IMPROVED PROCESS FOR THE NON-INCINERATION DECONTAMINATION OF MATERIALS CONTAINING HAZARDOUS AGENTS

摘要

A process for the low temperature, non-incineration decontamination of contaminated materials, such as chemical weapon components (10) containing residual quantities of chemical warfare agents. The process includes the steps of (a) preparing a feed mixture (11) containing the chemical weapon components (10) and organic materials; (b) contacting the feed mixture (11) with steam; (c) removing condensible and non-condensible gases from the first heated vessel (12) and heating them in a second vessel (18) at substantially ambient pressures to temperatures of at least about 500 C; and (d) catalytically treating non-condensible gases from the second vessel (18) in the presence of oxygen.