A NUMERICAL MODEL STUDY OF THERMALLY TREATING MUSTARD TON CONTAINERS

摘要

A significant amount of mustard chemical weapons agent is stored at US chemical stockpiles in ton containers (TCs). The baseline demilitarization method originally planned for these ton containers is to drain to a 5% residual then thermally treat the ton containers in the metal parts furnace (MPF). However, many of the mustard ton containers cannot be drained to the baseline 5% residual level because they contain a solid heel. Hence, there is a need to quantify the required MPF residence time as a function of heel depth that would be needed to melt the solid heel, vaporize and destroy the subsequent liquid agent, decontaminate the metal containers. A numerical model has been developed to provide an estimate of the required processing times. The results of the study are presented in this paper.