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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
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Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities

Committee on Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program

Board on Army Science and Technology

Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems

National Research Council

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
×

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20418

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance.

This is a report of work supported by Contract DAAD19-00-C-0009 between the U.S. Army and the National Academy of Sciences. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

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Additional copies are available from:

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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

The National Academy of Sciences

National Academy of Engineering

Institute of Medicine

National Research Council

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. William A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. William A. Wulf are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
×

COMMITTEE ON REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF THE ARMY CHEMICAL STOCKPILE DISPOSAL PROGRAM

DAVID S. KOSSON, chair,

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee

CHARLES E. KOLB, vice chair,

Aerodyne Research, Inc., Billerica, Massachusetts

DAVID H. ARCHER,

Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

PIERO M. ARMENANTE,

New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark

DENNIS C. BLEY,

Buttonwood Consulting, Inc., Oakton, Virginia

JERRY L.R. CHANDLER,

George Mason University, McLean, Virginia

FRANK P. CRIMI,

Lockheed Martin (retired), Saratoga, California

J. ROBERT GIBSON,

DuPont Life Sciences, Wilmington, Delaware

MICHAEL R. GREENBERG,

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick

KATHRYN E. KELLY,

Delta Toxicology, Crystal Bay, Nevada

PETER B. LEDERMAN,

New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark

JAMES F. MATHIS,

Exxon Corporation (retired), Houston, Texas

CHARLES I. McGINNIS, consultant,

Charlottesville, Virginia

CHARLES F. REINHARDT,

DuPont Company (retired), Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania (since 1/5/00)

H. GREGOR RIGO,

Rigo & Rigo Associates, Inc., Berea, Ohio (until 3/6/00)

KOZO SAITO,

University of Kentucky, Lexington

W. LEIGH SHORT,

URS Greiner Woodward-Clyde (retired), Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

ARNOLD F. STANCELL,

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

STEVEN R. TANNENBAUM,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

CHADWICK A. TOLMAN,

National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia

WILLIAM TUMAS,

Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico

Board on Army Science and Technology Liaison

RICHARD A. CONWAY,

Union Carbide Corporation (retired), Charleston, West Virginia

Staff

DONALD L. SIEBENALER, study director

HARRISON T. PANNELLA, program officer

WILLIAM E. CAMPBELL, senior project assistant

DANIEL E. J. TALMAGE, JR., senior project assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
×

BOARD ON ARMY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

WILLIAM H. FORSTER, chair,

Northrop Grumman Corporation, Baltimore, Maryland

THOMAS L. MCNAUGHER, vice chair,

RAND Corporation, Washington, D.C. (until 12/31/99)

ELIOT A. COHEN,

Johns Hopkins University, Washington D.C.

RICHARD A. CONWAY,

Union Carbide Corporation (retired), Charleston, West Virginia

GILBERT F. DECKER,

Walt Disney Imagineering, Glendale, California

LAWRENCE J. DELANEY,

Delaney Group, Potomac, Maryland (until 12/31/99)

PATRICK F. FLYNN,

Cummins Engine Company, Columbus, Indiana

EDWARD J. HAUG,

University of Iowa, Iowa City

ROBERT J. HEASTON,

Guidance and Control Information Analysis Center (retired), Naperville, Illinois

ELVIN R. HEIBERG, III,

Heiberg Associates, Inc., Mason Neck, Virginia (until 2/29/00)

GERALD J. IAFRATE,

University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana

DONALD R. KEITH, consultant,

Alexandria, Virginia

KATHRYN V. LOGAN,

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

JOHN E. MILLER,

Oracle Corporation, Reston, Virginia

JOHN H. MOXLEY III,

Korn/Ferry International, Los Angeles, California

STEWART D. PERSONICK,

Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

MILLARD F. ROSE,

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama

GEORGE T. SINGLEY III,

Hicks & Associates, McLean, Virginia

CLARENCE G. THORNTON,

Army Research Laboratories (retired), Colts Neck, New Jersey

JOHN D. VENABLES,

Venables and Associates, Towson, Maryland

JOSEPH J. VERVIER,

ENSCO, Inc., Melbourne, Florida

ALLEN C. WARD,

Ward Synthesis, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan

Staff

BRUCE A. BRAUN, director

MICHAEL A. CLARKE, associate director

CHRIS JONES, financial associate

DEANNA SPARGER, senior project assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
×

