DEVELOPING AND TESTING THE DECONTAMINATION EFFLUENT TREATMENT SYSTEM

摘要

Decontamination operations of personnel, vehicles, and the affected area following a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) attack require large volumes of water. The resulting wash water from these operations will likely contain an unpredictable mixture of toxic and hazardous contaminants alongside sediments, surfactants, soaps, and disinfecting agents such as bleach that threaten human health and the environment. The Army currently has no capability to treat or recycle the effluent from its aqueous-based CBRN decontamination operations. This effluent is very hazardous, and is a major handling and logistical problem and, potentially, a political burden. To address this, the Deployable Treatment of Decontamination Effluent Project was initiated to develop and evaluate technologies and approaches to achieve effective treatment of contaminated wash water. An alpha version of a pilot-scale treatment system, which is called the Decontamination Effluent Treatment System (DETS), was developed for the project.