Study on Thermal Plasma Combined Treatment for Medical Waste

Abstract

A thermal plasma combined treatment of medical waste proposed here combines the advantages of pyrolysis and gasification technologies, which provides an option for the harmless, reduction and recycling treatment of medical waste. In addition, a simulation model based on the Gibbs free energy minimization method was developed to explore the characteristics of plasma pyrolysis, gasification, and combined treatment methods. Compared with the plasma pyrolysis method, the plasma combined treatment method can not only produce more syngas with high calorific value but also achieve higher process efficiency. Different from the plasma gasification method, the combined treatment method uses nonoxidizing gas as the working gas for plasma torches, which helps slow down the ablation of plasma torch cathode. Besides, three main components of medical waste were analyzed through the plasma combined treatment model. Simulation results show that materials with high carbon and hydrogen content, such as plastic and rubber, can not only help to increase syngas output and calorific value but also improve system efficiency to a certain extent.