Analysis of Engineering Design Studies for Demilitarization of Assembled Chemical Weapons at Blue Grass Army Depot (2002) / Chapter Skim
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2 Hydrolysis Tests of Energetic Materials
2 Hydrolysis Tests of Energetic Materials
Pages 22-32
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From page 22... ...
Caustic hydrolysis decomposes energetic materials to organic and inorganic salts, soluble organic compounds, and various gaseous effluents. Partial hydrolysis of some energetic materials, particularly materials with aromatic ring systems, may lead to ill-defined oligomeric materials with low solubility in either water or organic solvents.
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From page 23... ...
for the pilot phase for the Pueblo Chemical Agent Disposal Facility scheduled in August of 2001 and for the Blue Grass Chemical Agent Disposal Facility scheduled in August 2002; define a hydrolysis process that is safe and environmentally compliant, and that will efficiently produce hydrolysates of energetic materials recovered from the various chemical munitions during the disassembly process. produce hydrolysates that will be ready for post-treatment processing using such technologies as SCWO, big-reactor, etc.
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From page 24... ...
The tests involving Composition B-4, M1 propellant, M28 propellant, and the mixture of Composition B-4 and M28 propellants all used a 50-lb/hr feed rate during the first hour, 100 lb/hr during the second hour, 150 lb~r during the third hour, and 200 lb/l~r during the fourth hour, for a total of 500 pounds of energetic material per run. However, for the tetrytol runs, the addition phase lasted only 3 hours and the total mass was only 350 pounds per run, because of the limited availability of tetrytol.
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From page 25... ...
The batch samples were collected over the entire duration of each run, and the single value reported represents the average concentration for the whole run. At the conclusion of each test run, the interior surfaces of the reactor were visually inspected and samples of residue collected and analyzed.
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From page 26... ...
, the energetic components were reduced to products that no longer posed an explosion hazard. Although the operational parameters, such as base concentration and agitation rate, were varied only minimally, the tests demonstrated that the destruction of the energetic materials could be carried out at a rate consistent with that of other unit operations in the applicable technology packages and under conditions that permitted control of the rate of heat release of the hydrolysis reaction.
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From page 27... ...
As was the case with Composition B-4, some energetic materials were detected in the offgases during the addition phase, but none of these persisted throughout the run. No energetic materials were found in the offgases during the postaddition reaction phase.
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From page 28... ...
Mixed M28 Prope//ant and Composition B-4 Run The mixed M28 propellant and Composition B-4 produced offgases that were the combined results of the separate treatment of the two energetic materials. The evolution of N2O was high during the addition phase (peak of ~12,000 ppm)
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From page 29... ...
Instead, the sheets were added to the caustic solution manually, bypassing the loss-inweight feeder. RESULTS OF THE TEST PROGRAM AT LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY The studies at LANL were designed to provide complementary data on the hydrolysis reaction of energetic materials under similar conditions to those employed at HAAP.
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From page 30... ...
From the midrun concentrations of picric acid in the tetrytol runs, it appears that the formation of picrate decreases with increasing base concentration. This observation, and the nonzero values of picric acid in the end-of-run hydrolysate samples for runs 16 and 17, would lead one to expect to find some picrate remaining in the hydrolysate at the end of run 15.
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From page 31... ...
If a comprehensive inspection of the stockpile at Blue Grass reveals that some of the bursters contain tetryl, then it will be necessary for the technology providers to employ disassembly processes that keep the rocket propellant segregated from the burster explosive. SUMMARY ASSESSMENT The EDS energetics hydrolysis test program was instituted to address the ACW I Committee's concerns about the hydrolysis of energetic materials.
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From page 32... ...
EM-2. Results from the energetics hydrolysis test program have shown that hydrolysis rates are consistent with the proposed throughput rates necessary to meet the current disposal destruction schedule for the Blue Grass stockpile.
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