(446r) Separation of RDX and TNT from Expired Energetic Compounds

At present, the decayed and expired explosives/ammunitions are treated by destruction, incineration, or explosion methods. However, these methods can lead to pollution, resource waste, and safety issues. Due to tightening demand for environmental protection and regulations, the concept of green technology to cope with the social needs and environmental regulations is highly required to treat decayed and expired explosives/ammunitions. Therefore, eco-friendly technologies for recycle or transform methods are needed to replace the destruction and incineration for decayed and expired explosives.

In the study, two-step method was developed to recover energetic materials (TNT and TDX) from decayed and expired explosive composites: solvent extraction and simulated moving bed chromatography (SMB). Since the energetic composite used in the study contained TNT, RDX, and paraffin wax as a desensitizer, RDX and TNT were extracted from the composite by using the solubility difference in particular solvents. The composition of the extracted solution and the amount of undissolved fragment-free TNT were determined by varying dissolution time and a ratio of composition to solvent. The obtained TNT-rich solution was applied to further purification method, which was a SMB process for a continuous production of TNT and RDX with high purity. The characteristics of each column were obtained from the moment method for HPLC column and the operating condition for SMB process using 2-2-2-2 configuration was determined by a triangle theory. Then, the variation of purity, recovery, solvent consumption and productivity was evaluated at each operating condition of SMB. The developed technology combined with solvent extraction and SMB process can contribute to reusing decayed and/or expired energetic composites as a green technology.