Development of an Air Transportable, Mixed Caustic Production System

The Missile Defense Agency of the Department of Defense needs to develop a system for the production of mixed-base (MOH) solutions from solid caustics. The MOH will be used to produce mixed-base hydrogen peroxide (MHP), a key reagent in chemical oxygeniodine laser (COIL) systems. Solutions of the three MOH components(LiOH, NaOH, and KOH), are to be prepared in separate solution tanks and then stored either separately or mixed as MOH. The production system must be air-transportable, configured forrapid setup on site, and produce MOH at 1000 kg/hr. In addition, the heat evolved on dissolving the solids must be dissipated. Challenges include provision of easily addressable automatic controls to produce solutions of any desired concentration,deliver them to the MOH tank in any desired sequence, and to achieve an accuracy of 0.5% of the specified formulation. Other challenges are to prevent the dry feedstock from absorbing moisture during storage and transfer, prevent caking while dissolving,and minimize acid gas absorption. Finally, the caustics are hazardous, so particular attention must be paid to dust control, the selection of materials of construction, explosion-proof electromechanicals, redundant key equipment, and emergency facilities.(P-030154) The ability to generate concentrated caustic solutions at remote sites will eliminate the need to transport hazardous liquid caustic. Applications exist in the process industry (oil-fields, superfund sites, waste disposal sites) and military (chemicaland biological decontamination).