Carpenter, William K.2014-03-142014-03-141992-12-14etd-05112010-020210http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42615The design and development of a system for disinfecting medical waste at the site of origin is presented. Investigation of the current commercial systems that accomplish this task shows that they all expose the waste to physical conditions that are harmful to all forms of life. Further, most are very expensive to install and to operate. A recently developed biochemical process promises to effectively inactivate harmful pathogenic organisms economically and without the danger of extreme heat or poisonous chemicals. The biochemical process is not yet fully developed. Nonetheless, the development of a marketable system to take advantage of this technology has been initiated. The motivation for developing this technology and the particular system that will employ it is presented. A general overview of the system and components is presented. Previous and suggested future testing strategies are explained. Component interactions and process control are described.viii, 109 leavesBTDapplication/pdfenIn CopyrightLD5655.V855 1992.C376BioremediationHazardous waste sitesMedical wastesThesishttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05112010-020210/