Development of an Integrated Reclamation Process for Explosives

1The current practice of disposal of propellant wastes by open pit burning is of increasing enviromental concern. However, no economica viable alternatives have yet been proven. The ARCTECH proposed approach is to develop an integrated technology combining leaching of the waste reclamation of ammunium perchlorate (and possibly aluminum too), followed by degradative decontamination treatment of the resultant organic residue via biological composting. The general scope of work is to optimize the critical processing steps (crystal lization and drying), which would allow recovery of ammonium perchlorate as a high specification ordnance grade, and to establish whether composting will allow safe land disposal. Laboratory scale experiments are proposed, using pure emmonium perchlorate solutions for investigation of crystallization/drying behavior, and pure organic binder for the composting studies. Evaluation and analysis of the products obtained from each experiment will be performed. Preliminary economics of the integrated scheme will be etablished.