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  • View | To combat the new crown epidemic, garbage incineration builds a bio-safety protective barrier

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    In the battle against the new crown epidemic, China has demonstrated strong institutional advantages and strong social mobilization capabilities. In addition to medical care, epidemic prevention, circulation, grass-roots staff, volunteers, etc., projects and units for medical waste and related epidemic waste disposal also play a role. Active anti-epidemic effect. Among them, the domestic waste incineration plant has played an active role in anti-epidemic work such as killing viruses at high temperature and constructing biological protection safety barriers.

    At the critical moment of the pandemic, the waste incineration project actively participates in emergency response

    At the time of the epidemic, especially during the special period of February last year, in Hubei Province, the number of medical wastes in various places doubled, and the risk of epidemic infection increased. However, due to the lack of necessary medical waste disposal capabilities, it was too late to build temporary medical waste projects.

    As a result, under the guidance of the relevant emergency response documents of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, many areas temporarily opened domestic waste incineration facilities as emergency treatment facilities for medical waste.

    According to the handling guidelines issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment during the epidemic, in terms of technical feasibility, the new coronavirus is sensitive to heat, and a temperature of 56°C for 30 minutes can effectively inactivate the virus. The main technical requirements of domestic waste incinerators and medical waste incinerators are the same, and the working conditions are similar. The temperature in the furnace of the domestic waste incinerator is ≥850℃. In this environment, the residence time of domestic waste in the furnace is generally 1~1.5 hours (grate furnace). Under this incineration condition, the new coronavirus can be completely eliminated.  It is feasible to use domestic waste incineration facilities to dispose of medical waste under the condition of controlling the proportion of mixed combustion and doing a good job in health protection.

    Especially before the outbreak of the epidemic at the beginning of last year, all domestic waste incinerators in China have completed the installation work, especially the furnace temperature monitoring work, and realized the second-level temperature monitoring. The temperature of each waste incinerator in China is strictly required. Must reach 850 degrees stably.

    The Ministry of Ecology and Environment also suggested that through optimizing the process, strengthening management, sanitation and epidemic prevention requirements, and personnel training, it is feasible to use domestic waste incineration facilities (grate type) for emergency treatment of medical waste, and it has successful cases of practical applications at home and abroad. All localities can select household waste incineration facilities for emergency treatment of medical waste under the premise of properly adopting sanitary and epidemic prevention measures and ensuring the effectiveness of disposal.

    According to Qingqi Group's understanding, almost all waste incineration plants across the country received a request from the local government in February 2020 to enter an emergency state.

    Shanghai, Shanwei City, Guangdong Province, Zhuhai City, Dongying City, Shandong Province, Putian City, Fujian Province, Xiantao City, Hubei Province and other places have successively used domestic waste incineration facilities to carry out emergency treatment of medical waste.

    Since January 27, 2020, Shanwei City, Guangdong Province, has used the Lufeng City (Southeast) Domestic Waste Incineration Power Plant to urgently dispose of the pneumonia epidemic medical waste generated in Shanwei City. The domestic waste incineration power plant in Lufeng City (southeast) has a domestic waste disposal capacity of 1,200 tons/day. The mixed incineration of medical waste is 1%, and the emergency treatment capacity of medical waste is 12 tons/day. As of February 7, a total of 42.75 tons of medical waste have been used for emergency disposal of domestic waste incineration facilities.

    Since January 29, 2020, Dongying City, Shandong Province, has used Dongying Huayuan New Energy Co., Ltd. to dispose of medical waste generated in Dongying City as an emergency. The domestic waste disposal capacity of Dongying Huayuan New Energy Co., Ltd. is 400 tons/day, and the mixed incineration of medical waste is 5%, and the emergency treatment capacity of medical waste is 20 tons/day. As of February 7th, a cumulative total of 0.87 tons of medical waste has been used for emergency disposal of domestic waste incineration facilities.

    Putian City, Fujian Province, since January 20, 2020, has used Putian Shengyuan Environmental Power Co., Ltd. to deal with the domestic garbage involved in the epidemic during the epidemic in Putian City, including 5 designated hospitals in the city and the first batch of 8 isolation observation points and the domestic waste generated by the medical staff, confirmed patients, and quarantined people generated by the additional isolation observation points.

    The domestic waste incineration capacity of Putian Shengyuan Environmental Power Co., Ltd. is 2850 tons/day, and the mixed incineration of medical waste is 5%, and the emergency treatment capacity of medical waste is 142.5 tons/day. As of February 7, a total of 28.23 tons of medical waste have been used for emergency disposal of domestic waste incineration facilities.

