Previous Chapter: Waste Sterilization and Destruction

Pyrolysis vs. Incineration

Traditionally, hospitals and other generators of infectious waste simply burned medical waste in fossil fuel-fired incinerators or deposited them into the municipal waste stream. This posed several environmental, health and safety problems that caused public outcry and opposition. One of the major negative consequences of incineration was the chemical emissions and particulate matter generated and released by incinerators into the atmosphere. Nearly 80% of the medical waste stream is comprised of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) plastic. PVC plastic in the medical waste stream has proven to be non-recyclable and a major source of dioxin, NOx, CO, CO2, and heavy metals (all internationally regulated air emissions) when incinerated. Carbon dioxide, NOx and CO are considered by many as one of the major contributors to global warming and ozone depletion. In addition, dioxins and heavy metals released from the incineration of medical waste are known to have serious health effects.

Therefore, as air quality standards become more stringent around the world, previously unregulated medical waste incinerators begin to shut down due to the high cost of maintenance and prohibitive cost of retrofitting those incinerators with proper pollution control systems. This has already occurred in the United States, where the number of incinerators in operation has decreased by more than two orders of magnitude. Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has banned the permitting of any new medical waste incinerators in the United States.

Being a true pyrolysis technology, Honua's systems are so environmentally safe that they are the first and only technologies of their type to be exempted completely from regulation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency(U.S. EPA). The U.S. EPA has excluded equipment achieving true pyrolysis from the hospital and medical waste incinerator regulations because pyrolysis is not considered incineration. The U.S. EPA has even provided a specific exemption for pyrolysis in its most current air pollution regulations (40 CFR 6050.c(f)). The U.S. EPA has set very rigid standards for pyrolysis. To Honua's knowledge, its Pyrolytic Destructors are the only such units that meet the U.S. EPA exemption. For a process to be recognized as pyrolysis by the U.S. EPA, there can be no visible flame within the pyrolysis chamber. In essence, a pyrolysis chamber must be a sealed chamber heated by an external source that transfers heat into the chamber by meticulously controlled conduction and convection. Organic materials decompose gently over time.

This means that Honua's systems can be placed in facilities located in urban and suburban neighborhoods peacefully, without the need for costly pollution control systems. Because Honua's systems cost much less than incinerators with pollution controls, or other alternative technologies, customers can place multiple smaller treatment facilities throughout a given geographic area greatly reducing transportation costs.