Preface

The United States has maintained a stockpile of chemical warfare agents and munitions for more than half a century. In 1985, Public Law 99-145 mandated an “expedited” effort to dispose of M55 rockets containing unitary chemical warfare agents because of their potential for self-ignition. This program soon expanded into the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (CSDP), whose mission is to eliminate the entire stockpile of unitary chemical weapons. The CSDP developed the baseline incineration system for that purpose. Since 1987, the National Research Council (NRC), through the Committee on Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (Stockpile Committee), has provided technical and scientific advice and counsel to the Army's disposal program. In 1992, after setting several intermediate goals and dates, Congress enacted Public Law 102-484, which directed the Army to dispose of the entire stockpile of unitary chemical warfare agents and munitions by December 31, 2004. In 1994, the committee endorsed the baseline incineration system as an adequate technology for destroying the stockpile.

In the 1970s, the Army commissioned studies of different disposal technologies and tested several of them. In 1982, the Army selected incineration as the method it would use for the disposal of agents and associated propellants and explosives and the thermal decontamination of metal parts. In 1984, the NRC Committee on Demilitarizing Chemical Munitions and Agents reviewed a range of disposal technologies and endorsed the Army's selection of incineration. Since then, in response to public concerns about incineration and the evolution of other technologies, the NRC has also carried out several evaluations of alternative disposal technologies (Alternative Technologies for the Destruction of Chemical Agents and Munitions [1993], Review and Evaluation of Alternative Chemical Disposal Technologies [1996], and Review and Evaluation of Alternative Technologies for Demilitarization of Assembled Chemical Weapons [1999]). These reports recommended the development of chemical detoxification technologies for use at the two stockpile sites (Aberdeen, Maryland, and Newport, Indiana) where only bulk chemical agent (i.e., no energetically configured munitions) is stored.

The Army's selected nonincineration technologies for the Aberdeen, Maryland, and Newport, Indiana, stockpile sites both use chemical hydrolysis (reaction with alkaline water at elevated temperatures) to destroy chemical agent. The hydrolysis process is followed by either biodegradation (for treatment of mustard hydrolysis products at Aberdeen) or supercritical water oxidation (for destruction of VX hydrolysis products at Newport) to comply with requirements of the Chemical Weapons Convention and with U.S. environmental regulations. The development of these processes required extensive laboratory, bench-scale, and pilot-scale testing of individual processing steps to support engineering designs for the complete, integrated processes.

The Stockpile Committee has been evaluating the engineering process designs for integrating the individual processing steps for each site in parallel with the finalization of these designs by the Army and its contractors. In this report, the committee began with the design documents used by the Army as a basis for selecting final design contractors. Additional test data and design modifications suggested by the final design contractors were also reviewed as they became available through documentation and briefings. The committee 's objective is not to provide a detailed, comprehensive design review of the processes, but to assess the integration of processing steps, analyze major design changes, and identify overarching issues that should be addressed to enhance safety and efficacy.

The committee greatly appreciates the support and assistance of NRC staff members, Donald L. Siebenaler, Harrison T. Pannella, William E. Campbell, Daniel E.J. Talmage Jr., and Carol R. Arenberg, in the production of this report.

David S. Kosson, chair

Charles E. Kolb, vice chair

Committee on Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
×

Acknowledgments

This report has been reviewed by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council's Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the authors and the NRC in making the published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The contents of the review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their participation in the review of this report:

Homi C. Bhedwar, E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company

Thomas B. Brill, University of Delaware

David H. Johnson, EQE International, Inc.

