision. And even if that sounds paradoxical: it is squeaky clean! Only in the hall where different wastes are mixed on conveyor belts, there is the typical smell of rubbish, but also not as bad as originally expected.

Amazing for me: I did not know that by using residual waste a really large amount of power is generated. And reassuring for me: resources are won even from the last drop: metal, material for road construction, plaster in good quality. The proportion of what is factually left and actually not recycled, seems negligible to low.

From waste to electricity – the process in detail

The residual waste incinerator in Cologne was put into operation in 1998 and is one of the most modern and best facilities in the world. It processes what has landed in the residual waste after the separate collection of private households, as well as the remains of sorting from mixed building and industrial waste.

Much of the waste is shipped by rail. The railway containers are loaded in two waste transfer stations in the city of Cologne and together have a capacity of approximately 250,000 tons per year. The remaining waste is brought by truck.
A special feature of the Cologne residual waste incinerator is the integrated treatment of the waste in a treatment room. Residues from sorting and residues from the domestic and bulky waste are first distributed to the daily waste bunker on separate chambers. The bulky waste is pre-sorted and crushed. Only the non-recoverable components are processed in the incinerator.

The household waste is sorted in a perforated drum to size and then passes on large conveyor belts so-called magnetic seperators. They remove ferrous scrap. A second ferrous metal deposition as well as an automatic non-ferrous deposition take place after combustion.

Even commercial waste residuals are delivered to the Cologne plant. They have been processed previously in external sorting, so they can be added directly to the domestic and bulky waste. The various waste streams are mixed thoroughly, because this homogenization ensures a high quality, a uniform as possible burnout and a good quality ash.
From the huge hall of the conveyor belts the waste enters the so-called residual waste bunker. Here it is stored a while until enough moisture has dissipated, so that it can burn well. By means of permanent temperature and humidity indicators it is controlled, in what condition the waste is. With large gripping cranes the waste is rearranged and finally placed in the kiln. The garbage gripper fill four huge funnels. The waste comes from here in four independently powered boilers that operate around the clock. The waste moves on roller grates through the boiler. And there it burns. At an unimaginable heat of 1,000 to 1,500 degrees Celsius. The respective “new” waste ignites from the already burning garbage. So no additional external energy is required for the combustion process. The combustion takes place after the DC principle: The burning of waste and the waste gases move in the same direction through the “hot flame” at the end of the grate. This procedure ensures that the destruction of pollutants such as dioxins and furans are already done in the combustion chamber.

From waste is made power for 250,000 people

And here is the highlight. The heat produced during combustion is used. On the one hand, to heat the nearby Ford plant. But this is just a nice side effect. The majority of the heat is converted into electricity by generators. And even that much that the power consumption of 250,000 people can be met. The waste incineration plant Cologne is thus basically a power plant and supplies a quarter of the city of Cologne with electricity. That sounds awesome. And since you could get the idea that it is not so bad when so much garbage is produced – as it is used so well …

After combustion bottom ash, hot exhaust gas and residues remain. These substances are largely used again useful: The ash is cooled with water and stored in an ash bunker before it is processed in a bottom ash treatment plant and then utilized in road, landfill and landscaping.
The hot exhaust gas is used for power generation. It heats preheated water to steam, which meets at a temperature of 400 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 40 bar to a turbine. This drives the downstream generator with which is produced electric power. For own use only a small part of the energy is needed. The greater part is given in external power supply networks. The amount of energy generated in the incinerator is enough to power more than 100,000 households.

In the combustion and the subsequent exhaust gas purification residual substances such as dust and salts remain as well as ashes from the boiler. These materials are collected and used as backfill material for the backfilling of salt mine tunnels. Gypsum is also a waste material, which is obtained as a reaction product in the exhaust gas purification and has building material quality.

Emission control: the exhaust gases are almost completely neutralized by the method used at the Cologne incinerator. There is no waste water, as well as the legal requirements are clearly undercut. As a neutral auditor, the county government gets the actual exhaust gas readings permanently by direct line.

Rethinking at waste management companies

After the guided tour, I had the opportunity to talk to the press officer of AVG. In this conversation it became clear how much the thinking has changed in the field of waste management in recent decades and years. While during the 1960s to the 1990s garbage was piled up completely unsorted in landfills and then forgotten, in the new millennium they have recognized the value of the waste. Climate change and CO2 emissions have long pushed as important issues in focus for the residual waste processing. The heat generated during combustion is converted into electricity. Resources are regained, as far as is technically possible. Especially metal, plastics and wood. The recovered plastic from residual waste is used for example as fuel for cement plants.

Waste incineration plant are nowadays equatable to power plants, even if the fuel value is not quite equivalent to the conventional fuels such as coal, oil and gas. As more and more municipalities have come to generate their own electricity by means of residual waste incineration, the major electricity providers get in significant difficulties.

