Advanced biological treatment for solid propellant wastes
- Paper number
IAC-10,D2,2,13,x8289
- Author
Mr. Laurent VALLET, Safran SME, France
- Year
2010
- Abstract
The impact on environment is today a major concern of any industrial activities. In the field of solid propulsion, this concern has been long taken care of at SNPE Matériaux Energétiques (SME), for which a coherent and complete methodology has been developed over time from the early design phase to elimination at end of life of products. This global environmental care approach is compatible with the progressive implementation of new environmental requirements or regulations such as the recently introduced European REACh regulation. As the European leader for raw chemical products for space propulsion, SME plays a leading role in ensuring the sustained availability of the indispensable chemicals products for today’s and next solid rocket motors. When considering solid propellant for space motors, selection of appropriate raw materials is only one aspect of the global environmental approach. Adaptation and improvement of the facilities and processes used to manufacture solid grain are also of interest (for instance : continuous process to reduce wastes, suppression of toxic solvents in cleaning steps, and implementation of innovative methods to environment friendly eliminate propellant wastes…). A typical example is the treatment of Ammonium Perchlorate (AP) waste waters. AP is the oxidizer and primary ingredient in solid propellant for most large rocket motors. For example, for the Ariane 5 launcher, about 3,000 tons of AP are manufactured each year. Quantities of wastes containing AP result from cleaning operations and manufacturing cycle: blending, grinding, transfer… From the early 1990s, SME has developed a biodegradation process to treat waste waters that contain AP. The first facility installed in 2005 at UPG (Propellant Plant of French Guyana) to treat ammonium in waste waters is a direct application of this SME expertise. Subsequent studies performed by SME were aimed at improving the reduction rate of perchlorate ion, catalyzed by bacterium activity. Latest works allowed to develop the process at a scale significant enough to optimize the process: bacterium identification, increase of degradation rate and cost operate reduction… These improvements have being validated in a pilot at an industrial scale of 30 tons per year in 2009 at SME Saint Medard plant. Capitalizing on these technical and industrial results SME builds an industrial facility that will degrade decommissioned large solid motors. This new unit of 500 tons per year capacity will be operational on 2011.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)