Recycling and disposal of munitions and explosives

Abstract

In the Netherlands, demilitarisation research is concentrated at the organisation for applied scientific research TNO. Over 150 years of experience with munitions and explosives of the TNO Prins Maurits Laboratory adds up to the almost 50 years of experience in waste treatment, incineration technology and exhaust cleaning of the TNO Institute of Environmental Sciences, Energy Research and Process Innovation. Starting with the reversed assembly of munitions, followed by the separation of explosives and metal parts, TNO studied possibilities for recycling these components. Metal parts and plastics can be recycled. From our investigations it turned out that controlled combustion is the most mature, promising and universally applicable technique for the disposal of organic explosives that are not suitable for recycling. Controlled combustion makes use of a closed furnace system; most promising for the situation in the Netherlands seems to be the Fluidised Bed OveN (FBO). Additional scrubbing systems (dry chemical/wet) are employed to remove the remaining hazardous products like HCl, SO 2, NO x.