Portuguese company in the winning project of the EUREKA Innovation Award 2013

Ambimed, a Portuguese company dedicated to integrated hospital waste management, is one of the partners in the project that won this year's EUREKA Innovation Award. Led by a Spanish company, Athisa, the OMIM project has developed a clean medical waste treatment system with major advantages over conventional incineration and autoclaving systems, which consume large quantities of fossil fuels. The MIMO system combines mechanical (grinding and shredding) and chemical (oxidation and stabilization) treatments to treat three types of medical waste: infectious waste (such as blood, syringes and scalpels), waste from cancer treatments and other pharmaceutical waste (such as expired drugs). The system costs 75% less to build than an incineration plant, has half the operating costs, and processes four times more toxic waste per hour than an incinerator. The first plant is being built in Casablanca, Morocco, and there is already interest from the Turkish authorities and plans to expand to Vietnam and Algeria in the near future.

EUREKA is a platform for companies with R&D activities, made up of 39 countries. It promotes international, market-oriented research and innovation through support for companies, universities and research centers. In Portugal, FCT has taken over participation in the platform, which was previously the responsibility of AdI.