IPR Comes With New Hi-tech Medical Waste Disposable Plan For Hospitals

Hospitals may soon be able to dispose off medical wastes in an eco-friendly manner using a new technology. Gandhinagar based Institute of Plasma Research (IPR) has developed a new non-burn technology - plasma pyrolysis process - which will make it possible to dispose off medical wastes without using traditional methods of burning or dumping the same. "We have sent the relevant data obtained from the use of technology to the central pollution control board (CPCB) for their approval. Once we get the approval, we will be able to sell the equipment on our own," says Dr PN Bhagwati, MD, Bhagwati Pyrotech Ltd. The company has secured the waste disposable technology from IPR for commercialization. The new process may be helpful to dispose off an estimated 1.75 lakh kg of bio-toxic wastes across seven lakh hospitals in the country every day. The process uses graphite based plasma torch to destroy the wastes, unlike use of incinerators which produces hazardous gases. What's more, the energy generated in the disposable process can be used to generate electricity. "The energy generated in the process will be able to generate more power, says P I John, a professor at IPR. The institute claims that plants for disposable, each of which costs around Rs. 25 lakh, are being used at four different places, including Goa Medical College (Goa), Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, and Gangtok in Sikkim. The government of India's department of science and technology will have another 20 such plants at various places across the country. "The next plants will come up in Andhra Pradesh, UP, Haryana and Tripura," says Neerav Jamnapara, the in-charge of technology commercialization and transfer cell, IPR. The current plant has a capacity to destroy 75 kg of waste per day. IPR now wants to use the same technology to destroy 40 kg of wastes per hour. Besides, it is also in the process of designing plants for the treatment of agro, chemical and industrial wastes. However, experts say that the idea of producing electricity seems difficult to implement. "The plasma technology is in use for quite sometime now in several countries. The idea of producing energy requires a standard amount of bio-medical wastes. The technology should also be affordable," said Jagruti Bhatia, business head, consulting division of Hosmac India Pvt. Ltd. (Ref : The Economic Times dated February 12, 2007)