The Alternate Low Cost Non Conventional Energy Production Plant - Bio Gas Plant in a Tertiary Hospital Center

Management of hospital wastage is a very serious problem all over. Disposal of hospital waste involves serious health risk to the persons involved. To manage this problem a novel way was found in government Maternity Hospital, Tirupati. Low cost Non conventional biogas plant was constructed in 2005 at the back of the hospital. A cylindrical well of two cubic meters, 12 feet depth of concrete was constructed along with a dome in addition to inlet of 2x2 feet, out let of 2x2 feet at the ground level. Daily the hospital sanitary workers emptied the hospital waste excluding Bio, blood products which are carried by bio-waste consultancy carriers. Plastic material including covers, sharp objects, syringes are separated and excluded and disposed separately (1). cotton materials, waste papers, eaten and left food, fruits, rotten eggs, coconuts after drinking the water, old used cloths, used packing material, lime powder, used bleaching powder, and other waste are dumped in the inlet of biogas plant (2). The biological hospital waste is made like slurry. This is thrown in to the biogas well through the inlet. Small quantity of water added to the slurry. The anaerobic digestion of Biological products produces methane gas at a temperature of 33-38C. at a ph of 7. The mesophilic and thermophilic flora present in the well of the plant causes destruction of the disease producing virus, bacteria, protozoa, and helminthes up to 99 %. The sludge produced can be dried and used as composed manure with preservation of minerals (3). anaerobic digestion takes place inside the well for 3 to 6 weeks and methane gas produced from this bio gas plant is used to heat water for 2 hours per day by connecting to a stove. The Methane gas can be used as an alternate fuel for heating purpose. This method of hospital waste management is low cost, easily manageable with less man power and produced biogas which can be used as a fuel. (4)