U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration What In The World To Do With Waste Fireworks Articles? Dr. Spencer Watson, US DOT/PHMSA Washington DC USA Mr. David Pier, MP Associates, Ione, CA, USA Mr. Thaine Morris, MP Associates, Ione, CA, USA A presentation for the IGUS-EPP Working Group Meeting, Oviedo, Spain April 8-9, 2013
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration What Not To Do! - A Cautionary Story
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration - 3 -
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Waste Fireworks For Disposal Fall Into Several Categories: Mal-functioned Articles, Partially Functioned Articles and Damaged or Leaking Articles Non-Approved Articles, Out of Specification Approved Articles, Confiscated Articles and Contraband Articles Approved Article Overstocks Each Category has unique “Knowledge Requirements” before Disposal Can Be Considered - 4 -
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration The Choice: To Transport as Class 1 Articles for Disposal or to Desensitize Them? Sometimes regulations just don’t permit transport of damaged or leaking articles! Sometimes special permits can be obtained for one-time, one-way movement of Waste Fireworks classed as 1.1G or 1.3G or 1.4G articles, according to the risks involved. The impediment is there are only a few waste disposal companies in the US equipped to store and dispose of Class 1 materials
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration If Desensitization On Site is Preferable-- How to Do It Safely? (And Get The Desired Non-Class 1 Determination Result!) - 6 -
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Fireworks Articles Are Often Complex in Their Interior Structures There are any number of cardboard and pasteboard casings and inner components which are hard to penetrate. Aerial shells for example have a lift charge at the bottom attached with paper tape, an outer cardboard casing, an interior burst charge and many multiple color and sound effect components
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U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration There are lots of barriers to reach the inside of an aerial display shell
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration A DISCUSSION OF THE POSSIBLITIES Passive Ambient Soaking – Okay but slow. Lots of tankage required. Days, weeks or months involved to get to non-Class 1. Water or water/glycol solutions are preferred over organic liquids(e.g., Diesel fuel) If using water, needs to be buffered to pH 7 to prevent gassing from aluminum and magnesium powders. Probably can be sped up with wetting agents or surfactants. Heated Soaking – Better for aqueous solvents but ineffective for organic solvents. Hazard risk problems with heat transfer to solvent. Still need volumes of liquid treatment media and tank storage
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration A DISCUSSION OF THE POSSIBLITIES - II Pressure Soaking – Probably will just collapse the cardboard or plastic casing and sub-components, making desensitizing liquid penetration harder not easier. No clear advantages over ambient soaking Ultrasonic Bath Soaking/Disassembly – Interesting idea with potential promise but no experience. Is there even equipment to do it? What are the energies involved can could they cause problems? Many unknowns
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration A DISCUSSION OF THE POSSIBLITIES - III High Pressure Jetting– Use ultra high pressure water or water/glycol to dissect articles and wash ingredients to a common collection point. Used in some de-militarization programs successfully. Very messy and the equipment is expensive. Lots of water storage/treatment involved. Injection Soaking – multiple barbed injection needles are pressed through the articles casing walls and the desensitizing fluid is injected. Problems with the needles missing some components. Problems with alignment. Problems with friction-sensitive materials. Probably a messy process
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration A DISCUSSION OF THE POSSIBLITIES - IV Vacuum Infusion – Submerge articles in a high boiling inert liquid, de- air them with a high vacuum for 1-5 minutes, then release the vacuum and allow the liquid to infuse into the spaces where the air was. Commonly used to marinade meat and poultry products quickly and to saturate the muscle tissue with flavoring. Equipment is available, simple and inexpensive. Scale up possible in a short time if successful. This idea looked to us the most promising to pursue first, given the drawbacks of the other methods, some of which have been tried before!
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration The fluid used in these “Proof of Concept” Experiments was Methyl Soyate – the fatty acid methyl esters from soybean oil, a.k.a. B-100 Biodiesel Fuel Pure Biodiesel oil is inexpensive and plentiful. The molecules are fairly polar and are able to attack and soften or dissolve aerial plastic shells made from poly-styrene. Early experiments have suggested that when small aerial shells are vacuum infused with biodiesel fuel, they seem to burn harmlessly in an open fire.
U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration Future Work? We plan to pursue the vacuum infusion concept further and continue to refine the technique. Applying for a process patent (MP Associates) Search for liquids similar to Biodiesel that will do similar desensitization work. Expand the data base to larger aerial shells, then mines, fountains, firecrackers and similar consumer items. Publish future results in both regulatory and non- regulatory ou tle ts