IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2019) 10-2

Research articleerd

Developing of Incinerator with Hydrogen Gas
for Hospital Wastes Treatment
KITICHOKE PROMMANEEWAT*Kasetsart University Chalermphrakiat Sakon Nakhon Province Campus, Thailand
Email: kitichoke.pr@ku.th

SUPALAK SATHIRACHEEWIN
Kasetsart University Chalermphrakiat Sakon Nakhon Province Campus, Thailand
Email: supalak.sat@ku.th
Received 25 December 2018

Accepted 31 October 2019(*Corresponding Author)

Abstract In this experiment, we studied the construction of incinerators using Hydrogengas as fuel in small hospitals. The Hydrogen Gas Incinerating System in this study consistsof 3 major parts, the Water Separation System, Furnace and Combustion System, and theDC Power Control System. The authors used water mixed with Sodium Bicarbonate(NaHCO3) solution to separate Hydrogen (H) from water by using 12 VDC and 15.50 A
which resulted the 909.09 ml/min of gas flow rate to burn 100 grams of infected waste. The
experiment showed that the waste was completely burnt into ash within 13.35 minutes andthe average power consumption was 0.04 kW-hr. It was concluded that the gas flow rateshould not be less than 800 ml/min because it can have a fire back phenomenon. The result
also showed that the burning cost of waste incineration in this study equaled to 1.50 baht/kg
which was much cheaper than the one of general infected waste in hospital which costs 5baht/kg.
Keywords electrolysis, medical waste, incinerator

INTRODUCTION
Medical waste with strong infections, toxic and corrosive, emissions, lax management or improper
handling characteristics can cause pollutions to water, atmosphere, and soil and it also makes direct
harm to human body if people do not handle with care (Abah and Ohimain, 2011). In order toensure that the medical waste is in efficient management, harmless to be disposed, and prevent thespread of disease, scientific research tries to design medical waste treatment machines, which use
high temperature to disinfect and sterilize medical waste and biomass decomposition, and save thecost of transportation which can also create higher economic benefits (Wajs and Golabek, 2019).
However, combustion is a rapid and exothermic reaction between a fuel and oxygen. Inincineration application, the predominant waste is fuel and the oxygen source is air, and the sourcesof combustion can be in many forms of products, whether the materials burned are natural gas, coal,wood, gasoline, hazardous waste, or medical waste which can create pollutions (Allsopp et al.,2001).
Hydrogen fuel is regarded as clean energy. It creates zero-pollution emission when burnedwith oxygen. It can be used in electrochemical cells, or internal combustion engines
to power vehicles or electric devices (Bicelli, 1986). Hydrogen energy is a significant alternativeenergy. It is as an emerging market for energy business because it creates complete combustion. It
also makes high efficient combustion. The benefit of hydrogen fuel is that it provides more than 2.5
times of hydrocarbon energy. Due to, combustion with hydrogen fuels produces no greenhousegases, smoke, dust, and it is regarded as a conventional energy application. Moreover, theproduction of hydrogen from water by a process called electrolysis has steadily been being
developed (Kudo, 2003).
Therefore, the research team has developed a device called “Dry Cell” to produce hydrogenfrom water which has been applied with a small stove. This small stove can be used to burnⒸ ISERD

