Innovative Technology Development for Comprehensive Air Quality Characterization from Soil-Covered Open Detonation of Military Munitions

WP-2233

Objective

For many decades, U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Installations, especially demilitarization facilities and Army Ammunition Plants, have used Open Burning/Open Detonation (OB/OD) as a safe, effective, and economic method for munitions demilitarization. DoD installations are required to comply with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to operate OB/OD facilities. RCRA permits provide annual limits on the amount of energetic materials that can be disposed of at OB/OD facilities. The permit limitations are based on human health risk assessments that include evaluation of risk from airborne exposure to emissions generated from OB/OD. For a few decades, the U.S. Army Defense Ammunition Center (DAC) and the demilitarization community have developed emission factors based on field and “bang box” data and recently submitted these emission factors as an AP-42 package for EPA approval.

Independent from the AP-42 process, SERDP published a statement of need (SON) to characterize air emissions from full-scale OB/OD. A proposal developed by a research team led by the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) was selected. The research team successfully completed a one year study (WP-1672) and a second year OB study (WP-2153). This project is for a third year of work, which will characterize air emissions from field-scale soil-covered OD. The research team will continue analyzing for metals, particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), and combustion products (CO2 and CO). Emissions will be studied from several demilitarization items and operational conditions with a special emphasis on the parameters affecting PM generation from soil-covered OD.

The objectives of this project are to: (1) provide innovative measurement methods capable of filling soil-covered OD air emission factor data gaps; (2) conduct a field campaign to measure emissions of CO2, CO, PM10, PM2.5, metals, HCl, VOCs, SVOCs (including energetics), (3) develop capability to estimate and compile soil-covered OD emission factor data, and (4) identify and determine the effect of parameters potentially impacting emissions of concern.

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Technical Approach

OD air emissions are very difficult (more so than OB) to characterize in the field because of rapid dispersion, short event durations, heterogeneous emission concentrations, rapid plume lift, and explosive safety factors. Under WP-1672, technologies were developed to overcome these difficulties; and under WP-2153, technologies were developed to characterize air emission from OB and provided new and corroborative OB emission data to the demilitarization community. WP-1672 included in situ point sampling/measurements and optical remote sensing (ORS) monitoring downwind of OB/OD sources. In both WP-1672 and WP-2153, the in situ sampling configuration used a balloon-lofted instrument package called the “Flyer.” The Flyer was maneuvered by tethers connected to all-terrain-vehicles (ATVs). The Flyer can include continuous measurements of CO2, and PM and sampling of PM, metals, VOCs, SVOCs, and chlorinated compounds. The U.S. EPA National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) analyzed all Flyer samples and determined emission factors by a carbon mass balance method. In this project, soil-covered OD emissions will be characterized using the Flyer measurement system based on the success of WP-1672 and WP-2153 and further advance OB/OD air quality characterization technologies.

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Benefits

The project results will: (1) provide DoD with a tool and methodology to estimate air emissions from soil-covered OD, (2) provide valuable insight into factors impacting air emissions from soil-covered OD, (3) address OD emission data gaps, and (4) provide scientific data to comply with environmental regulations and to proactively protect human health and the environment. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2013)

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Points of Contact

Principal Investigator

Dr. Byung Kim

U.S. Army ERDC-CERL

Phone: 217-373-3481

Fax: 217-373-3430

Program Manager

Weapons Systems and Platforms

SERDP and ESTCP

Document Types

  • Fact Sheet - Brief project summary with links to related documents and points of contact.
  • Final Report - Comprehensive report for every completed SERDP and ESTCP project that contains all technical results.
  • Cost & Performance Report - Overview of ESTCP demonstration activities, results, and conclusions, standardized to facilitate implementation decisions.
  • Technical Report - Additional interim reports, laboratory reports, demonstration reports, and technology survey reports.
  • Guidance - Instructional information on technical topics such as protocols and user’s guides.
  • Workshop Report - Summary of workshop discussion and findings.
  • Multimedia - On demand videos, animations, and webcasts highlighting featured initiatives or technologies.
  • Model/Software - Computer programs and applications available for download.
  • Database - Digitally organized collection of data available to search and access.