Experimental study of the energy efficiency of an incinerator for medical waste

The aim of this paper is to explore the flux of usable energy and the coefficient of energy efficiency of an incinerator for medical waste combustion. The incineration facility incorporates a heat recovery system. The installation consists of a loading unit, a combustion chamber, a thermoreactor chamber, and a recovery boiler. The analysis was carried out in the Oncological Hospital in Bydgoszcz (Poland). The primary fuel was comprised of medical waste, with natural gas used as a secondary fuel. The study shows that one can obtain about 660–800 kW of usable energy from 100 kg of medical waste. This amount corresponds to 1000–1200 kg of saturated steam, assuming that the incinerator operates at a heat load above φ > 65%. The average heat flux in additional fuel used for incinerating 100 kg of waste was 415 kW. The coefficient of energy efficiency was set within the range of 47% and 62% depending on the incinerator load. The tests revealed that the flux of usable energy and the coefficient of energy efficiency depend on the incinerator load. In the investigated range of the heat load, this dependence is significant. When the heat load of the incinerator increases, the flux of usable energy and the coefficient of energy efficiency also increase.