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garbage in small hospitals. The infected waste in many small hospitals at rural areas is removed
unsuitably, or inconveniently to destroy because of long distance. The development of a hydrogenfuel combustion plant, or the Hydrogen Gas Incinerator Plant is an alternative device to decrease
pollution, cost of transportation, and risks from removing waste. The researchers attempt to create aseries of dry cells to produce hydrogen gas as a source of fuel for the medical waste incinerator trial
version machine which there are many factors in the production of hydrogen gas is needed tocontrol. The quantity of hydrogen gas is more or less depending on these variables such as, thedistance between conductance, the electrical current, and the electrolysis method (Kuracina, Fialaand Soldan, 2014). The authors realize the importance of the effectiveness of the medical waste
incinerator which has been desired as a water electrolysis machine, including a pipe line, series ofhydrogen gas and water separating, and slurry filling box in order to get the best performance in theseparation of hydrogen which is used as fuel in combustion infected waste.
OBJECTIVE
The objective is to study the construction of an incinerator using in small hospitals using hydrogenas fuel.
METHODOLOGY
The principle design of medical waste incinerator with hydrogen gas consists of three parts: I, theWater Separation System, using direct current electricity to separate hydrogen and oxygen gas byputting a pure and high quality aluminum electrode plate inside and place in layers. The electrons
flow from the negative terminal of the DC power source to the positive terminal, where they are
consumed by hydrogen ions to form hydrogen atoms. II, the Furnace and Combustion Systems, forburning the waste, and III, the DC Power Control System used for electrical work. The three parts
are described as the followings:
Part I: Water Separation Systems, the general process of water electrolysis, hydrogen ionsmove toward the cathode, whereas hydroxide ions move toward the anode. A secondary
electrochemical cell using aluminum plates as electrode which is drilled for water flowing between
each layer. The insulator is made of rubber cutting edge in every sheet preventing water out of thebox. Aluminum sheets and rubber sheets are arranged alternately as you can see in Fig. 1. It ispressed tightly with screws and nuts enclosed with acrylic plate to prevent water leakage. The tube
is used to connect between the reserved water box and electrolysis box. Hydrogen gas fromsplitting water by electrolysis procedure then it flows into the reserved water box and flows to the
air filtration set. The water inside the reserved water box will flow into the dry cell or electrolysisbox. As a result, the water inside the box is full at all the time. Because this design does not have agas separating type. The gas in electrolysis procedure is a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen which
is used as a fuel. It will pass through a one-way pipe towards the following combustion systems.

Fig. 1 Hydrogen gas production equipmentⒸ ISERD

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Part II: The Furnace and Combustion System consists of a furnace box frame inside which islined with refractory brick and has steel mesh to allow the ash fall into the bottom. The furnaceside is drilled to connect to the pipe with jet valve type to deliver hydrogen and oxygen. To prevent
fire back phenomena, the check valve has been installed for controlling the direction of the gas
flow. The jet valve is also connected to the spark plug for ignition to burn the garbage.
Part III: The Control System which is for electrical work consists of a 220 VAC switching to a
12 VDC 50 A for power supply. The electrical energy is shown by the voltmeter and the current
meter equipment which is supplied to two devices. The first batch of electrical energy supplied toan electrolysis unit is controlled by electric control circuit. The second one is supplied to a set ofthe sparking that the circuit generates a high frequency and high power for transmission toautomotive spark plugs. The pipeline design in all 3 parts can be simplified as illustrated in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 The pipeline design of the incinerator
1. Hydrogen gas pipeline
2. Water level measuring tube box
3. Cable Anode wire
4. Cable Cathode wire

5. Power supply pipeline
6. Water supply pipeline
7. Drain tube
8. Water and slurry filling pipe

Fig. 3 The hydrogen gas incinerator plant with 3 sections
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the electrolysis process, the separation efficiency of gas with electricity depends on different
variables: the spacing of the electrode plate, size of the electrode plate, voltage and electrolyte
solution. The quantity of hydrogen gas is proportional to the inverse of the distance betweenⒸ ISERD

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electrodes, while the size of the electrode plate voltage and the concentration of the electrolyte
solution is proportional to the quantity of gas. The distance between the plates sheet was set as
close as possible at the range of 0.1 mm. The size of the conduct sheet using 22x22 cm. The supply
voltage is 12 VDC. Use sodium bicarbonate (Na2CO3) amount of 300 grams in 1 lite of water toprepare of electrolyte solution. The results showed that default value of electricity is quite low as
about 10 A when the supply 12 VDC was applied. Initial temperature of water is equal to thetemperature of water at room temperature. When the process of electrolysis occurs, water will bechange into hydrogen and oxygen gas. This process is exothermic, the temperature of the water isincreased, as a result, the electrical resistance is dropped. Consequently, the electric current
increases, the rate of gas will also increase. It can be interpreted as the rate of gas that produced isproportional to the voltage and the temperature rise as shown in the Table 1.
Table 1 The flow rate of hydrogen and oxygen
Current (A.)

