THERMOMECHANICAL DECONTAMINATION SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INFECTIOUS WASTE TREATMENT

摘要

An infectious waste treatment system and method for decontaminating infectious waste employ a thermal friction extruder (20) in which first and second interleaved counter-rotatable augers (40, 42) include reverse pitch flight sections (62, 72) that urge waste material in a direction opposite to that of the flow stream and into engagement with the back sides of friction plates (50, 52). This increases the amount of heat generated by the extruder. The reverse pitch flight sections can be selectively replaced with forward pitch flight sections to control the amount of heat imparted to the waste material by the friction plates.

主权项

1. A thermal friction extruder for use in an infectious waste treatment system comprising:
(i) a housing defining a material flow passage, said housing having an upstream end and a downstream end; (ii) first and second interleaved counter-rotatable augers disposed in said housing and passing through said flow passage from said upstream end to said downstream end; each of said augers having a root and a plurality of flight sections on said root, wherein said first auger has flights that are opposite in direction to the flights of said second auger; (iii) at least a first compression chamber for receiving infectious waste material at said upstream end portion of said housing; (iv) at least a first friction plate in said housing and defining a first end of said first compression chamber, said friction plate being positioned over said roots of said first and second augers between first forward pitch flight sections and first reverse pitch flight sections, said friction plate being configured to form a gap between said friction plate and said auger roots which causes waste material on a first side of said friction plate to be urged by said first forward pitch flights into said friction plate, thereby imparting frictional heat to said waste material, and wherein said reverse pitch flight sections are configured such that waste material will be urged in an upstream direction toward a second side of said friction plate but will not be prevented from traveling overall toward said downstream end of said housing; (v) an outlet for discharging treated waste from said extruder at said downstream end of said housing; (vii) at least one temperature sensor coupled to said housing for measuring temperature in said housing; and (viii) a motor coupled to said first and second augers for rotating said first and second augers in opposite directions with respect to one another.