Pharmaceutical%20Waste%20Treatment%20and%20Disposal%20Practices%20Part%20II:%20Pharmaceutical%20Solid%20and%20Gaseous%20Waste%20Treatment

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Pharmaceutical Waste Treatment and Disposal
PracticesPart II Pharmaceutical Solid and
Gaseous Waste Treatment

• Dr. Alaadin A. Bukhari
• Centre for Environment and Water
• Research Institute
• KFUPM

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PRESENTATION OUTLINES

• Introduction
• Objectives of Treatment
• Incineration of Pharmaceutical Waste
• Air Pollution Control
• Disposal Practices
• Landfilling
• Conclusions

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INTRODUCTION

• Solid Pharmaceutical Waste Generation
• Stages of Pharmaceutical Waste Generation
• Pharmaceutical Waste Composition
• Importance of Treatment

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SOLID PHARMACEUTICAL WASTE GENERATION

• About 200,000 tons of sludge produced by
  pharmaceutical industry only In USA during 1983
  (Nemerow 1984 Arthur. little 1975 TRW Env.
  Engg. Div. 1979).
• Ireland generates about 11,110 tons of solid
  pharmaceutical wastes annually (Henery et al.
  1996)

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• In USA on average a single plant generated 200
  tons of acetone pollution during the production
  of drugs (EPA, 1998)
• More than 1,10,000 pharmaceutical products are
  currently in the market (EPA, 1998)
• Around 10 kg/head of population per year or
  around 700,000 ton a year of hazardous waste
  generated in Saudi Arabia (UNEP, 1998)

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Fig 1.0
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Fig 2.0
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STAGES OF PHARMACEUTICAL WASTE GENERATION

• In the pharmaceutical manufacturing industries,
  waste generated mainly at three stages during the
  production of pharmaceuticals (US. EPA, 1998)

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Fig 3.0
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PHARMACEUTICAL WASTE COMPOSETION

• Organic chemical residues from manufacturing
  processes
• Helogenated/non-helogenated sludges and solids
• Sludge tars
• Heavy metals
• Test animal remains

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• Return pharmaceuticals
• Low-level radioactive waste
• Biological products including materials extracted
  from biological materials such as vaccines,
  serums, and various plasma derivatives.
• Contaminated gloves, filters, clothings, etc

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IMPORTANCE OF TREATMENT

• Treatment of solid pharmaceutical waste has great
  importance because of (Wagner 1991)
• Safety related properties
• corrosive (solvents and acids used in the
  preparation of some medicine)
• flammable (most of the medicines containing
  alcohol, sprit, tincture etc.)
• reactive (organic acids used as a component in
  the preparation of some pain killers and syrups)
• ignitable (most of the solvents used in the
  preparation of medicines)

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• Health related properties
• irritant (allergic response e.g. penicillin,
  ferric compounds)
• toxic when ingestion (medicines for external use
  e.g. tincture, potassium iodide etc.)
• radioactive (medicines used for chemotherapy and
  cancer treatment)
• carcinogenic ( persistent use of some medicines)

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• Treatment of pharmaceutical waste is very
  important because improper disposal may also have
  an adverse effect on land values, create public
  nuisances, otherwise the failure or inability to
  salvage and reuse such materials economically
  results in the unnecessary waste and depletion of
  natural resources (Eliassen, 1969).

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Treatment or Disposal

• There is not much treatment of solid
  pharmaceutical waste. Most of the time solid
  waste is disposed of.
• Separation and reprocessing of some of the solid
  waste also done for recycling purpose.
• Incineration and landfilling of pharmaceutical
  solid waste is most common.

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OBJECTIVE OF PHARMACEUTICAL WASTE TREATMENT

• The objectives of pharmaceutical waste treatment
  are the destruction or recovery for reuse and/or
  the conversion of these substances to innocuous
  forms that are acceptable for uncontrolled
  disposal.