At the end of the tour I was really impressed. That what is put in the residual waste in private households plus the commercial waste is, after all, still god to supply 100,000 households with electricity in Cologne.

And at the same time it’s scary, what incredible tonnes of waste we produce. Yellow and blue ton even come on top of that.

Consumer society provides garbage

Waste incineration plants generating electricity for us and making us less dependent on fossil fuels, are the logical consequence of our consumer society. But incinerators are not built primarily to generate electricity. But to become master of the mountains of waste that we produce continuously as a consumer society. Fortunately, with modern incinerators, a way has been found to make up the stinking problem a clean thing. But the cause, our consumption, is the real problem.

For the operators of the incineration plant, it is essential that enough waste is delivered. Garbage is their product. The more they can get, the better for the system’s capacity. For then it will work cost-effectively, which in turn has a positive impact on the urban garbage fees. Not all incinerators in Germany are so well utilized as in Cologne. Since waste is added from adjacent areas.

But the consumer society provides these masses of garbage. Goods are produced in large quantities, purchased, used or consumed and eventually discarded. The 2aste incineration plant gets food – in 2013 there were 707,000 tons in Cologne. And provides us even with power (282 million kWh in 2013 in Cologne). Actually a perfect cycle, so one might think. If not for this “but” would be. Because our conventional consumption goes at the expense of other countries, to the detriment of the environment, fair working conditions; Resources are wasted, the transport around the globe has impact on the climate, production facilities in the Far East poison the local environment and so on.

Well, I live in Cologne, a big city, where certainly only a small proportion of residents think about trash, disposal or even waste reduction and also practice this. That may be a negative point of view, but I think it is realistic. The average normal citizen does not necessarily ask the question what is actually happening to what he throws away in the course of a year. All the more it is interesting to follow the different paths. My next wish is to visit a recycling plant for plastics.

Waste incineration and waste seperation versus waste prevention

Waste separation was yesterday. The latest approach is waste prevention. In its most distinct version it is called Zero Waste. No waste. So far there are only a few pioneers, whose reports and videos I read and watch with interest. And at the same time I wonder how to implement this in a normal big-city life. It starts with the fact that – even if you use a togo box, which is compostable, then you do not know where to dispose of it along the way. So take it home and put it in the compost bin? Would everybody do that?

I think it’s great if it is possible, to be master of the situation (immense amounts of waste) through a well organized disposal system and beyond even to convert this residual waste to a large extent into energy, ie electricity and heating. There is at least a huge improvement as against the stinking landfill from earlier, in which everything was thrown into a pile and then covered with the cloak of silence. The next step must be, to reduce the amount of waste in total. And this will not be possible just by the civil society. Here politics and economy are asked to create the right framework and to set the practical implementation in motion.

by: http://blog.upcycling-markt.de/en/blog/muellverbrennungsanlange-waste-incineration-plant.html

CLARINGTON — Clarington’s new energy-from-waste facility will be delayed a second time because the boilers aren’t operating properly and the ongoing startup period could cost Durham Region an extra $1 million.

“I’d rather see it delayed and done right than rushed,” said Clarington Mayor Adrian Foster.

The Durham York Energy Centre facility, located in Courtice, was scheduled to be fully operational on Dec. 14, 2014. Now the Durham York Energy Centre is not expected to be in full working order until the last quarter of 2015.

The major systems of the EFW facility have been tested. The boiler temperature is high enough for the combustion process but the steam temperature isn’t high enough, and officials aren’t sure what the problem is, says Durham’s works commissioner, Cliff Curtis.

The steam temperature has to be high enough to drive the turbine-generator. If the steam is too cool it can damage the turbine.

“It’s like running a car without oil,” said Mr. Curtis.

Covanta, the company building and operating the facility for Durham and York regions, has taken the boilers down for modifications, according to Mr. Curtis. It’s expected to take three weeks for the repairs and modifications. Then there will be a four-week demonstration period, followed by a 30-day acceptance test.

“We’re not getting the temperature we expected out of the boiler. Once we get the temperature up, I think everything will fall into place,” said Mr. Curtis. “It’s Covanta’s problem to deliver us the product that performs the way they said, so they’re going to take the time they need.”

The delay means added consultant costs for construction management, legal advice and baseline ambient air monitoring. A Durham Region works report said Durham’s share of the additional costs is $1 million, which can be provided from a temporary draw on the solid waste management reserve fund.

“What’s the final cost going to look like?” said Clarington Regional Councillor Joe Neal, who added he still has concerns about the emissions meeting the Ministry of Environment rules. “There are clearly issues with getting it started out.”

Since Jan. 16, Durham has been charging Covanta a $10,000-a-day late fee for every day the EFW facility is not fully operational. The invoice has been sent to Covanta, but it hasn’t been paid yet, according to Mr. Curtis.