Edwin N. Lightfoot, Jr., University of Wisconsin

Cecil Lue-Hing, consultant

Dan Luss, University of Houston

George W. Parshall, E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company

Donald R. Paul, University of Texas

Harrison Shull, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School

Thomas G. Spiro, University of British Columbia

Douglass F. Taber, University of Delaware

Jefferson W. Tester, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Arthur W. Westerberg, Carnegie Mellon University

While the individuals listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, responsibility for the final content of this report rests solely with the authoring committee and the NRC.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
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This page in the original is blank.
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
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Page xiii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
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Figures and Tables

Figures

 2-1

 

Basic component processes in the ADP for the ABCDF,

 

7

 2-2

 

Basic component processes in the ADP for the NECDF,

 

8

 6-1

 

Timing of risk management activities,

 

23

 A-1

 

Simplified flow diagram for the ABCDF,

 

30

 A-2

 

ADP VOC treatment system, wetted-wall evaporation followed by ultraviolet radiation and liquid-phase carbon adsorption,

 

33

 A-3

 

Current VOC treatment system, air stripping followed by gas-phase carbon adsorption,

 

34

 B-1

 

Simplified flow diagram for the NECDF,

 

37

Tables

 3-1

 

Preliminary Results of Corrosion Testing with Noble Metals and Superalloys,

 

14

 A-1

 

Process Inputs for HD/Water Neutralization with Biodegradation,

 

31

 A-2

 

Process Outputs for HD/Water Neutralization with Biodegradation,

 

32

 A-3

 

Volume of Off-Gas,

 

35

 B-1

 

Process Inputs for VX Neutralization/Posttreatment,

 

38

 B-2

 

Process Outputs for VX Neutralization/Posttreatment,

 

39

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
×

Acronyms

ABCDF

Aberdeen Chemical Agent Disposal Facility

ACWA

Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment

ADP

acquisition design package

CWC

Chemical Weapons Convention

EST

engineering-scale test

GC

gas chromatography

HD

distilled mustard

HE

hazard evaluation

HPLC

high-performance liquid chromatography

HRA

health risk assessment

HVAC

heating, ventilation, and air conditioning

ITMS

ion-trap mass spectrometry

MOC

material(s) of construction

MS

mass spectroscopy

MSD

mass selective detection

MSZ

magnesia-stabilized zirconia

NECDF

Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility

NMR

nuclear magnetic resonance

NRC

National Research Council

PMCD

Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization

ppb

parts per billion

QRA

quantitative risk assessment

RCRA

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

SBR

sequencing biological reactor

SCWO

supercritical water oxidation

SWEC

Stone and Webster Engineering Company

TDG

thiodiglycol

VOC

volatile organic compound

VX

a nerve agent

YSZ

yttria-stabilized zirconia

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2000. Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9859.
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The U.S. Army is pilot testing chemical hydrolysis as a method for destroying the chemical agents stockpiled at Aberdeen, Maryland (HD mustard agent), and Newport, Indiana (VX nerve agent). The chemical agents at both locations, which are stored only in bulk ton containers, will be hydrolyzed (using aqueous sodium hydroxide for VX and water for HD) at slightly below the boiling temperature of the solution. The resulting hydrolysate at Aberdeen, which will contain thiodiglycol as the primary reaction product, will be treated by activated sludge biodegradation in sequencing batch reactors to oxidize organic constituents prior to discharge to an on-site federally owned wastewater treatment facility. The hydrolysate at Newport, which will contain a thiol amine and methyl phosphonic acid as the major reaction products, is not readily amenable to treatment by biodegradation. Therefore, organic constituents will be treated using supercritical water oxidation (SCWO).

Integrated Design of Alternative Technologies for Bulk-Only Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities focuses on the overarching issues in the process designs integrating individual processing steps, including potential alternative configurations and process safety and reliability. This report reviews the acquisition design packages (ADPs) for the ABCDF and NECDF prepared by Stone and Webster Engineering Company for the U.S. Army.

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