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COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY ISSUE OF AUGUST 14,1995 PSA#1409Commander, U.S. Army Chemical and Biological Defense Command,
Procurement, Attn: AMSCB-PCB/Mr. Braerman, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD
21010-5423 A -- ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR CHEMICAL DEMILITARIZATION. POC Eric
W. Braerman, (410) 671-4469. 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
facilities for all feed materials and all wastes prior to their final
disposition. A description of storage 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 major 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 national 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 annoncement is meant to offer industry the opportunity
to make the Army award of potential alternative technologies which can
meet the needs of the chemical demilitarization program. The process
outlined herein will not necessarily lead to any requests for proposals
(RFP) or contract awards. The government does not intend to reimburse
firms for the cost of providing data originially submitted pursuant to
this request. Responding firms should submit their conceptual design
package to: U.S. Army CBDCOM, Procurement, Bldg. E4455, Attn: Mr.
Braerman/AMSCB-PCB, APG, MG 21010-5423, 410-671-4469. (222) Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0013 19950811\A-0013.SOL)
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