Conversion of medical waste into value-added products using a novel integrated system with tail gas treatment: Process design, optimization, and thermodynamic analysis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated substantial medical waste (MW), posing risks to society. Based on widespread MW incineration, this study proposes an integrated system with tail gas treatment to convert MW into value-added products with nearly zero emissions. Herein, steam generators and supercritical CO2 cycles were used to recover energy from MW to produce high-temperature/pressure steam and electricity. A simple power generation cycle achieved a net electricity efficiency of 22.4% through optimization. Thermodynamic analysis revealed that the most energy and exergy loss occurred in incineration. Furthermore, a pressurized reactive distillation column purified the resultant tail gas. The effects of inlet temperature, pressure, liquid/gas ratio, and recycle ratio on the removal and conversion efficiencies of NO2 and SO2 were evaluated. Nearly 100% of the SO2 and 75% of the NO2 generated by the incineration of MW have been converted into their acid forms. Based on the proposed tail gas treatment unit, high-purity CO2 (∼98% purity) was finally obtained.

Pyrolysis of waste surgical masks into liquid fuel and its life-cycle assessment.

Pyrolysis of the middle layer of a surgical mask (MLM) and inner and outer layers of a surgical mask (IOM) was performed to assess their potential valorization as waste-to-energy feedstocks, and the characteristics of the resulting products were investigated. Pyrolysis of the main organics in waste surgical masks occurred at a very narrow temperature range of 456-466 °C. The main product was carbon-rich and oxygen-deficient liquid oil with a high heating value (HHV) of 43.5 MJ/kg. From the life-cycle perspective, environmental benefits and advantages of this upcycling approach were verified compared with conventional waste management approaches. This study advocated the potential application of waste surgical masks as feedstocks for fuels and energy, which is beneficial to mitigate plastic pollution and achieve sustainable plastic waste-to-energy upcycling, simultaneously.

Integrated approach for enhanced bio-oil recovery from disposed face masks through co-hydrothermal liquefaction with Spirulina platensis grown in wastewater.

Currently, the enormous generation of contaminated disposed face masks raises many environmental concerns. The present study provides a novel route for efficient crude bio-oil production from disposed masks through co-hydrothermal liquefaction (Co-HTL) with Spirulina platensis grown in wastewater. Ultimate and proximate analysis confirmed that S. platensis contains relatively high nitrogen content (9.13%dw), which decreased by increasing the mask blend ratio. However, carbon and hydrogen contents were higher in masks (83.84 and 13.77%dw, respectively). In addition, masks showed 29.6% higher volatiles than S. platensis, which resulted in 94.2% lower ash content. Thermal decomposition of masks started at a higher temperature (≈330 °C) comparing to S. platensis (≈208 °C). The highest bio-oil yield was recorded by HTL of S. platensis and Co-HTL with 25% (w/w) masks at 300 °C, which showed insignificant differences with each other. GC/MS analysis of the bio-oil produced from HTL of algal biomass showed a high proportion of nitrogen- and oxygen-containing compounds (3.6% and 11.9%, respectively), with relatively low hydrocarbons (17.4%). Mask blend ratio at 25% reduced the nitrogen-containing compounds by 55.6% and enhanced the hydrocarbons by 43.7%. Moreover, blending of masks with S. platensis enhanced the compounds within the diesel range in favor of gasoline and heavy oil. Overall, the present study provides an innovative route for enhanced bio-oil production through mask recycling coupled with wastewater treatment. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13399-021-01891-2.

COVID-19 and industrial waste mitigation via thermochemical technologies towards a circular economy: A state-of-the-art review.

The increasing awareness of waste circular economy has motivated valorization strategies for minimizing resource consumption and waste production in the private sector. With the rise of various industrial wastes and with the emergence of COVID-19 wastes, a sustainable approach is needed to mitigate the growing concern about wastes. Thermochemical treatment technologies in the form of direct combustion, torrefaction, pyrolysis, and gasification have been identified to have vital roles in the value-creation of various waste streams. Moreover, the alignment of thermochemical processes for waste mitigation concerning the circular economy framework needs to be established. Accordingly, a comprehensive review of the different thermochemical treatment options for industrial and the novel COVID-19 medical wastes streams is conducted in this study. This review focuses on highlighting the instrumental role of thermochemical conversion platforms in achieving a circular economy in the industrial sector. Various strategies in waste mitigation through various thermochemical processes such as management, recovery, reduction, and treatment are discussed. The results show that thermochemical technologies are beneficial in addressing the sustainability concerns on mitigating wastes from the industrial sector and wastes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. This also includes the current issues faced as well as future perspectives of the thermochemical conversion technologies.

Single-Use Disposable Waste Upcycling via Thermochemical Conversion Pathway.

