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IIM Sirmaur girls' hostel: field-testing a sanitary napkin incinerator

Before selling a single machine, we needed to know how it would behave in a real washroom, used every day by real students. IIM Sirmaur's girls' hostel in Himachal Pradesh became our first field site.

Girls' hostelIIM Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh
Wall-mountedTechlance MAS incinerator with flue pipe
Stage 3Testing and customer feedback, NIDHI PRAYAS

The problem

In most Indian hostels, used sanitary napkins are wrapped in paper and dropped into an open bin. Housekeeping staff carry them out by hand, and the bins are often full, smelly and a source of embarrassment for students. On a hill campus, collection is slower still.

IIM Sirmaur wanted a way for students to dispose of napkins privately, inside the washroom, without anyone having to handle them afterwards.

What we installed

We mounted a Techlance MAS sanitary napkin incinerator on the washroom wall of the girls' hostel, with a flexible steel flue pipe venting outside. Students drop a used napkin in through the front door; a stainless steel chamber burns it at high temperature, and the smoke passes through gas treatment before it leaves the machine. Only a small amount of ash is left for routine cleaning.

Wall-mounted Techlance sanitary napkin incinerator with flue pipe in the girls' hostel washroom at IIM Sirmaur
The MAS unit on the washroom wall, with its flue pipe venting outside.
A student using the Techlance incinerator in the IIM Sirmaur girls' hostel
Field testing with students in the girls' hostel.

Why this site mattered

This installation was part of Stage 3, "Testing and Customer Feedback", of our DST NIDHI PRAYAS project with TIDES, IIT Roorkee. Daily use by students let us check loading, ash removal and safe venting in a real washroom before moving to the production design, which has a front-loading door, a removable ash tray and a start-up timer with a temperature display.

Dr. Prafulla Agnihotri, Director of IIM Sirmaur, with Techlance founders Paras Dhamu and Gaurav Sonawane
Dr. Prafulla Agnihotri, Director of IIM Sirmaur (centre), congratulating Techlance co-founder Paras Dhamu (left) and founder Gaurav Sonawane (right).

What it led to

  • A production design, now sold as the INCI-Nano, INCI-Mini and INCI-Ultra Slim models.
  • Emission and noise testing of the finished unit, with every measured value inside the limits in the test report (see the results).
  • IIM Sirmaur's Director joined Techlance as a mentor for marketing and strategy.
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