Cost–Benefit Analysis of Introducing Custom-Made Small Thermal-Frictional Sterilization System to the Existing Hospital Waste Disposal System: A Case Study of Chinese Hospital

Abstract

This manuscript proposes an integrated system for treating hospital solid waste (H.S.W.) consisting of an incineration and frictional sterilization system capable of operating during normal and emergency situations. We analyzed the benefits of integrating different hospital solid waste (H.S.W.) treatment systems with the existing stand-alone incineration system, with a particular emphasis on the thermal friction sterilization integration system. The objective was to define the economic advantages and benefits in terms of resources recovery of using the thermal frictional sterilization–incineration integrated system during the hospital’s normal and emergency/pandemic operating conditions. We modeled three modeling scenarios based on normal and emergency operating conditions. The results show that the H.S.W. was composed of 74% general H.S.W. Existing incineration systems would be the most expensive process because the sanitary transportation cost represented approximately 96% of the H.S.W. costs. The hospital would realize 40–61% savings relative to the existing method if the integrated incineration–frictional systems were implemented to treat 50–70% of H.S.W.; the savings were better than in other scenarios. Proposed scenario 3 had a much better resources recovery factor than scenarios 1 and 2. This modeling study showed that a thermal frictional sterilization–incineration system could work well even under emergency conditions if the H.S.W. in-house sorting/transportation/storage process is modified to cater to other H.S.W. treatment/sterilization systems.