SOIL SLURRY BIOREACTORS FOR ORDNANCE COMPOUNDS

Disposal of explosives waste residues is an ongoing problem for federal and private manufacturers of ordnance containing these chemicals. The need for new disposal technology has been heightened by discovery of ordnance compounds in soils and groundwaters at military sites across the United States. To prevent further contamination from improperly stored munitions wastes and industrial waste streams, and to remediate environments already contaminated by ordnance compounds, improved treatment processes must be developed for nitro-substituted chemicals. Recent work at the University of Idaho by the founders of Innovative BioSystems, Incorporated (IBS) has shown complete degradation of TNT and RDX to innocuous products under strictly anaerobic conditions. Conditions for fermentative degradation of TNT and RDX have been optimized using anaerobic soil slurries. Using this and other available information, IBS will design soil slurry bioreactors for the bioremediation of soils contaminated with high levels of TNT and RDX. IBS will perform a survey of existing data and identify and analyze results from previously performed studies of TNT/RDX biodegradation. Contacts with the Army and Argonne National Laboratory will be established in order to obtain information already generated from their efforts. IBS will also prepare preliminary designs for aerobic and anaerobic soil slurry bioreactors.