In mid-February, the incinerator began burning its first haul of curbside garbage. It was part of a testing phase before the facility opens fully.

Durham cancelled landfill contracts and began sending garbage to the Courtice facility. Some garbage was burned at the EFW plant during the test phase, without producing power to the grid. Covanta has also been sending the trash to its incinerator in New York state, or landfills in the Niagara region.

Until the EFW facility is up and running, the Region only pays Covanta half price of the agreed upon per-tonne fee. However, Durham isn’t making any money until the plant is fully operational and selling power back onto the grid.

“We’re still on budget. I’d rather be getting electricity sales on the grid,” said Mr. Curtis.

The plant construction is coming in slightly under budget, according to the works commissioner.

There are a few loose ends that could end up costing Durham Region more money. There is still disagreement with former property owners on the value of the land expropriated for the facility, and a ruling is not expected until fall of next year. The final cost for the utility construction and connection costs is expected in coming months. The baseline ambient air monitoring runs until the EFW facility is operational, so the delay in opening means an ongoing monitoring cost.

“There’s some minor cost over-runs on some of the smaller items but generally we’re financially on track to bring this in on budget and we look forward to having it online by the end of the year,” said Mr. Curtis.

HOW THIS IMPACTS YOU

The Durham York Energy Centre is designed to process up to 140,000 tonnes of waste each year, and generate 17.5 gross megawatts of renewable energy — enough to power between 10,000 and 12,000 homes. A key part of the economic case for the energy-from-waste facility depends on it generating electrical power revenue.

from: http://www.durhamregion.com/news-story/5682601-new-courtice-incinerator-hits-further-delays/

The Board of County Commissioners struck down plans Thursday for a regional waste-to-energy incinerator, opting to haul the county’s waste to a landfill with a short-term contract instead.

In a 3-2 vote, Commissioners President Blaine Young and commissioners Kirby Delauter and David Gray voted to kill the $471 million incinerator project by canceling the contract and related permits. Commissioners Paul Smith and Billy Shreve cast the dissenting votes to keep the project on the table while the county explores its options.

“It is absolutely no cost to the county to keep these options open,” Smith said. “To do away with these options is crazy.”

Terminating the project will not cost the county any money as the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, a quasi-governmental agency that helps the county meet its trash disposal needs, will pay the $500,000 termination fee. Any remaining funds after this payment will be divided between Frederick County and Carroll County, which was once a partner in the project. These funds are from payments the authority has received from Wheelabrator after the service contract was executed in 2010.

However, Young said he saw no point in voting to keep plans for an incinerator, which would burn trash into energy, open since County Executive-elect Jan Gardner planned to scrap the facility after taking office Dec. 1.

“If the county executive-elect says terminate the project, what are you going to do within the next 30 to 60 days to convince her not to?” Young said.

County Attorney John Mathias said Gardner held the power to determine the fate of the incinerator project, not the County Council, if a decision was not made Thursday.

“I think you should terminate the whole thing,” Gardner testified in front of the board and roughly 100 people gathered at Winchester Hall, garnering some applause.

The board unanimously voted in favor of hauling the county’s trash to an out-of-state landfill for $50.95 per ton with a maximum five-year contract.

After considering five proposals, including three out-of-state landfills and two waste-to-energy facilities outside of Maryland, the commissioners narrowed down their options between two landfills with varying contracts.

Commissioners previously leaned toward the first option, which offered contracts extending 25 years at an average of $54.97 per ton, although that cost could escalate annually with the consumer price index and fuel prices. However, the board unanimously chose the second option, which Gardner also favored.

About 30 people testified in front of the board regarding the incinerator project, with a little more than half in favor of scrapping it and the rest advocating for keeping the project on the table to consider it more deeply.

“The incinerator is a waste of energy, a waste of resources (and) a waste of money,” Brunswick resident Ellis Burruss testified. “It would be good to not waste any more time on it.”

Other residents noted the proposed location of the incinerator, near Monocacy National Battlefield, would ruin the park’s beauty and tourism.

However, resident Greg Brown voiced his support for a regional incinerator, noting it was more environmentally friendly than the other options commissioners were considering.

“Even the best landfills … are at least three times more pollutant than a waste-to-energy facility,” Brown said.

Another resident said Europe has been building waste-to-energy facilities for years without the negative consequences that many have brought up.

Jim Warner, CEO of the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority in Pennsylvania, pitched a proposal for hauling the county’s trash, but the commissioners decided to go with an undisclosed out-of-state landfill with a short contract.

“I was actually for this (incinerator project), but with the energy prices and Carroll County dropping out … I’m not,” Delauter said, echoing the sentiments of Young and Gray.

by: http://besttopics.net/link/214519_county-scraps-plans-for-waste-to-energy-incinerator-politics-and-government-frederick-news-post

FARGO, N.D. — California health officials have given notice that North Dakota is one of six states that could receive Ebola medical waste in the event the state has any material to incinerate.