Herein, the pyrolysis of two types of single-use disposable waste (single-use food containers and corrugated fiberboard) was investigated as an approach to cleanly dispose of municipal solid waste, including plastic waste. For the pyrolysis of single-use food containers or corrugated fiberboard, an increase in temperature tended to increase the yield of pyrolytic gas (i.e., non-condensable gases) and decrease the yield of pyrolytic liquid (i.e., a mixture of condensable compounds) and solid residue. The single-use food container-derived pyrolytic product was largely composed of hydrocarbons with a wide range of carbon numbers from C1 to C32, while the corrugated fiberboard-derived pyrolytic product was composed of a variety of chemical groups such as phenolic compounds, polycyclic aromatic compounds, and oxygenates involving alcohols, acids, aldehydes, ketones, acetates, and esters. Changes in the pyrolysis temperature from 500 °C to 900 °C had no significant effect on the selectivity toward each chemical group found in the pyrolytic liquid derived from either the single-use food containers or corrugated fiberboard. The co-pyrolysis of the single-use food containers and corrugated fiberboard led to 6 times higher hydrogen (H2) selectivity than the pyrolysis of the single-use food containers only. Furthermore, the co-pyrolysis did not form phenolic compounds or polycyclic aromatic compounds that are hazardous environmental pollutants (0% selectivity), indicating that the co-pyrolysis process is an eco-friendly method to treat single-use disposable waste.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on waste-to-energy and waste-to-material industry in China.

The COVID-19 pandemic created enormous uncertainty for achieving the sustainable development goals in waste management. China implemented a number of new policies recently to encourage waste-to-energy (WTE) and waste-to-material (WTM) industry, which was also impacted by the spread of COVID-19, while the impact on the solid waste industry was merely discussed. In this work, the quarter-level financial statement data of thirty listed companies in Chinese Stock Market were analyzed by applying ARIMA intervention analysis, moreover, a system dynamic model was established for examining the impacting pathway of the pandemic. Main results are: (1) the total annual turnover of total solid waste industry increased by 28.2 times in recent 14 years, however, the estimated turnover of solid waste industry in 2020 dropped around 55.8 billion CNY; (2) the WTE industry kept growing (+21%), the WTM industry dropped significantly (-28%), while the waste disposal industry and other solid waste industry varied slightly (-10% and +9%), comparing their turnovers in 2019 and 2020; (3) the average trade-prices of the secondary materials during the COVID-19 pandemic were only 43.4%-85.8% of the maximum price from 2017 to 2019, resulting in the decline of the WTM industry. Considering a possible sluggish growth of the solid waste industry, the waste separation and zero waste programs in China may meet non-trivial challenges in the future. Policy implications are put forward, such as quantitative simulating the long-term impact, increasing investment and incentive on waste recycling, and building an internal circulation system for waste management.

Plasma gasification of the medical waste.

In terms of infection control in hospitals, especially the Covid-19 pandemic that we are living in, it has revealed the necessity of proper disposal of medical waste. The increasing amount of medical waste with the pandemic is straining the capacity of incineration facilities or storage areas. Converting this waste to energy with gasification technologies instead of incineration is also important for sustainability. This study investigates the gasification characteristics of the medical waste in a novel updraft plasma gasifier with numerical simulations in the presence of the plasma reactions. Three different medical waste samples, chosen according to the carbon content and five different equivalence ratios (ER) ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 are considered in the simulations to compare the effects of different chemical compositions and waste feeding rates on hydrogen (H2) content and syngas production. The outlet properties of a 10 kW microwave air plasma generator are used to define the plasma inlet in the numerical model and the air flow rate is held constant for all cases. Results showed that the maximum H2 production can be obtained with ER = 0.1 for all waste samples.

Energy trilemma based prioritization of waste-to-energy technologies: Implications for post-COVID-19 green economic recovery in Pakistan.

As lockdown eases, economic activities resume in Pakistan. If the country continues to follow business-as-usual (BAU) then it is anticipated that carbon output could surge past pre-COVID-19 levels - that means more disasters in future. Thus, it is an unprecedented opportunity to shift from BAU and achieve carbon-neutral and nature-positive economic recovery - green economic recovery (GER). To fuel the GER, access to modern, equitable, affordable and sustainable energy is paramount. This study explores waste-to-energy (WtE) as an alternative green fuel for GER. Seven WtE technologies are prioritized based on the concept of energy trilemma - energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability. For the evaluation, an energy trilemma based decision support framework is developed using most prominent multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. The fuzzy set theory is integrated with MCDM methods to minimize uncertainty in results. Sixteen experts are engaged to score each WtE technology with respect to every energy trilemma dimension and sub-dimension. Gasification technology is found to be the most feasible option for WtE generation in Pakistan whereas Torrefaction technology is least favorable. It is concluded that the need to shift towards sustainable energy is more than ever to limit the carbon emission and prevent future crisis.