Department of Marine Biotechnology, Academy of Maritime Education and Training [AMET] (Deemed to be University), Chennai, 603112, Tamil Nadu, India.
Center of Excellence in Catalysis for Bioenergy and Renewable Chemicals (CBRC), Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
Chemosphere. 2021 Jul;275:130092. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130092. Epub 2021 Feb 23.
COVID-19 has led to the enormous rise of medical wastes throughout the world, and these have mainly been generated from hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare establishments. This creates an additional challenge in medical waste management, particularly in developing countries. Improper managing of medical waste may have serious public health issues and a significant impact on the environment. There are currently three disinfection technologies, namely incineration, chemical and physical processes, that are available to treat COVID-19 medical waste (CMW). This study focuses on thermochemical process, particularly pyrolysis process to treat the medical waste. Pyrolysis is a process that utilizes the thermal instability of organic components in medical waste to convert them into valuable products. Besides, the technique is environmentally friendly, more efficient and cost-effective, requires less landfill capacity, and causes lower pollution. The current pandemic situation generates a large amount of plastic medical wastes, which mainly consists of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, and nylon. These plastic wastes can be converted into valuable energy products like oil, gas and char through pyrolysis process. This review provides detailed information about CMW handling, treatment, valuable product generation, and proper discharge into the open environment.
新冠疫情导致全球医疗废物大量增加，主要来自医院、诊所和其他医疗机构。这给医疗废物管理带来了额外的挑战，特别是在发展中国家。医疗废物处理不当可能会产生严重的公共卫生问题，并对环境造成重大影响。目前有三种消毒技术，即焚烧、化学和物理处理方法，可用于处理新冠病毒医疗废物（CMW）。本研究专注于热化学处理方法，特别是热解工艺来处理医疗废物。热解是一种利用医疗废物中有机成分的热不稳定性将其转化为有价值产品的过程。此外，该技术环保、更高效、更具成本效益，需要更少的垃圾填埋场容量，并且污染较低。当前的大流行情况产生了大量的塑料医疗废物，主要由聚乙烯、聚丙烯、聚苯乙烯、聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯和尼龙组成。这些塑料废物可以通过热解工艺转化为有价值的能源产品，如油、气和炭。本综述提供了有关 CMW 处理、处理、有价值产品生成以及在开放环境中正确排放的详细信息。
