DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/03 Jully) – A Davao City-based inventor will introduce his work, a bio-medical waste treatment technology called Pyroclave, in the Saudi Arabian market next year.
Developed in 2012 by homegrown RAD Green Solutions, Pyroclave uses pyrolysis that utilizes “extreme thermal treatment to process medical wastes and operates at a temperature of more than 1,000 degree Celsius. Shredding is not required after treatment while wastes are rendered unrecognizable. Reduction of mass and volume by 80-95 percent can be achieved.”
Engr. Roderick Dayot, who is vice president for engineering of RAD Green Solutions, said that they passed the standards of Saudi Arabia which is said to have the most stringent regulations when it comes to technologies created by foreign developers entering their country.
He said a group of representatives from Saudi Arabia’s regulatory body, General Authority of Meterology and Environmental Protection, inspected the company’s facility here in 2016.
He said the regulating body is set to release their certification that will allow them to enter Saudi Arabia, its first international market.
He said they have developed a 10-ton capacity Pyroclave tailored-fit for Saudi Arabia.
He said Saudi Arabia-based Kawn Environmental Services will be the exclusive distributor and sole operator of Pyroclave.
The company will roll out Pyroclave in two key areas in Saudi Arabia – Jeddah and Dammam – but Dayot hopes to roll out his invention to other parts of the country and its neighbors in the Middle East.
For a country where water is scarce, Dayot said Saudi Arabia wants to utilize Pyroclave because it does not use water to disinfect hospital wastes.
“Pyroclave does not use water for disinfecting medically waste. Right now, all of their technologies are autoclaving that uses water,” he said.
He said a kilo of medical waste needs two liters of water for disinfection using the autoclave method.
The Pyroclave employs a process called “Pyrolysis”, a “thermo-chemical decomposition of organic material at higher temperatures in the absence of oxygen typically occurring under pressure and at an operating temperatures above 430 degree Celsius.”
The technology can treat all kinds of medical wastes – infectious, pathological wastes and sharps.
The medical wastes undergoing this process like body parts will be charred and then disposed to the city’s sanitary landfill in New Carmen, Tugbok District where the treatment facility was also put up and started operating early 2013 after getting the long-awaited approval from the city council.
He said it is processing 3,000 kilos of medical wastes a day in the city from 146 hospitals, clinics and dialysis centers.
Currently, Dayot said it also operates in Koronadal and Valanzuela City and hopes to expand to cities of Cebu, General Santos City, and Butuan.
Pyroclave was one of the two startups from Davao City that won in the ON3 Pitching Competition in 2011, after which the Dayot-led team had brought Philippines to Silicon Valley in the US for a three-month exposure, immersion and funding mission in 2012. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)