Biomedical waste : Clayton Industries steam solution facilitates 25% faster biomedical waste management
An old boiler in use at a Canadian medical waste facility in Brampton, Ontario, was hampering productivity by not allowing steam to come in fast enough to satisfy the autoclave. With sterilization cycle time taking an unacceptable 60 to 75 minutes to complete, it was time to replace it. Their search led them to a company that engineered a new steam solution, significantly improving the efficiency and productivity of their waste management operations.
“Our Ontario location is the busiest in North America volume-wise. We just recently secured a very large contract. Had we still been operating with the old boiler system, running 20 autoclave-cycles-a-day would’ve pushed us beyond capacity. That would've created another big issue: the costly transfer of biomedical waste to other locations", Daniel Kennedy, CEO of Daniels Health Canada (biomedical waste management) says.
Kennedy continued, “Clayton Industries’ solution shaved off 10-15 minutes from each cycle. Multiply that by 20 cycles a day, and it frees up 5 hours a day, which gives us the capacity to handle increased volumes without the need to transfer waste.”
The boiler is the company’s lifeline. No steam, no production. The boiler system has to be dependable and provide maximum uptime.
Daniels Health has a large pressure vessel where they sterilize biomedical waste. It requires a certain steam pressure and high temperature. The problem was that their current boiler – a horizontal coiled tube boiler – wouldn’t allow steam to come in fast enough to satisfy the autoclave, which resulted in the sterilization cycle time taking 60 to 75 minutes to complete. That was too long.
As a result, productivity wasn’t where it needed to be. Plus, the long cycle time was taxing on the boiler, which meant high maintenance costs and expensive downtime.
The Clayton team determined Daniels needed a boiler and a steam accumulator that would produce maximum steam in the shortest time possible. The accumulator stores energy in the form of water, which flashes to steam quickly.
Clayton’s regional sales manager Ron Polidori explained, “With the accumulator being ‘charged and ready,’ it can provide the autoclave with steam on-demand as needed, literally in seconds.”
Daniels CEO Kennedy expressed reservations because they had tried accumulators in the past and had mixed and inconsistent results. But Clayton knew it was the right answer. They just had to find a custom solution that would ensure optimal operation. Clayton's steam expert, industry partners, and the engineer from the accumulator manufacturer met and designed a system they knew would work.
Their solution? A Clayton SigmaFire SF200 Boiler with 200 HP and 300 PSIG, feedwater tank – and the accumulator they had evaluated and approved. The cycle time with the old boiler took up to 75 minutes. With the efficiencies of the new boiler and accumulator, the autoclave cycle time was reduced down to 55 minutes. Daniels Health began operating 25% faster.
Usually, management wouldn’t call it “fortunate” when a boiler needs replacing. But for Daniels Health in Brampton, Ontario, the efficiency they gained with Clayton’s recommended solution, made this an exception.
Daniels Health was founded in Australia 30 years ago with a mission to reduce incidents of sharps injuries from medical waste handling in healthcare. “Sharps” is a medical term for devices with sharp points or edges that can puncture or cut skin, such as needles and syringes. Daniels offers a full-service schedule for sharps, RMW, pharmaceutical, chemotherapy, RCRA Hazardous, and USP 800 classified waste.