The chemicals used in chemical warfare (by governments and terrorist groups alike) are made from harmless compounds found naturally in just about any area of the worlds. The take these compounds and turn them into hazardous chemical warfare agents. The Agnostic Compact Demilitarization of Chemical Agents (ACDC) announced they have started a program researching ways to return their harmful compounds to their harmless components.
The current way these hazardous compounds are disposed of is costly and results in hazardous waste that must then me safely disposed of. The current forms of disposal require transporting the hazardous material to a storage facility, and typically include incineration of said material after a neutralization agent (specific to each material) and water have been added. The process requires lots of resources and often results in acid rain. The process also produces hazardous waste that must then be safely disposed of.
The anticipated end result of this program is to develop an inexpensive process of neutralizing the hazardous material using dirt or plant matter that is abundant on the site of the contamination, adding heat in the form of fire, and ending up with soil enriched with the non-hazardous components of the broken down chemical warfare agents without releasing any toxins into the air.
The group plans to use heat to break the chemical bonds in the chemical warfare agents that were synthetically stimulated to form, resulting in the original organic compounds that the agent was formed out of.
Submitted by Victoria Ordeman
I find this to be very interesting since its a way to help the environment instead of harming it like they been have. I would like to see this project succeed so I will try and keep and I out for it. I think neutralizing the hazardous material using dirt or plant matter that is abundant on the site of the contamination end result is fantastic. Lets hope this works out well.
ReplyDeleteIf this plan come into fruition, it could solve a lot of the environmental issues that we are currently experiencing, aside from the cost effectiveness. For years we have always had to dispose of chemical, and radioactive, waste in ways that eventually come back to haunt us later. This could be a step towards changing that.
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