Supercritical water oxidation of colored smoke, dye, and pyrotechnic compositions. Final report: Pilot plant conceptual design

Abstract

The existing demilitarization stockpile contains large quantities of colored smoke, spotting dye, and pyrotechnic munitions. For many years, these munitions have been stored in magazines at locations within the continental United States awaiting completion of the life-cycle. The open air burning of these munitions has been shown to produce toxic gases that are detrimental to human health and harmful to the environment. Prior efforts to incinerate these compositions have also produced toxic emissions and have been unsuccessful. Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) is a rapidly developing hazardous waste treatment method that can be an alternative to incineration for many types of wastes. The primary advantage SCWO affords for the treatment of this selected set of obsolete munitions is that toxic gas and particulate emissions will not occur as part of the effluent stream. Sandia is currently designing a SCWO reactor for the US Army Armament Research, Development & Engineering Center (ARDEC) to destroy colored smoke, spotting dye, and pyrotechnic munitions. This report summarizes the design status of the ARDEC reactor. Process and equipment operation parameters, process flow equations or mass balances, and utility requirements for six wastes of interest are developed in this report. Two conceptual designs are also developed withmore » all process and instrumentation detailed.« less