    Since February 1, 2020, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, has used the Zhuhai Municipal Domestic Waste Incineration Project for emergency disposal of medical waste generated in Zhuhai City. The domestic waste incineration capacity of the Zhuhai Municipal Domestic Waste Incineration Project is 600 tons/day, and the mixed incineration of medical waste is 5%, and the emergency treatment capacity of medical waste is 30 tons/day. As of February 7, a total of 12.29 tons of medical waste have been used for emergency disposal of domestic waste incineration facilities.

    On February 7, 2020, the Xiantao City Government of Hubei Province organized the Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau, the Health and Health Committee, the Urban Management Law Enforcement Bureau, Hubei Shengkun Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. (a unit of centralized disposal of medical waste) and Xiantao City Green Oriental Environmental Power Generation Co., Ltd. (a domestic waste incineration and disposal unit) jointly completed the trial burning of medical wastes from the pneumonia epidemic using domestic waste incineration facilities, and successfully completed the trial burning and disposal of 2.96 tons of medical waste. Xiantao Green Dongfang Environmental Power Generation Co., Ltd. has 2 domestic waste incinerators with a total incineration capacity of 1,200 tons/day. Currently, one of the incinerators with an actual capacity of 500 tons/day is selected as an emergency medical waste disposal facility in Xiantao City. On the 8th, the emergency treatment of medical waste for the epidemic pneumonia was officially put into operation, and 3.04 tons of medical waste were actually handled on the same day.

    The waste incineration esg research team organized by Qingqi Group, Shanghai Qingyue, and Wuhu Ecological Center, according to relevant public information from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, collected data on the operating conditions of waste incineration enterprises in 223 cities in 29 provinces across the country and found that February 2020 is the month with the least number of shutdowns of all waste incineration plants in the country.

    There are 1202 incinerators nationwide, and the total number of shutdown days in the month is only 944 days. The average shutdown of each furnace is only 0.79 days in the month, which is equivalent to 18 hours. The shutdown time in other months of 2020 is 3-6 times higher than that in February on average.

    In Hubei Province, where the epidemic is most severe, only four of the 13 waste incineration plants in the province have temporarily suspended their furnaces, while none of the remaining companies have shut down their furnaces.

    During the daily protection period, actively dispose of domestic waste at the isolation point

    After the domestic epidemic has been basically cleared, overseas transmission and import have become the key to epidemic prevention and control. A large number of immigrants have settled in designated quarantined hotels or hotels, and a small number of asymptomatic infections have been mixed. As a result, the quarantine point generates household garbage with hidden risks of infection. Because of its high water content, it is also difficult for these household garbage to enter the medical waste disposal system.

    In addition, the use of domestic masks has surged, and the amount of disposal has also increased. Mask waste may also have certain hidden dangers, but it is more difficult to enter the medical waste disposal system.

    As a result, some cities with densely populated immigrants reopened local domestic waste incineration plants and designated special plants and furnaces as designated disposal units for the disposal of hidden garbage and masks.

    As we all know, the replication and infection vectors of the new coronavirus are currently basically completed by humans, while human domestic waste is a risky virus transmission vector. The sporadic epidemic cases that have occurred at the end of last year, such as the southwest and northeast regions, are mostly related to the failure of proper disposal of domestic garbage at the isolation point and the failure of the disposal personnel to do good personal protection.

    Therefore, to fight against the new coronavirus, it is necessary to achieve a complete closed-loop elimination, especially through high-temperature incineration, to achieve a more complete elimination, and to achieve a complete closed-loop epidemic prevention, which cannot be achieved through other disposal methods.

    Viewpoint of Qingqi Group:

    When the Qingqi Group checked the literature, it was also found that epidemic prevention experts believed that it may be due to the large waste incineration capacity in East Asia, especially China, which has played an excellent role in curbing the spread of the epidemic and ensuring the fight against the epidemic. In contrast, other countries around the world, especially those with high anti-incineration tendency and weak garbage incineration capacity, basically rely on landfills and other methods to dispose of garbage. The new coronavirus that has not been cleaned may pass through other organisms, such as the more frequent rats and birds in the landfill, and through the biological chain, once again cause infection to human society. The new crown virus has not been completely eliminated in a closed loop, which indirectly makes it very difficult to contain the epidemic.

    Therefore, although waste incineration disposal methods and waste incineration enterprises have been criticized repeatedly, when the new crown epidemic arrives, they have played a huge role in biological safety protection and infection protection.

     

    From: Qingqi Group


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