The Potential for Composting Energetic Material Production Wastes.
Abstract
U.S. Army installations that manufacture munitions generate large quantities of energetic material (EM) and solid waste contaminated with energetic material (energetic material-contaminated waste, or EMCW). Disposal of EM and EMCW by open burning or open detonation (OB/OD) has been the practice for many years, but increasingly stringent environmental regulations are curtailing OB/OD operations. Incineration is not extensively used because of the difficulty in siting needed facilities and the negative public perception often associated with incinerators. Other alternatives include controlled incineration, wet air oxidation, super critical water oxidation, and composting. Although composting has been used in some instances for explosive-contaminated soils, it has not been examined for use with munitions production wastes. A literature search showed that many explosives are biodegradable and that some explosive-contaminated soils can also be treated by composting. A potential exists to treat munition production wastes by composting or other biological treatment processes. This study concluded that further investigation is needed to determine and test: (1) the energetic compounds that can be biodegraded, and (2) the conditions under which biological treatment processes can occur. jg p3
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA301671
Entities
People
- Bernard A. Donahue
- James M. Stratta
- Neal R. Adrian
Organizations
- Construction Engineering Research Laboratory