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PRION DESTRUCTION. THE BROOKES GASIFICATION PROCESS AS A METHOD FOR DESTROYING PRIONS

The following is a brief description of the Brookes technology and its effectiveness in destroying prions in a potentially infected bio-mass. The system in Brechin, Scotland dealt with 30 month cull bovine and SRM material. The Brookes system is patented and has patents pending in North America, European Union, South America and Asia. patent number is EP 0 815 392 B1. The patent describes the technology and shows basic sketches of the apparatus.

The method that this system uses to destroy prions, and any other organic pathogen, is high temperature. The lowest temperature that the waste mass is exposed to in the Brookes gasification process is 850 C, the temperature dictated by the UK and EU directives for disposing of pathological wastes. Physics tells us that the molecular bonds that hold complex organic structures (like proteins) together will break down at elevated temperatures.

In fact, the temperatures required to break these bonds is actually much lower than 850 C. Only strongly bonded carbon can survive temperatures ranging this high. The Brookes process can essentially guarantee that 100% of all pathogens, including prions, will be broken down and thus destroyed.

The unique efficacy of the Brookes method is based on the fact that not only are the fumes or off-gases from the waste mass exposed to these high temperatures, but the complete mass of the ash residual is also exposed to this extreme heat. No complex organic structure can survive this process either by leaving the system as a gas or by remaining in the waste chamber.

The design dictates that the total waste mass in all its phases will be heated to at least 850 C. The Brookes system is a very stable high resolution oxidation process and is much more efficient than incineration technologies both from an air emissions and an ash residual perspective. Ongoing tests show that air emissions meet EU standards without the need for filters. The ash residual (output product) is a white mineral ash with a carbon content of about 1%. It is basically free of amino acids and thus, free of any proteins including prions. There is no waste water or other effluent with this system.

The Brookes gasification process has been used in the UK and is now being considered for use in European Union countries, as well as North America. The units can be designed for small scale (laboratory) applications or sized up to about 25 tonnes per day of raw material. They can handle dry wastes through to very wet wastes including blood. Multiple units, such as at Brechin Scotland, can be installed for large scale operations.

As an example, the system installed in the U.K. for the BSE cull was designed to pump macerated whole animals into the Brookes Gasification units. This evolved into an efficient system for the safe disposal of biohazard waste and was modified to dispose of bovine carcasses under the UK program to eradicate BSE in cattle. Two further advancements have been the continuous feed and the dual chamber mobile unit. The later has been developed to process up to 25 tons per day to destroy contaminated agricultural biomass. The farmer was designed to process manure, sludge, meat and bone meal, and other similar materials. Once this machine reaches a “steady state” the primary burners can be turned off and the process continues on its own using the feedstock as the fuel.

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