Researchers at the University of York have concluded that PyroPure (UK) technology has the potential to alter the way in which toxic waste is ruined in clinical surroundings and say pharmacists, hospitals and manufacturers across the UK should consider trialling the system.
The statement follows a six month Innovate UK-funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership project in which a team of leading scientists from the University’s Environment Department and Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectroscopy verified that the system helped destroy active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) found within pharmaceutical waste onsite.
A total of 17 of the very thermally resistant APIs were chosen for the trial, that demonstrated that PyroPure technologies destroys over 99 percent of APIs in 10 of the 17 examined and a mean of 94 percent of their’worst case’ pharmaceuticals. On the future of PyroPure as an alternative to high temperature incineration, he remarks:
“There are large concerns over the negative impacts of pharmaceuticals on the natural environment. Inappropriate disposal of pharmaceuticals and emissions from manufacturing sites are regarded as significant contributors to those impacts. Our work shows that PyroPure could help reduce the levels of pharmaceuticals in rivers and streams and have large benefits for ecosystem health. The system also supplies a variety of other environmental and economic benefits that could radically change how waste of this sort is accumulated and ruined going forward. With PyroPure technology, toxic waste and controlled substances no more have to be hauled throughout the nation to incineration facilities, thereby reducing the related costs, carbon emissions and dangers associated with moving waste from the point of origin to its point of disposal.”
Presently in the UK, pharmaceutical wastes are only disposed of in large scale, high-temperature incinerators, which can be up to 200 miles from where the waste is created. The Environment Agency has previously indicated that PyroPure, that is based on pyrolysis, a thermochemical decomposition procedure using high temperatures and a lack of oxygen, followed by catalytic conversion to clean and convert the gases, which may be the first viable option to high-temperature incineration for liquid wastes.
On the trial’s success, Peter Selkirk, PyroPure Ltd’s Executive Chairman, adds:”This is a huge step forwards for PyroPure technology as well as the healthcare industry. For too long now, we have been too determined by incineration as the only viable route to dispose of toxic waste. Not only can it be expensive but it’s also open to security breaches, especially when the waste has to be hauled long distances. Now PyroPure is a proven technology I’m convinced that this breakthrough will pave the way for a new method of waste disposal and irrevocably alter the version for waste collection in clinical environments throughout the world.”
The trial, that formed a Knowledge Transfer Partnership involving PyroPure Ltd and the University, also demonstrated how onsite energy recovery throughout the PyroPure procedure is at least 75 percent compared with 20 percent to get a high-temperature incinerator. The user simply opens the device’s lid and places the waste inside the chamber prior to initiating the process of pyrolysis to destroy it.
by: http://www.pollutionsolutions-online.com/news/hazardous-waste/20/pyropure_ltd/pyrolysis_deemed_a_viable_alternative_to_incinceration_according_to_uk_university/32282/
Each PyroPure unit is the size of a chest freezer. The user simply opens the unit’s lid and places the waste within the chamber before initiating the process of pyrolysis to destroy it.
by: http://www.pollutionsolutions-online.com/news/hazardous-waste/20/pyropure_ltd/pyrolysis_deemed_a_viable_alternative_to_incinceration_according_to_uk_university/32282/
