DAVAO CITY—Nine years ago, local inventor Roderick S. Dayot presented his project Pyroclave, a low-cost thermal processor for the treatment of infectious medical waste, at a regional science and technology fair here.
In 2015, Pyroclave won the Most Outstanding Invention award at the Regional Invention Contest and Exhibit of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). A year later, it was adjudged the Second Most Outstanding Invention at the DOST’s National Invention Contest and Exhibit.
Pyroclave soon got the attention of the World Health Organization (WHO) and landed a slot for a competitive presentation in Silicon Valley, the world’s technology homeland. In 2018, the product received commercial break in Saudi Arabia to treat its medical waste on a national scale.
Today, Dayot’s innovative concept in treating infectious waste from hospitals has come full circle with his new design of a medical waste treatment and processor called Nitro-sterile.
Covid-related waste
MANUFACTURED by Bluelander Environmental Services, a company Dayot founded, Nitro-sterile has been given the green light by the DOST Davao Region to treat medical waste that had piled up due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
To address the problem on medical waste management and disposal, DOST said in a statement that it “[has] partnered with Bluelander Environmental Services, a private company in Davao City that provides affordable and environment-friendly services in medical waste management and treatment to meet the needs of hospitals and clinics.”
“As cases continue to rise, the national and local governments have [doubled their] efforts in promoting mass vaccination to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19. During the vaccination rollouts, tons of Covid-related waste are collected, [with] thousands of syringes and needles thrown away after,” the DOST said.
The company uses a technology called Nitro-sterile, wherein medical waste, such as used syringes and needles, undergo the thermal treatment process through sterilization.
US-patented machine
NITRO-STERILE is a US-patented machine that sterilizes medical waste in an oxygen-free chamber filled with pressurized high temperature nitrogen that disinfects and shreds medical, clinical and pathological wastes into a very fine and unrecognizable material.
Following the sterilization process, the medical waste is disposed to a special waste cell, similar to a sanitary landfill.
“Our machines can reduce the volume of medical waste by 60 percent,” Dayot said.
“By regulation, medical waste is hazardous waste. Even if it is sterilized, you cannot dispose it in any sanitary landfill. It should be [placed] in a special waste cell and cannot be recycled according to RA [Republic Act] 6969 [Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Control Act of 1990],” he said.
Managing medical waste
DAYOT, who is also president of Radicor Solutions, said that “if we manage the medical waste properly, we can prevent the spread of disease.”
Dayot told the BusinessMirror in an e-mail message that “medical waste from the waste generators, such as hospitals, clinics and Covid-19 vaccination centers, are collected by a registered hazardous-waste transporter, [which] goes to a waste treater for proper treatment and disposal.”
“For the present operation, we partnered with [Manila-based] Klad Environmental, a registered waste transporter, to collect the waste in Davao,” he said.
He said Bluelander Environmental Services “is still in the stage of completing the requirements for operation with the DENR-EMB [Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau]” as it targets to operate before the end of 2021.
Environment-friendly technology
“AS the manufacturer of Nitro-sterile, we have machines available for our operations in Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Iloilo, Antique and Silay City in Negros Occidental,” he said.
Six machines are currently used to treat medical waste in different hospitals in Iloilo, Zamboanga and Cagayan de Oro, according to Dayot.
He said the absence of an environment-friendly technology in the medical waste industry inspired him to produce the Nitro-sterile, which has “no burning [involved] and does not produce any odor or emission.”
“This machine replaces other technologies, such as incinerators, autoclaves and microwaves, which are expensive, energy- and water-intensive and dangerous to operators who are near the machine,” Dayot said.
“It is also an affordable technology since it uses nitrogen, an inert gas that is cheap and readily available,” he said.