Cost-Effective and Safe Methods of Recovering Nitrocellulose from Gun Propellant Formulations

The military is disposing of large quantities of obsolete, unserviceable, and excess gun propellant by incineration processes. Such disposal is no longer considered environmentally acceptable and wastes potentially valuable resources. In keeping with theimpetus toward resource recovery and reuse (R3), the Army is seeking means of extracting components from the propellant wastes for reprocessing. To meet this need, an innovative process, suitable for recovering the main ingredients of triple-baseformulations, is proposed for development. Key features of the process are safety and environmental compatibility. Processing costs are reduced by the use of common, inexpensive industrial solvents, and are expected to be offset by the value of therecovered products and byproducts. Costs associated with conventional disposal of explosive wastes and the long-term maintenance and liability associated with hazardous waste sites will be eliminated. The main objectives of the proposed Phase-I programare to evaluate the feasibility of the process and to generate sufficient data for estimating process costs. (P-020521) In addition to processing other military wastes containing nitrocellulose and amine components, the proposed process will find application in the food, pharmaceutical and coatings industries.