Decontamination Strategy for Large Area and/or Equipment Contaminated with Chemical and Biological Agents using a High Energy Arc Lamp (HEAL)

Technical Report · Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/951295· OSTI ID:951295

Schoske, Richard ^[1]; Kennedy, Patrick ^[1]; Duty, Chad E ^[1]; Smith, Rob R ^[1]; Huxford, Theodore J ^[1]; Bonavita, Angelo M ^[1]; Engleman, Greg ^[1]; Vass, Arpad Alexander ^[1]; Griest, Wayne H ^[1]; Ilgner, Ralph H ^[1]; Brown, Gilbert M ^[1]

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1. ORNL

A strategy for the decontamination of large areas and or equipment contaminated with Biological Warfare Agents (BWAs) and Chemical Warfare Agents (CWAs) was demonstrated using a High Energy Arc Lamp (HEAL) photolysis system. This strategy offers an alternative that is potentially quicker, less hazardous, generates far less waste, and is easier to deploy than those currently fielded by the Department of Defense (DoD). For example, for large frame aircraft the United States Air Force still relies on the combination of weathering (stand alone in environment), air washing (fly aircraft) and finally washing the aircraft with Hot Soapy Water (HSW) in an attempt to remove any remaining contamination. This method is laborious, time consuming (upwards of 12+ hours not including decontamination site preparation), and requires large amounts of water (e.g., 1,600+ gallons for a single large frame aircraft), and generates large amounts of hazardous waste requiring disposal. The efficacy of the HEAL system was demonstrated using diisopropyl methyl phosphonate (DIMP) a G series CWA simulant, and Bacillus globigii (BG) a simulant of Bacillus anthracis. Experiments were designed to simulate the energy flux of a field deployable lamp system that could stand-off 17 meters from a 12m2 target area and uniformly expose a surface at 1360 W/m2. The HEAL system in the absence of a catalyst reduced the amount of B. globigii by five orders of magnitude at a starting concentration of 1.63 x 107 spores. In the case of CWA simulants, the HEAL system in the presence of the catalyst TiO2 effectively degraded DIMP sprayed onto a 100mm diameter Petri dish in 5 minutes.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: ORNL other overhead
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 951295
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-2009/088; TRN: US200912%%105
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
AIRCRAFT
BACILLUS
BIOLOGICAL WARFARE AGENTS
CATALYSTS
CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS
CONTAMINATION
DECONTAMINATION
LIGHT BULBS
METERS
PHOSPHONATES
PHOTOLYSIS
SPORES
TARGETS
US DOD
WASHING
WASTES
WATER
WEATHERING
Aircraft Decontamination
Biological Warfare Agent
Chemical Warfare Agent