Browsing by Author "Fawcett-Hirst, William"
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Item Open Access Adsorption behaviour of 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine, 2,4-dinitroanisole and 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one on commercial activated carbons(Elsevier, 2020-04-30) Fawcett-Hirst, William; Temple, Tracey J.; Ladyman, Melissa K.; Coulon, FredericInsensitive high explosives are increasingly being used to replace more sensitive formulations, however large quantities of environmentally hazardous wastewater are generated from loading, assembling and packing processes. Currently, there is limited literature regarding the treatment of wastewater contaminated with these hazardous insensitive high explosive materials such as 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro- 1,3,5-triazine (RDX), 2,4-dinitoranisole (DNAN) and 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO). The preferred method of explosive wastewater treatment is adsorption by activated carbon, usually through treatment columns or fluidised beds that are simple to operate and cost effective. The aim of this research was to assess whether commercially available activated carbons would be suitable and economically viable to treat explosive wastewater containing RDX, DNAN and NTO. Bottle point tests were used to determine adsorption capacity and adsorption kinetics for the individual insensitive high explosives with three different activated carbons. Equilibrium data were fitted to the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin isotherms to determine the mechanisms of adsorption. Six hour bottle point tests for a mixture of the three insensitive high explosive constituents were used to consider possible preferential adsorption. As expected, RDX and DNAN were adsorbed at concentrations up to 40 mg.L-1 and 150 mg.L-1 respectively by the activated carbons tested, demonstrating the viability of treatment by adsorption. However, at the high concentrations of NTO expected in wastewater (1400 mg.L-1) activated carbons were rapidly saturated, suggesting that treatment of NTO contaminated wastewater would require prohibitively large quantities of activated carbon compared to RDX and DNAN.Item Open Access Decision framework for the environmental management of explosive contaminated land(Elsevier, 2019-07-04) Ladyman, Melissa K.; Temple, Tracey J.; Piperakis, Michael; Fawcett-Hirst, William; Gutierrez Carazo, Encina; Coulon, FredericThe environmental risks from explosive manufacturing and testing activities are usually evaluated using a qualitative process such as environmental impact prioritisation as recommended by legislation and guidance. However, standard environmental management system (EMS) guidance rarely provides detailed information on how to objectively assess the significance of the environmental impacts based on a rational scientific evidence. Quantitative exposure and eco-toxicity assessments are frequently used in combination with environmental threshold limit guidelines, but these omit important environmental impacts such as physical damage to land, nuisance and contribution to climate change. These impacts are particularly relevant to the explosives industry where noise nuisance and physical damage are given high priority. In addition, contamination from explosive compositions may comprise mixtures of multiple legacy and new generation explosives such as 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane (RDX), 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), 5-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-3-one (NTO), 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN) and nitroguandine (NQ), which may have combined impacts not captured by conventional eco-toxicity assessments. Further, threshold limits for energetic materials in soil and water have not been established for most nations. Additionally, in the explosive industry wider concerns such as legislative compliance and stakeholder concerns may help to provide a more broadly applicable assessment of environmental impact. Therefore in this study a novel decision framework was developed to integrate empirical data with business risks to enable rational decision making for the environmental management of explosive manufacturing facilities. The application of the framework was illustrated using three case studies from the explosive manufacturing industry to demonstrate how the framework can be used to justify environmental management decision making. By linking the environmental impacts to business risks, we demonstrate that manufacturers are able to assess a wide spectrum of issues that might not be identified in the initial environmental assessment such as non-toxic pollution incidents, breaches in legislation and stakeholder perceptions.Item Open Access Quantitative Environmental Assessment of Explosive Residues from the Detonation of Insensitive High Explosive Filled 155 mm Artillery Shell(Cranfield University, 2022-01-14 08:30) Persico, Federica; Temple, Tracey; Ladyman, Melissa; Fawcett-Hirst, William; Gutierrez Carazo, Encina; Coulon, FredericFollowing the detonation on a 155mm filled with an Insensitive High Explosive composition (IMX-104) composed by DNAN, NTO and RDX a sampling collection has been carried out to determine the residue deposition of the explosive residues. Half of a sampling arena (10m radius) has ben set up and filled with a 5 cm layer of sand. Samples have been collected in the area, following the Multi-Increment sampling technique, before and after the arena has been set up to determine if there was any cross-contamination after the detonation occurred. A rope has been used to create 2 x 2 m sections in which samples have been collected, following the multi-increment technique, in triplicates using spoons if sand was collected and sampling cores tools for soil. Samples have been stored at -20C for 3 months and t using the extraction technique by Temple et al, 2019 with Acetonitrile and water explosives residues have been analysed (always in triplicates).Item Open Access A review of treatment methods for insensitive high explosive contaminated wastewater(Elsevier, 2021-07-01) Fawcett-Hirst, William; Temple, Tracey J.; Ladyman, Melissa K.; Coulon, FredericInsensitive high explosive materials (IHE) such as 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO) and 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN) are increasingly being used in formulations of insensitive munitions alongside 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro1,3,5-triazine (RDX). Load, assembly and packing (LAP) facilities that process munitions produce wastewater contaminated with IHE which must be treated before discharge. Some facilities can produce as much as 90,000 L of contaminated wastewater per day. In this review, methods of wastewater treatment are assessed in terms of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for their use in production of IHE munitions including their limitations and how they could be applied to industrial scale LAP facilities. Adsorption is identified as a suitable treatment method, however the high solubility of NTO, up to 16.6 g.L which is 180 times higher that of TNT, has the potential to exceed the adsorptive capacity of carbon adsorption systems. The key properties of the adsorptive materials along the selection of adsorption models are highlighted and recommendations on how the limitations of carbon adsorption systems for IHE wastewater can be overcome are offered, including the modification of carbons to increase adsorptive capacity or reduce costs.Item Open Access Waste Water Treatment in a Nutshell(Cranfield University, 2018-11-15 10:09) Fawcett-Hirst, William3MT presented at the 2018 Defence and Security Doctoral Symposium.Water is vital to life on Earth so there is a great incentive for all water users to use it responsibly. There are a plethora of materials that can be used to treat water such as sedimentation, flocculation and biological processes as well as the most favoured for industrial explosives applications, carbon. but most of that carbon comes from non-renewable sources such as bitumen and coal. In order to provide water security to in an efficient and affordable way, new methods or materials need to be devised to reduce the costs associated with water treatment and potentially ‘close the loop’ and re-use the waste products from this process in obtaining the next generation of materials.