🗑️ Advanced Gasification Plants: Turning Medical Waste Into Hospital Energy

1 Sept

Photo by **Mufid** **Majnun** on **Unsplash**

Summary:

A waste-to-energy solution that optimises gasification to process waste into a hot gas stream, powering turbines and producing electric and thermal energy with minimal emissions.

The Problem

Traditional analogue waste management solutions like incineration or landfill dumps have a huge environmental cost.
- Hazardous waste can leak chemicals into the soil and our food.
- Burning waste at landfills releases toxic substances and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
UK landfills are being slowly closed or banned causing a growing shortfall for processing medical waste.
WHO Report 2022 highlights shortcomings of existing medical waste management
1. Healthcare waste management systems are Falling Apart
2. Not Enough Safe Waste Management Services
  - “1 in 3 healthcare facilities globally do not safely manage healthcare waste”
3. Large Increase in hazardous waste
  - “The volume of hazardous waste from the response to COVID-19 in Lao PDR quadrupled from 0.5 kilograms to 2 kilograms on average per person per day”.

The Scape

Imagine in the not-so-distant future, gasification plants are stationed outside every hospital, up and down the country, turning all their medical and other waste into electrical and thermal energy. Moving away from incineration, these gasification plants convert both hazardous and non-hazardous medical waste feedstocks into energy.

First, it is converted into Syngas, which is combusted within particular conditions, producing a hot gas that powers a turbine generating both thermal and electrical energy.

With NO material toxic emissions, this technology generates up to 1000x lower emissions than traditional incineration.

Now imagine a gasification plant like this adjacent to an average-size hospital, typically generating around 5000 tonnes of medical waste annually, comprised of hazardous biomaterials and plastics. Given the millions they now save from no more gate fees, these gasification plants offer each hospital an ROI of around 3-5 years.

A key component to the business case is the 3MW in electricity produced by the plant annually which helps power the lights and increasingly complicated electronic machinery essential to the hospital’s functioning. Plus, the 20KMW in heat energy is even more essential, helping power the hospital’s everyday functions like laundry, sterilisation equipment, heating and environmental control.

The residual ash from the process is sent to nearby M-LS manufacturers which combine carbon dioxide from electrochemical DAC technology (check out our previous scape on this technology) with this residual ash to produce carbon-negative manufactured limestone.

These plants have become central to circular supply chains throughout the country. Impacting a range of industries, these plants now operate at every stage of the country’s circular economy.

The types of waste which are usable extend to all types of waste, including (but not limited to): Municipal solid waste, biomass, refuse-derived fuel, automotive shredder residue, and ocean plastic trash. With different communities each having their own unique needs for waste management, smaller advanced gasification plants offer them not only the chance to deal with it locally but also help empower these communities with the opportunity for local energy sources.

A common thread found in communities using a smart commons investing platform (such as localvest as described in this previous scape) is that investing in these gasification plants will be a popular decision.

Given their short ROI and ability to produce local energy, these plants need to become part of the basic fabric of 21st-century communities, and commercial hubs like airports, ports, retail parks, sports stadiums, prisons and universities that all produce continuous volumes of waste and have 24/7 energy needs.

Downstream Value Creation

Sustainable Waste Management
- With this technology able to process a wider variety of waste with up to 1000x less emissions than traditional incineration, it offers the most sustainable waste-to-energy solution with the lowest carbon footprint.
Local and Varied Energy Supply
- Alongside electrical and thermal energy, this waste-to-energy technology can also produce hydrogen, helping form new sources of an emerging hydrogen energy network.
Empowering Local Communities
- This technology offers a cost-effective community-scale solution for both waste management and energy production. All this without worrying about endless planning permission for large infrastructure projects!