Temperature of water (°C)

Gas flow rate (mm³/min)

1133.0432.901235.0492.611340.0699.301444.0769.231545.6909.091647.0942.401748.0956.701848.5977.501948.7982.302048.7990.40Although the flow rate of gas is increased according to the value of electrical current, the rateis stable when it reaches the value of electrical current at 15A as shown in Fig. 4, where the flowrate of mixing gas value is close to 1,000 mm3/min.

Fig. 4 The Plot between the Rate of gas flow and current
The infectious dry waste in quantity of 100 grams of cotton, gauze and bandage were selectedin the experiment. A measurable 12 VDC voltage and an average current of 15.50 A were selected.
It was found that the incinerator was able to burn 100 grams of dry waste within 13.35 minutes, andthe average power consumption is 0.04 kW-hr.

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Table 2 Results by burning dry infectious waste incinerators
No.

Current (A.)

Time (Minute)

Average Power(Watt)

Energy(kW-hr)

1

15.0

13.37

216.2

0.04

2

15.1

13.37

216.3

0.04

3

15.5

13.35

216.6

0.04

4

15.7

13.34

216.6

0.04

5

16.0

13.33216.70.04

The infectious wet waste quantity of 100 grams of cotton, gauze and bandage with humidity at
85% were selected in the experiment. A measurable 12 VDC voltage and average current of 15.1 A
were selected. It was found that the incinerator was able to burn 100 grams of wet waste
within17.40 minutes, and the average power consumption is 0.07 kW-hr.
Table 3 Results by burning wet infectious waste incinerators
No.

Current (A.)

Time (Minute)

Average Power(Watt)

Energy(kW-hr)

115.0

17.36

223.2

0.07

2

15.1

17.36

223.1

0.07

315.0

17.41

223.1

0.07

4

15.1

17.40

223.2

0.07

5

14.5

17.44

223.4

0.07

CONCLUSION
From the production of medical waste incinerator using energy from hydrogen and oxygen fromwater separation process, it was found that the quantity of electricity flowing through the electrodesheet varies to the water temperature. The water resistance is inversely proportional to thetemperature. The gas mixture of hydrogen and oxygen used to burn the garbage which shows theapproximately minimum gas flow rate should be not less than 800 ml/min. If the flow rate is lessthan this value, it can have a fire back phenomenon. In addition, the results showed that dry waste
consumed less double energy than wet waste as shown in Tables 2 and 3. When calculating the costof electricity, it was found that the average power for burning dry waste is about 0.04 kW-hr, whileburning the wet waste is 0.07 kW-hr respectively. The result also showed that the burning cost of
infectious dry waste equaled 1.50 baht/kg, however the medical infectious incineration method ingeneral hospital cost 5 baht / kg.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are thankful to the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Kasetsart University
Chalermprakiat Sakon Nakhon Province Campus for providing financial assistance to carry out thiswork.
REFERENCES
Abah, S.O. and Ohimain, E.I. 2011. Healthcare waste management in Nigeria: A case study. Journal ofPublic Health & Epidemiology, 3 (3), 99-110.
Allsopp, M., Costner, P. and Johnston, P. 2001. Incineration and human health: State of knowledge of theimpacts of waste incinerators on human health. Environmental science and pollution researchInternational, 8 (2), 141-145.
Kudo. A. 2003. Photocatalyst materials for water splitting. Catalysis Surveys from Asia, 7 (1), 31-38.
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Kuracina, M., Fiala, J. and Soldan, M. 2014. Study of selected characteristics of a dry cell hydrogengenerator in condition of long term operation. Advanced Materials Research, 1001, 109-113.
Peraldo Bicelli, L. 1986. Hydrogen: A clean energy source. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 11 (9),555-562.
Wajs, J., Bochniak, R. and Golabek, A. 2019. Proposal of a mobile medical waste incinerator withapplication of automatic waste feeder and heat recovery system as a novelty in Poland. Sustainability,MDPI, 11 (18), 1-18.

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