PPE Waste to Biofuel

Being a COVID warrior - a Healthcare worker at a Molecular diagnostic laboratory, I have used at least 480 PPE kits till date (since May), and this article is all about the waste I have generated till date !

With tons of PPE (Polypropylene – Personal protective equipment) waste generated daily since the beginning of the global pandemic of COVID-19, the struggle for management of PPE waste is real. PPE waste generation is not only an add-on of waste to the wastelands of the world, but also a global threat.

PPE are personal protective equipment for COVID warriors working in diagnostic laboratories, hospitals, research institutes, etc. PPE kits consist of fluid repellent mask (surgical mask and an N95 mask), eye protection visor, a pair of gloves, fluid repellent coverall gown, head cover and a shoe cover. All these equipment are a part of one PPE kit that needs to be used by healthcare workers, with one worker using a fresh PPE kit at least twice a day. Considering the number of healthcare workers working worldwide to fight against the virus, tons of PPE waste has been generated till date and the reason for worrying here is nothing but the fact that this waste is being added into the waste any normal person generates daily. Hence, apart from management of usual waste generated, PPE waste management is a huge task by itself.

But as every problem can be solved by a solution if given a serious thought, Indian scientists at University of Petroleum and Energy studies (UPES) in Uttarakhand have conducted studies and shown how billions of items of disposable PPE can be converted from its polypropylene state into biofuels - which is known to be at par with standard fossil fuels. As every PPE is one time use, it is discarded every single day; and once these PPE are discarded, they are filled up in bio waste bags which are discharged into the environment which eventually end up in landfills or oceans, as their natural degradation is difficult at ambient temperature. This degradation of PPE will take decades, by which time living on Earth will be the most difficult for every single life on this planet.

Now if given a thought, recycling these polymers might seem like a solution but is difficult as it requires both - physical methods and chemical methods. Reduce, reuse and recycling being the basic foundation pillars of sustainable development, can help to prevent the disposal of plastic in the environment but in case of the current pandemic and the need of PPE, these pillars cannot hold the weight of the tons of waste being generated daily. Hence, Indian scientists have explored the current policies around PPE disposal, the polypropylene content in PPE, and the feasibility of converting PPE into biofuel. Their conclusions call for the PPE waste to be converted into fuel using Pyrolysis - a chemical process for breaking down the plastic at high temperature, between 300-400o C for an hour in absence of oxygen.

What is ‘Pyrolysis’ and how does it work ? :

It is a thermochemical treatment, which can be applied to any carbon based product. It can be done on purely organic products as well as mixtures. In this treatment, the material is exposed to high temperature in absence of oxygen as mentioned above, which goes through chemical and physical separation into different molecules. The limited thermal stability of chemical bonds of materials allows them to be disintegrated by using the heat. Thermal decomposition leads to the formation of new molecules. This allows them to receive products with a different, often more superior character than the original residue.

According to scientists, ‘Pyrolysis’ is the most commonly used chemical method that is used to produce bio-oil as well. With a constant need for alternative fuels and energy resources to meet our daily increasing energy demands, the conversion of PPE and other plastic like waste into biofuel or biocrude can help mitigate our ever increasing energy demands, thus ceasing the energy crisis.

- Rachna Jadhav

@theresilientresearcher