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INCINERATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL WASTE

• Incineration is one of the best techniques for
  treating hazardous waste (Crumpler and Martin,
  1987US. EPA)
• It can be use to recover heat energy
• Use as volume reduction method
• Use for preheating combustion air
• Detoxification of toxic material can be done by
  destroying the organic molecular structure
  through oxidation or thermal degradation
• Long-term cost of land disposal is likely to be
  greater than the short-term cost of incineration.

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DETERMINATION OF THE APPROPRIATENESS OF A WASTE
FOR INCINERATION

• Is the waste or combination of wastes suitable
  for incineration?
• What type of incineration equipment is required?
• What capacity is needed?
• What is the incineration cost vis-à-vis other
  management options?

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MAJOR TYPES OF INCINERATORS

• Grate Type of Incinerator
• It is a low temperature incinerator. It is useful
  for volume reduction of bulky waste.
• Hearth-Type Incinerator
• Most solid hazardous waste is burned in
  hearth-type systems of which there are several
  basic types
• The rotary kiln
• A "controlled air" or "two chamber fixed hearth"
  system
• The multiple hearth incinerator
• The monohearth (seldom used)

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• Fludized-Bed Incinerator
• Liquids, sludges as well as uniformly sized
  solids can be incinerated in it
• In USA hearth-type systems are common
• Following types of incinerator are in operation
• Rotary Kiln incinerators accounts for 75
• Two-chamber, fixed-hearth 15
• Multiple-hearth and fluidised bed 10

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Fig 5.0
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Fig 6.0
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Fig 7.0
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Fig 8.0
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Incinerator in Saudi Arabia

• Substantial amount of hazardous waste being
  generated in Saudi Arabia due to rapid
  industrialisation over three decades
• In 1994 Gov. of Saudi Arabia made a contract with
  BeeA'h to provide incineration and support
  facilities
• BeeAh is now operating an incinerator in
  Al-Jubail City Saudi Arabia

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Fig 10.0
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Table 3. Typical Operating conditions for
Incinerators

• Incinerator Type Temp. SRT (hr) GRT (sec)
• Rotary Kiln 820-1600 0.3-1 1-3
• Fluidized Bed 760-980 10 1-12
• Catalytic Reactor 320-820 -- lt 1
• Multiple Hearth 720-980 30-90 0.25-3
• Multi Chamber 800-1000 5-30 1- 4
• Pyrolysis 480-820 12-15 1-3

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AIR POLLUTION CONTROL FROM PHARMACEUTICAL
GASEUS EMISSION

• Air pollution may results from the exhaust gases
  release, during incineration operation
• Release of pharmaceutical gases into the
  atmosphere is strongly prohibited and air
  pollution control is required

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• Most of incinerator air pollution control systems
  required two functional elements
• particulate removal from flue gases
• removal of acid gases
• Particulate and acid gases are usually controlled
  with scrubbers. These scrubbers operate on two
  mechanisms
• physical removal of particulate, and
• chemical removal by absorption and neutralization
  of the acid gases

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Objectives can be achieve by the use of

• Afterburners ( Sec. Combustion Chamber )
• It is required for solid hazardous waste
  incineration because the primary chamber does not
  provide enough time, turbulence or temperature to
  destroy the organic components of the waste to
  the required Destruction and Reduction Efficiency
  (DRE).

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Fig 11.0
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• Scrubbers (Venturi, orifice etc.)
• Particulate removal can be done by dry, wet or by
  wet-dry combination methods
• The dry, particulate removal methods include
• Impaction-baffles and screens
• Centrifugal separation -- cyclone separators
• Filtration-fabric filters
• Electrostatic-precipitators

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• Wet methods, which employ water as a medium,
  include
• Impaction-packed and tray columns
• Centrifugal separation-wet cyclones
• Particle wetting-ventures and similar units
• Particle conditioning and wetting-collision
  scrubber
• Electrostatic-wet ionizer/precipitator

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Typical Scrubbing Systems

• Wet spray towers
• Dry spray towers
• Packed wet scrubbers
• Plate Scrubbers
• Electrostatic precipitator
• Wet electrostatic precipitators

