Medical wastes from hospital water discharge treated successfully on a pilot basis, to prevent the development of antibiotic resistant strains

Challenge

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), a Govt. of India agency has issued guidelines to provide ETPs at every healthcare facility to treat wastewater generated in order to compy with the effluent standards prescribed under the Bio-Medical Waste Management (BMWM) rules, 2016.

Hospital wastewater is highly contaminated owing to its use in various areas, including patient wards, surgery units, clinical wards, ICU, kitchens and laundries. Because of the high antibiotic content in the wastewater, there is potential for antibiotics to get into people’s bodies, creating health issues. There is also potential for antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria to develop.

Hence, there are initiatives in every state to establish the ETPs to be built at govetnmetn hospitals. Orissa has also embarked on this initiative and invited us to demonstrate on a pilot basis what can be achieved.

Solution

Nanotechnology to filter out biomedical wastes

The main objective of our solutioning was to to eliminate as much suspended solids and organic matter as possible before the wastewater is released into the environment. As a first step, we collected samples from different hospitals as per the category.

In the lab, we identified that the main contaminants that need to be addressed are analgesics, antibiotics, β-blockers and X-ray contrast media. We designed water treatment protocols involving filtering of sediments, acid–base neutralization and autoclaving.

Outcome

The treated hospital wastewater in the pilot had:

pH of 5.5 – 9.0
BOD5 [mg/L] < 350
COD [mg/L]<250
SS [mg/L]<600

This showcased that our solution had the potential to attain the world class standards for the treatment of biomedical wastes, preventing the seepage of harmful wastes into the environment