Review Of Rheology Modifiers For Hanford Waste
As part of Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL)'s strategic development scope for the Department of Energy - Office of River Protection (DOE-ORP) Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) waste feed acceptance and product qualification scope, the SRNL has been requested to recommend candidate rheology modifiers to be evaluated to adjust slurry properties in the Hanford Tank Farm. SRNL has performed extensive testing of rheology modifiers for use with Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) simulated melter feed - a high undissolved solids (UDS) mixture of simulated Savannah River Site (SRS) Tank Farm sludge, nitric and formic acids, and glass frit. A much smaller set of evaluations with Hanford simulated waste have also been completed. This report summarizes past work and recommends modifiers for further evaluation with Hanford simulated wastes followed by verification with actual waste samples. Based on the review of available data, a few compounds/systems appear to hold the most promise. For all types of evaluated simulated wastes (caustic Handford tank waste and DWPF processing samples with pH ranging from slightly acidic to slightly caustic), polyacrylic acid had positive impacts on rheology. Citric acid also showed improvement in yield stress on a wide variety of samples. It is recommended that both polyacrylic acid and citric acid be further evaluated as rheology modifiers for Hanford waste. These materials are weak organic acids with the following potential issues: The acidic nature of the modifiers may impact waste pH, if added in very large doses. If pH is significantly reduced by the modifier addition, dissolution of UDS and increased corrosion of tanks, piping, pumps, and other process equipment could occur. Smaller shifts in pH could reduce aluminum solubility, which would be expected to increase the yield stress of the sludge. Therefore, it is expected that use of an acidic modifier would be limited to concentrations that do not appreciably change the pH of the waste; Organics are typically reductants and could impact glass REDOX if not accounted for in the reductant addition calculations; Stability of the modifiers in a caustic, radioactive environment is not known, but some of the modifiers tested were specifically designed to withstand caustic conditions; These acids will add to the total organic carbon content of the wastes. Radiolytic decomposition of the acids could result in organic and hydrogen gas generation. These potential impacts must be addressed in future studies with simulants representative of real waste and finally with tests using actual waste based on the rheology differences seen between SRS simulants and actual waste. The only non-organic modifier evaluated was sodium metasilicate. Further evaluation of this modifier is recommended if a reducing modifier is a concern.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC09-08SR22470
- OSTI ID:
- 1095250
- Report Number(s):
- SRNL-STI-2013-00493; TRN: US1400088
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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