Development and Experimental Assessment of an Induction-Heated Sanitary Waste Incineration System

Abstract

The recent developments in energy and environmental engineering show the significance of decentralized and energy-efficient systems to the safe handling of sanitary waste. Inappropriate disposal of the used sanitary napkins causes contamination of the environment, toxic gases, and health hazards to the people. The paper is a design, fabrication, and experimental analysis of a portable sanitary napkin incinerator that was designed under the purview of energy-efficient systems. The proposed incinerator of 61 cm x 10 cm x 8 cm size, uses electric-heating technology. The system works under a 2000 W nichrome heating coil operating at 230 V with a sanitary napkin capacity of 5-10 in a cycle. Trials conducted in the laboratory showed full combustion in 170 to 200 s per batch. The evaluation of performance revealed that there was a mean waste mass decrease of about 91 % with the residual inert ash mass of between 3.4 g to 5.1 g per cycle which proves that the performance of volume reduction was achieved. Operating temperatures of 800-1050°C were maintained during combustion. The filtration unit containing activated carbon and gravel was intended to reduce different pollutants. Approximate fabrication cost of the prototype was INR 8,000-12,000, while the operating electricity cost was about INR 2–4 per cycle depending on operating time and local electricity tariff. The results show that energy- efficient systems can be successfully incorporated in small scale incineration system to provide a sustainable resolution to the use of decentralized sanitary waste in the field of environmental engineering.