Treatment of M1 and M8 Hydrolysates with Hd/Tetrytol Adapted Immobilized Cell Bioreactors
Abstract
Under U.S. law and the terms of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the U.S. Army is required to destroy its stockpile of 30,000 tons of chemical warfare agents by April 2007. While incineration has been the baseline method used for demilitarization of these materials, public and political opposition lead to the evaluation of alternative technologies, including biodegradation. Hot water hydrolysis followed by biodegradation has been shown to be an effective means of disposing of the blister agent sulfur mustard (HD). The ability of this type of immobilized cell bioreactors (ICB's) to deal with a mixture of hydrolyzed HD and Tetrytol (Tetryl and TNT) was evaluated under the Assembled chemical Weapons Assessment (ACWA) program and shown to be quite promising. The work in this presentation deals with a laboratory-scale examination of the ability of ICB's to deal with the hydrolysates of energetics M1 and M8 after grown on HD/Tetrytol. Two sets of - 600 ml ICB's in series were inoculated with sewage sludge and biomass from a large-scale ICB and fed a mixture of HD and Tetrytol hydrolysates. After establishment of the cultures, the feed was switched to increasing concentrations of either M1 or M8 hydrolysates as a sole carbon source. The ICB effluents were monitored for COD removal, nitrogen and phosphorus levels, suspended solids and aquatic toxicity. The results of the two systems in respect to their ability to make the changeover from HD/Tetrytol to M1 or M8 and other parameters will be compared and discussed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA436028
Entities
People
- Joseph J. Defrank
- Mark A. Guelta
- Mark V. Haley
- Stephen Lupton
Organizations
- Edgewood Chemical Biological Center