Alternative Technologies for the Destruction of Chemical Agents and Munitions (1993)
Chapter: CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF AGENTS AND THEIR BREAKDOWN PRODUCTS
operations that allow the transport of partially decontaminated wastes to other sites for full decontamination;
general factors governing the probable applicability of any untested alternative technology to the destruction of waste streams and the decontamination of weapons and other metal parts;
current monitoring capability for detecting residual chemical agent, including its methodology, accuracy, and time requirements;
effluent retention time requirements and related process shutdown time requirements to certify the safety of effluents before their release to the environment;
issues of development time and costs; and
assessment criteria for alternative technologies.
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF AGENTS AND THEIR BREAKDOWN PRODUCTS
Chemical agents in the U.S. stockpile are composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), phosphorus (P), and sulfur (S). All these elements will be present in the waste streams, in type and quantity corresponding to agent inputs, independent of the choice of destruction technology. Most of the technologies that might be used would ultimately yield fully oxidized products, as discussed below, with the heteroatoms (noncarbon atoms F, Cl, S, and P) in the form of stable salts. For some alternative technologies, the final waste stream would be identical to that of the current baseline incineration technology.
A number of either low-or high-temperature oxidation processes could oxidize carbon atoms to carbon dioxide (CO2) gas; this CO2 could be incorporated in a salt such as calcium carbonate. Biological reactions could be used to incorporate the carbon in a form of sewage sludge or a thermal reaction could be used to form both CO2 and a tar or char suitable for disposal. In one special process (see Chapter 7), a reaction with sulfur vapor would form a carbon-sulfur equivalent of a solid char. The release of intermediate organic compounds to the liquid or gaseous waste streams at concentrations above those set by regulatory standards would be unacceptable.
Ideally, all hydrogen would be fully oxidized to water. The water would be released along with the CO2 from the stack or it could be condensed, purified, and recycled. Solid organic compounds in any sewage sludge produced would also contain hydrogen.
The amount of oxygen present in the chemical agent is less than that required to fully oxidize the carbon and hydrogen atoms. It is assumed to appear as CO2, water, a carbonate or in solid organic compounds in disposable sludge.
