Citation

Walsh M, Gullett B, Walsh M, Bigl M, Aurell J. Chemosphere 2017; 194: 622-627.

Affiliation

University of Dayton Research Institute, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH 45469, USA. Electronic address: Aurell.Johanna@epa.gov.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.11.072

PMID

29241137

Abstract

The Life Cycle Environmental Assessment (LCEA) process for military munitions tracks possible environmental impacts incurred during all phases of the life of a munition. The greatest energetics-based emphasis in the current LCEA process is on manufacturing. A review of recent LCEAs indicates that energetics deposition on ranges from detonations and disposal during training is only peripherally examined through assessment of combustion products derived from closed-chamber testing or models. These assessments rarely report any measurable energetic residues. Field-testing of munitions for energetics residues deposition has demonstrated that over 30% of some energetic compounds remain after detonation, which conflicts with the LCEA findings. A study was conducted in the open environment to determine levels of energetics residue deposition and if combustion product results can be correlated with empirical deposition results. Energetics residues deposition, post-detonation combustion products, and fine aerosolized energetics particles following open-air detonation of blocks of Composition C4 (510 g RDX/block) were quantified. The deposited residues amounted to 3.6 mg of energetic per block of C4, or less than 0.001% of the original energetics. Aerial emissions of energetics were about 7% of the amount of deposited energetics. This research indicates that aerial combustion products analysis can provide a valuable supplement to energetics deposition data in the LCEA process but is insufficient alone to account for total residual energetics. This study demonstrates a need for the environmental testing of munitions to quantify energetics residues from live-fire training.

Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

Combustion products; Detonation residues; Emission factors; Energetics; Life Cycle Environmental Assessment; Munitions