Effluents from Alternative Demilitarization Technologies

This text assesses a broad range of effluents (process residues) from a selection of worldwide technologies that have been proposed as alternatives to incineration for the remediation and destruction of chemical warfare agents and associated mat riel. Treatment of metal parts and explosive or energetic materials are considered. The alternative technologies are grouped into three categories, based on process bulk operating temperature: low (0-200`C), medium (200-600`C) and high (600-3500`C). Reaction types considered include neutralization, biodegradation, hydrolysis, electrochemical oxidation, supercritical water oxidation, wet air oxidation, plasma reactions, gasification, hydrogenation, pyrolysis, and many more. These categories include a broad spectrum of processes, some of which have been studied only in the laboratory and some of which are in commercial use for the destruction of hazardous and toxic wastes. The book should provide engineers and decision makers with an understanding of the waste management issues and environmental permit status of alternative technologies.