U.S. ARMY CBDCO, AMSCB-PC, BLDG. E4455, APG (EA) MD 21010-5423

A -- ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR CHEMICAL DEMILITARIZATION SOL DAAM01-95-R-0088 DUE 100595 POC Contract Specialist Eric W. Braerman (410) 671-4469 (Site Code DAAM01) ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR CHEMICAL DEMILITARIZATION The U.S. Army, through the Office of the Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization, is responsible for the demilitarization and disposal of chemical agents and munitions. Eight demilitarization facilities are proposed for construction and operation in the continental United States. The Army has demonstrated the operational effectiveness of incineration at its Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System facility. The first demilitarization facility for the continental United States has been constructed at Tooele Army Depot and is scheduled to be operational in 1995. In the spring of 1981, the Army began testing at the Chemical Agent Munitions Disposal System (CAMDS) at Tooele, Utah. The mission of CAMDS is to test and evaluate equipment and processes proposed for chemical agent munitions demilitarization facilities. The National Research Council's (NRC) Committee on Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (Stockpile Committee) was formed in 1987 at the request of the Under Secretary of the Army to monitor the disposal program and to review and comment on relevant technical issues. The Stockpile Committee is a standing committee which remains in service with rotating membership until the demilitarization program is completed. As a consequence of public concern over the use of incineration for chemical warfare agent disposal, the Army commissioned, in November 1991, the National Research Council to conduct a study to evaluate alternatives to the reverse assembly (baseline) incineration process for use in destroying the U.S chemical stockpile. In January 1992, the National Research Council established the Committee on Alternative Chemical Demilitarization Technologies (Alternative Committee) to develop a comprehensive list of alternative technologies and to review their capabilities and potential as agent and munitions disposal technologies. The Defense Authorization Act for FY93 directed the Army to submit to Congress a report on potential alternative technologies. The NRC report on recommendations for the disposal of chemical agents and munitions was published in 1994. The NRC recommended that the Army continue the current baseline incineration program, since, at that time, no other technologies were mature enough to meet the Army's requirements. However, the NRC did recommend that the Army investigate alternative technologies based on chemical neutralization for the bulk-only sites. In August 1994, the Army initiated an aggressive RDT&E program to investigate, develop, and support testing of two technologies based on chemical neutralization for the destruction of mustard (agent HD) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, and nerve-agent VX at the Newport Chemical Activity in Newport, IN. The two alternative technologies are stand-alone chemical neutralization and neutralization followed by biodegradation. The purpose of the RDT&E program is to determine whether an alternative technology warrants pursuing a pilot-scale facility based on one or both technologies. The decision to proceed to pilot testing will be made by the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) in October 1996. The NRC also was aware that there would be ongoing development of the various research programs involving potential alternatives subsequent to the publication of the NRC report in 1993 on alternative technologies. Thus, the NRC recommended that the Army continue to monitor research developments. The Army agrees with this NRC recommendation, and the Army has been exploring developments in technologies with potential application to chemical demilitarization as part of the RDT&E program. The Army will be conducting a survey to determine if there are any technologies other than the two already being evaluated by the Army as part of the Alternative Technology Program which are capable, within the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (CSDP) schedule, of meeting chemical demilitarization requirements for the HD (mustard) and VX (nerve) agents stored at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, and Newport Chemical Activity, IN storage sites, respectively. This announcement requests information from industry on any alternative technology that a firm believes is mature enough to meet the needs of the Army program. The Army will conduct a preliminary 30 day screening to determine whether any of the technologies identified pursuant to this announcement warrant further review by the NRC. The Army will identify up to a maximum of three of the most promising technologies in addition to neutralization and neutralization followed by biodegradation. The evaluators will determine whether the technology meets the following screening criteria: - Any proposed alternative technology should not resemble incineration (high-temperature oxidation) nor produce effluents characteristic of incineration; - The technology must utilize processes and equipment that are developed or capable of being developed in time to meet the requirements of the Chemical Weapons Convention; Laboratory-scale testing must have been completed with agent or chemicals with similar properties to agent. Data must be available to provide an initial indication of performance characteristics and destruction efficiency. Interested firms are asked to provide information in the form of a conceptual design package within 60 days from the date of this announcement. The purpose of the conceptual design package is to demonstrate the feasibility of using an alternative set of process unit operations to conduct the total activities that are required to complete the program, and to provide a basis for its comparison with the baseline system. At a minimum, it should include the following: - Process description. The information package should include a description of the total process, detailing how actual experience or test results have been used to project equipment performance, and how the various agent destruction, decontamination, and waste processing steps are conducted. The description should also provide an adequate basis for establishing that the process has a high probability of success, after pilot testing, to perform the necessary agent destruction and waste disposal functions. - Process data. Chemical and physical properties of all process materials should be provided to the extent that data is needed to design each unit operation in the overall process. - Flow sheets, showing all proposed equipment, piping, and general control methods, including: - Material and energy balances, projections showing all material flow rates, and energy requirements, such as heat generation and removal rates for each step of the process. - Process monitoring and control, showing all proposed process monitoring instrumentation and describing the methods used to control the process. - A description and characterization of all process waste streams. - A description of storage facilities for all feed materials and all wastes prior to their final disposition. - A description of facilities for packaging and handling wastes prior to off-site shipping. - Utility requirements, including process requirements for both fuel and electricity. Also include need for backup requirements to allow for emergency shutdown of the process and related pollution control systems. - Feed materials requirements, including both quantities and qualities of all chemicals that are required, and the need for any special feed preparation. - Equipment lists for all major pieces of equipment for the destruction process, secondary treatment systems, and pollution control systems. - Any data generated from agent or simulant tests or data resulting from destruction of similar chemicals by the proposed processes. - Equipment designs, including design sketches, sizing calculations, and materials of construction for all pieces of process equipment. Plant layout - the design should show the layout and working space for the major pieces of equipment, plot plans for the current storage facilities, and planned means for transport of agent containers from the storage area to the destruction facilities. On written request, firms will be provided with information on: the baseline incineration system; the chemical stockpile disposal program schedule; and the current program for developing neutralization and neutralization followed by biodegradation. Firms may write or fax their requests to Dr. Francis W. Holm, Science Applications International Corporation, 9 Aberdeen Shopping Plaza, Aberdeen, MD 21001, Fax: (410) 273-1001. The NRC will review those promising alternative technologies, if any, identified by the Army as well as neutralization and neutralization-biodegradation. Concurrently, proponents of technologies identified by the Army will be asked to furnish a notional program plan including: a rough, order of magnitude estimate of the projected cost and schedule and chemical agent destruction test data. Firms must perform testing to obtain actual chemical agent test data at an Army approved surety laboratory at the firm's expense. The test data must be available to the NRC for review by 31 May 1996. As a note of caution, those considering participation should understand that chemical agents and munitions are significantly more toxic than many substances normally referred to as ''hazardous and toxic material''. Therefore, high standards of employee, public, and environmental protection are required. This announcement is meant to offer industry the opportunity to make the Army aware of potential alternative technologies which can meet the needs of the chemical demilitarization program. The process outlined herein will not necessarily lead to any request for proposals (RFP) or contract awards. The government does not intend to reimburse firms for the cost of providing data originally submitted pursuant to this request. The conceptual design package should be submitted to Mr. Eric W. Braerman, at the address identified above. (0222)

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