In a notice posted last week, the California Department of Public Health listed North Dakota as one of six states where California sends medical waste to be incinerated when onsite disposal is not available at medical centers.

Healthcare Environmental Services Inc., located at an industrial park at 1420 40th St. N. in Fargo, operates a medical waste incinerator that also accepts waste from other locations.

Calls to Healthcare Environmental Services on Tuesday afternoon were not returned.

The company is owned by Sanford Health. A Sanford spokeswoman said it could not immediately comment on the possible incineration of Ebola waste from California at the Fargo facility.

So far, California has no known Ebola cases, according to the state health department, which spelled out its interim guidelines for safe handling of medical waste in an alert to providers and others.

In another development, public health officials are monitoring two North Dakota residents who recently returned from countries in West Africa that are battling the Ebola epidemic.

Neither of the two residents is running a temperature or showing any symptoms of an Ebola infection, which can include diarrhea, joint and muscle aches and abnormal bleeding.

“They’ve just recently traveled to the area,” said epidemiologist Michelle Feist of the North Dakota Health Department. “They pose no risk to the community.”

Health officials are not releasing information about where the two people reside.

Public health officials in Minnesota and South Dakota also are monitoring residents in those states who have recently visited Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone in West Africa, where an outbreak of Ebola has killed about 5,000.

State health officials are contacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when someone is entering the United States from those countries through five major international airports.

“We are doing monitoring,” said Sam Brungardt, a public information officer for the Minnesota Health Department.

On Monday, Minnesota health officials announced that they were monitoring one resident who had traveled to West Africa, but the list of people to monitor is growing.

“It has grown, and it will continue to grow as we get reports from the CDC,” Brungardt said. “There’s people who are returning from these three West African countries every day.”

So far, none of those being monitored for signs of fever with twice-daily temperature checks show any sign of infection, he said.

As a precaution, however, they will continue to be checked during the 21-day observation period, generally regarded as the incubation period for the Ebola virus.

South Dakota health officials also are monitoring someone who recently returned from West Africa, but is not showing symptoms.

by: http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/n-d-could-receive-ebola-waste-from-calif/article_10e0e242-5f2c-11e4-8ff8-8ba8bab48ce3.html

SAN DIEGO – A local company has joined the front lines of an effort that has sparked a lot of debate: how to dispose of Ebola waste.

A representative from Envitech just returned from Texas after the first batch of medical waste was disposed of this past weekend.

The spacesuit-like gear is just one reminder of how contagious Ebola can be. The virus attacks the organs and liquefies parts of the body, with blood and other liquids seeping out of all body openings.

The medical supplies used to treat the first U.S. Ebola patient, Thomas Duncan, arrived in a semi-truck at a Galveston facility on Saturday.

“It was kind of all hands on-deck,” said Andy Bartocci, national sales manager at Envitech. He says a company official flew into Texas this weekend.

Envitech’s scrubbing system was installed at the Galveston site earlier this year. Here is how it works: once the Ebola-tainted supplies are incinerated at more than 2,000 degrees, the scrubber removes all the pollutants from the exhaust gas.

“We were on hand as they were burning this waste and the system operated flawlessly throughout that time,” said Bartocci.

The air scrubbers are newly designed after more stringent EPA standards went into effect this month.

“Somebody is probably more exposed to harmful pollutants pumping gas into their automobile than they would be by working or living around one of the medical waste incinerators,” said Bartocci.

Still, some states do not want that waste. Missouri’s attorney general is seeking a court order barring the waste from being shipped to a St. Louis incinerator. Among the concerns is the handling before it gets into the incinerator.

As for California, the state has a ban on the burning of medical waste, so any Ebola waste would have to be shipped to another state on public highways.

Many states like California began cracking down on medical waste incineration because hospitals were sending materials that did not need to be burned, which led to more pollutants.

Some are calling for California to reconsider these restrictions when it comes to Ebola waste.

by: http://www.10news.com/news/local-company-helps-dispose-of-ebola-tainted-waste-10202014

INCINERATOR, DIESEL.

CAPACITY : Burner 150 kg/hr.

Quantity : Two [2] with complete accessories.

Types of wastes being used: GENERAL WASTE

The  machines will be certified for operation from PME after passing site investigations.

The technical details we care about are:

–          Capacity (burning capacity of waste per hour). 150kg/hour.

–          Build materials, 5mm High quality mild steel construction ; 100 mm high quality refractory lining.

–          High Temperature paint finish

–          Up to 150 KG/Hrs.

–          Consumption of power and fuel.

–          Ash removal odor

–          Automatic curing process temperature controlled chamber.

–          Secondary chamber

–          Others.