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Ewart |
The University is looking at the very latest technology in its search to replace the incineration facilities at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM).
The current incinerator “has long outlived its usefulness,” according to Cam Ewart, manager of project development with Facilities Management Division (FMD). “It’s 30-year-old technology that has limped along for a lot of years so the University saw the renovations underway at the college as an opportunity to look at new technology.”
The incinerator is the disposal site for all plant and animal waste on campus, he explained. No medical waste is incinerated there. The current system uses natural gas as the source of heat so it is very expensive “and not very clean.”
The new process being investigated is called alkaline hydrolysis or alkaline digestion. Ewart said that as a chemical process, alkaline hydrolysis has existed for many years. It involves exposing material to a chemical solution, then to pressure or heat, or both. The result is sterile effluent that, depending on the technology, can be disposed of in two ways.
One technology being looked at disposes of the sterile effluent through municipal waste water treatment facilities. Ewart said because the effluent is high in biological oxygen demand (BOD), it can be beneficial to the treatment process if added at the right time.
A second technology dehydrates the effluent and uses the reclaimed water in the next hydrolysis cycle. The dehydrated material, also sterile, can then be used as a biofuel, a compost accelerant or can be safely disposed of in a landfill where it breaks down quickly because of its high carbon and nitrogen content, explained Ewart.
An alkaline hydrolysis system will also allow for the capture and treatment of waste water from the WCVM’s post-mortem room.
The heat, pressure and chemical exposure, which all take place within a fully sealed vessel, make the process extremely effective in dealing with prions, an infectious agent made of protein believed to be responsible for chronic wasting disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease. Ewart said this method of prion deactivation is endorsed by the European Union.
The budget for replacing the incineration system is $2 million and the University will soon ask for proposals from interested suppliers. Ewart said a decision on which form of the new technology will be installed should be made before the end of the year.
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