From February 13 to July 13, 2017, the student Dominique Nkoa Nkoa of the ENSP of Yaoundé did an academic internship at CURES for a period of five months. He focused on "Designing a hospital incinerator".
Households generate more and more waste,hospitals and health centers are no exception. Medical waste can be infectious, contain toxic chemicals and pose a risk of contamination for both the population and the environment. In order for patients to receive the medical care they need and to recover in a healthy environment, it is essential to dispose of waste safely and with adequate sanitation. The results of surveys conducted by Dominique Nkoa Nkoa in a sample of hospitals led to conclusions on the widespread use of archaic techniques of treatment of medical waste in hospitals.
To solve this problem more than worrying, Dominique has proposed a system of treatment by combustion of this medical waste built from local materials including firebricks, equipped with a temperature control system to achieve a temperature of 1200 ° C.A sizing of the burner allowing to obtain a complete and total combustion with a control of the energetic consumption was carried out and the whole system was simulated on the software MATLAB / Simulink® for a scenario of waste of a quantity of 30kg. As a result, the proposed incinerator thus guarantees a complete and complete combustion with a reduced rate of harmful effluents, with an incineration capacity of 30kg / h, only the first thirty-five minutes on average are necessary for the destruction. of all the waste and the twenty-five others needed for cooling the system. Note also that for a quantity of waste of 30kg, our system consumes about 7L of fuel which is close to 6L consumed by imported incinerators having the same capacity. Furthermore, a double-walled configuration of the mechanical structure of the frame ensures reduced noise pollution and a reduced burn severity in the event of contact of the outer wall by the operator. In the end, this incinerator stands out from the imported technologies with a competitive cost of 3,200,000 FCFA (three million two hundred thousand FCFA), without import and customs fees. Another advantage of this system is the reduced cost of maintenance thanks to the presence of local expertise and therefore guaranteed continuity of service. These assets put it in a unique position between incinerators with the same capacity.
The prospects for the completion of this work include the realization of the electrical schematics of the system and the installation, the digitization of the correctors and finally the control board of the burner in order to set up a functional prototype.