Abstract: An infectious waste treatment system and method for decontaminating infectious waste employ a thermal friction extruder in which first and second interleaved counter-rotatable augers include reverse pitch flight sections that urge waste material in a direction opposite to that of the flow stream and into engagement with the back sides of friction plates. This increases the amount of heat generated by the extruder. The reverse pitch flight sections can be selectively replaced with forward pitch flight sections to control the amount of heat imparted to the waste material by the friction plates.

Abstract: An infectious waste treatment system and method for decontaminating infectious waste employ a thermal friction extruder (20) in which first and second interleaved counter-rotatable augers (40, 42) driven by a variable speed motor include reverse pitch flight sections (62, 72) that urge waste material in a direction opposite to that of the flow stream and into engagement with the back sides of friction plates (50, 52). This increases the amount of heat generated by the extruder. The reverse pitch flight sections can be selectively replaced with forward pitch flight sections to control the amount of heat imparted to the waste material by the friction plates.

Abstract: An infectious waste treatment system and method for decontaminating infectious waste employ a thermal friction extruder (20) in which first and second interleaved counter-rotatable augers (40, 42) include reverse pitch flight sections (62, 72) that urge waste material in a direction opposite to that of the flow stream and into engagement with the back sides of friction plates (50, 52). This increases the amount of heat generated by the extruder. The reverse pitch flight sections can be selectively replaced with forward pitch flight sections to control the amount of heat imparted to the waste material by the friction plates.

Abstract: A thermal desorption system for treating and/or removing contaminants from various types of materials employs an induction tube furnace to heat the material to a high enough temperature to completely desorb it. The induction tube furnace includes a metal or metal alloy susceptor tube for containing the material to be treated and at least one induction coil surrounding the tube for heating the same. The susceptor tube is formed from a metal or metal alloy, such as a nickel based alloy, having a very high melting temperature which will allow it to be heated by the induction coil to temperatures as high as 1800.degree. F. The metal or metal alloy also has a relatively high electrical resistance to permit efficient magnetic coupling of energy from the induction coil to the tube, as well as a relatively high thermal conductivity to provide efficient heat transfer from the tube to the material to be treated.