Dante

 I've written here and there about how much time and energy (mental and physical) that we spend on incineration. It is an unlovely but super important part of running a veterinary pathology unit. Once we are finished with our tests, we of course allow for remains of smaller animals to be handed over to a private cremation company so the ashes can be returned to their owners. But there is still a lot of material that has to be handled here on site. Last year we incinerated 66,500 pounds, going through more than 6,000 gallons of propane in the process. 

Because the diagnostic laboratory is part of the state Department of Agriculture, we are regularly asked by colleagues and other state agencies to incinerate things for them. Don't get wound up here, those requests involve contraband food and plants for the most part. But we also incinerate flocks of backyard poultry that are depopulated because they are infected with HPAI (the depopulations are handled by another agency in the department). Last year we also incinerated a few dozen pigs that were euthanized because they were infected with brucellosis. 

We got a new incinerator in the fall of 2024. The old unit was woefully underpowered for even our small lab, and we managed to literally burn it up. Not like flames shooting out the top but we ran it way outside its designed parameters until everything failed. The new unit is magnificent. The loading door opens with hydraulics. There is a scoop bucket (like on a front loader), also on hydraulics, that drops the load into the lower chamber. We had a few hiccups in the first few months of operation, like discovering that the lower chamber ran so hot that it expanded the fluid in the hydraulic arms, pushing the loading lid open a centimeter or so during burns. This let in too much oxygen and really messed with efficiency. The manufacturer came out and installed two custom-welded clamps on the lid. Problem solved!

Of course I keep insanely detailed records of usage and performance. I shared that with the manufacturer and they were over the moon--they build and test their units, and of course they visit their clients for repairs and annual preventative maintenance, but they rarely get such a detailed look at performance over such a long period of time. 

I named the new incinerator Dante. Here he is in operation. The small door covers a portal into which we insert long tools that we use to stoke the load during a burn (basically, move the material around). At the time this picture was taken, the lower chamber was around 1680F. 

Being a veterinary pathologist in a small state diagnostic lab involves a lot more than just doing necropsies. I also have to be an engineer/electrician/physicist to stay on top of how Dante works and how to troubleshoot problems.