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APPLICATION OF ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE U.S. CHEMICAL WEAPONS 191 STOCKPILE Both these oxidation processes can treat all three agents. Both are expected to be capable of treating a slurry of finely divided energetics if care is exercised in the control of feed rates. Some mechanical addition to the disassembly process would be required to remove and make a slurry of the energetics. Their removal from containers is not expected to be complete, so some energetics residues would still need to be destroyed in a metal deactivation process as in the baseline system. SCWO could also oxidize gaseous products from pyrolysis or other processes and is an alternative to the combustion variations discussed later. It has the disadvantage of requiring gas compression to 3,000 psi; however, it offers a high conversion efficiency. Application of these processes to chemical agents would still require a problem-solving pilot plant stage. The high operating pressure will call for appropriate confinement, as in industrial operations. Current baseline facilities are remotely operated and designed for energetics explosions and capture of agent released inadvertently. The high-pressure oxidation process might call for some extension of these safeguards. High-Temperature, Low-Pressure Pyrolysis As shown in Table 8-1, many high-temperature pyrolysis and oxidation processes are capable of treating all major stockpile components (agent, energetics, and metal). High temperatures are required to decontaminate metal parts and ignite and destroy energetics (see Chapter 5). These temperatures should be sufficient to ignite energetics and to achieve the equivalent of the 5X criterion (treatment at 1000°F for 15 minutes) for metal decontamination. Kilns with electrical heating can meet these requirements and avoid dependence on the internal firing now used. This approach has the advantage of reducing total flue gas volume. However, air (or oxygen) must be supplied to oxidize unburned pyrolysis products, a step that can be achieved within the kiln or in a secondary burner. An afterburner would be needed to ensure complete oxidation. Variations of this system can accept ton containers as well as energetics and small metal parts. Plasma arc and molten metal processes use electrical heat and operate at higher temperatures under oxygen- deficient conditions. They generally introduce air to burn the products resulting from the initial pyrolysis but still require an afterburner. In principle both can handle chemical warfare agents, fragmented energetics, and metal parts. The molten metal system would be expected to handle a larger range of material sizes than do the plasma arc systems.
