Pilot Plant Testing of Caustic Spray/Hot Gas Building Decontamination Process

摘要

The U.S. Army operates and/or owns ammunition plants and depots involved in the manufacture, processing, loading and storage of pyrotechnic, explosives and propellant (PEP) materials. These operations involve permanent facilities and a variety of process and handling equipment. Many of these facilities are in an inactive or stand-by status and are candidates for excessing operations. In some cases, explosive contaminated structures have significant reuse potential for conversion to other industrial processes. In order to recover these valuable resources, non-destructive decontamination techniques are necessary to eliminate the explosive and toxic hazard of any munition processing wastes. The use of hot gas treatment (with or without caustic spray) appears to be a promising means of decontaminating explosive contaminated buildings. More importantly, this hot gas decontamination process appears to be non-destructive in nature and, therefore, has the potential for rendering treated buildings available for reuse or excessing operations.