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DISPOSAL PRACTICES OF PHARMACEUTICAL WASTE

• The safe and reliable long-term disposal of solid
  pharmaceutical waste residues is an important
  component of integrated waste management.
• Solid waste residues generated by pharmaceutical
  industry, are components that are not recycled,
  that remain after processing at a material
  recovery facility, or that remain after the
  recovery of conversion products and/or energy

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Factors require consideration in the
management/disposal of solid pharmaceutical waste

• Potential hazardous nature of the waste material
• Relatively large volume of material that must be
  safely and efficiently handled, transported
  and/or disposed of
• Effect of the disposal method on the public and
  environment
• Social factors
• Cost economics

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Important considerations to determine the
suitability of solid waste disposal sits

• Technical feasibility of the construction and
  operation of the installation
• Environmental control
• The social importance of other interests in the
  exploitation and utilisation of the area
• Economics of construction and operation of the
  installation.

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Fig 20.0
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Steps for the disposal of solid pharmaceutical
waste (Nemerow, 1978)

• Segregation
• Volume reduction
• Incineration
• Ultimate disposal
• Landfill disposal Common land filling methods
  are
• .Mixing with soil
• .Shallow burial
• .Combination of these

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• Deep-well disposal
• Material pumped into subsurface rock separated
  from other groundwater supplies by impermeable
  rock or clay. (In USA more than 100 wells are
  used for disposal)
• Land burial disposal
• Disposal accomplished by either near-surface or
  deep burial
• In near-surface burial material could be disposed
  directly into the ground or is disposed in
  stainless steel tanks or concrete lined pits
  beneath the ground. At the present time, only
  near surface burial is used for disposal of
  pharmaceutical wastes

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• Ocean dumping and detonation are some of
  expensive waste disposal methods
• Detonation is a processes of exploding a quantity
  of waste with sudden violence
• .Thermal Shock
• .Mechanical Shock
• .Electrostatic charge
• This method mainly used for flammable and
  volatile waste materials

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LADFILLS

• Landfills are physical facilities used for the
  disposal of residual solid wastes in the surface
  soils of the earth
• US. EPA defines landfill as a system designed and
  constructed to contain discarded waste so as to
  minimize releases of contaminants to the
  environment
• Solid pharmaceutical waste usually incinerated
  but in some places (e.g. California) most of the
  solid PW is landfilled (Nemerow, 1984).

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Landfills are necessary because

• Other hazardous waste management technologies
  such as source reduction, recycling, and waste
  minimization cannot totally eliminate the waste
  generated and
• Hazardous waste treatment technologies such as
  incineration and biological treatment produce
  residues

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Fig 21.0
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Following guidelines improve the waste
management/disposal system (EPA, 1972)

• Sanitation Control all conditions that
  contribute to contamination, spread of disease,
  infection and the irritation, discomfort or
  impairment of bodily functions through
  inhalation, ingestion, or contact
• Safety Control of all conditions relating to
  prevention of accidents or catastrophes that
  could cause personal injury or property damage.

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• Security Prevention of unauthorised access to
  waste handling and disposal areas to eliminate
  pilferage or salvage of hazardous waste, and
  accidental contact with contaminated materials
• Aesthetics Public and users acceptability in
  terms of appearance, noise, odours, psychological
  factors, convenience, workability of the system,
  etc

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Conclusions of Presentation

• Treatment of pharmaceutical solid/gaseous waste
  is important from health and safety related
  properties
• There is not much treatment of solid
  pharmaceutical waste. Most of the time solid
  waste is disposed of
• Disposal of solid pharmaceutical waste and
  elimination of the emissions from incinerator
  operations are very important to protect the
  land, water bodies and atmospheric environment

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Conclusions of Presentation (continued)

• Landfills are most popular final disposal
  technique
• Proper design of incinerators and landfills is
  important to fulfil the regulatory requirements
• Proper planning, design, and operation are the
  key points involved in the disposal of such waste

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Thank You