Device for removing toxic solid and/or liquid substances from projectiles filled with chemical warfare agents

A device for incinerating solid and/or liquid toxic substances, especially projectiles filled with chemical warfare agents. Because the ammunition to be incinerated may have been inadvertently not disarmed the incinerator plant must be able to withstand an operating pressure of at least 40 bar. The incineration includes a rotatably mounted unit consisting of a rotary tubular kiln, an afterburning chamber, and a waste heat boiler. The unit is designed in a corresponding pressure-proof manner, and the rotary tubular kiln as well as the afterburning chamber are lined with refractory material. The operating pressure is generated by a compressor arranged upstream of the incinerator plant, and it is released by an expander arranged downstream of the entire plant.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention pertains to a device for disposing of solid and/or 
liquid toxic substances, especially projectiles filled with chemical 
warfare agents, in a special waste incinerator plant including a rotary 
tubular kiln, an afterburning chamber, a waste heat boiler, a flue gas 
scrubber, an induced draft ventilator, and a waste gas flue. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Special waste incinerator plants for incinerating liquid and/or solid toxic 
substances have been known from, e.g., the German journal 
Chemie-Ingenieur-Technik, Vol. 59 (1987), No. 8, pp. 622-628. 
The projectiles and other ammunition left over from the two world wars, 
which are filled with chemical warfare agents, represent a special type of 
special waste. 
These chemical warfare agents may be solid and/or liquid toxic substances 
of a great variety of chemical compositions, or they may also be gaseous. 
The chemical warfare agents continue to be in non-disarmed projectiles, 
i.e., the percussion, proximity or time fuses must be disarmed before any 
disposal. 
The projectiles filled with chemical warfare agents may be stored in any 
type of container, or they may be disposed of as a pile in filled-up 
bodies of water, mines, or even at sea. 
In the case of intensified corrosion, caused by moisture in the ground or 
seawater, there is a risk that the containers and the projectiles are or 
become leaky. As a result, the chemical and toxic substances come into 
direct contact with their immediate environment, i.e., the ground 
surrounding them, groundwater or seawater. These circumstances lead to the 
contamination of large areas. 
The destruction of the large amounts of warfare agents still present has 
not been intensely pursued so far, because the selected storage was 
thought to be sufficiently safe for decades, and, e.g., the disposal of 
the warfare agents at sea was thought to solve the problem. 
However, investigations conducted at such storage sites revealed that the 
containers in which the projectiles are stored have partially decayed, and 
further storage is no longer acceptable for reasons of environmental 
protection, so that the disposal of the chemical warfare agents is 
absolutely necessary. 
SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
The object of the present invention is to provide a device with which the 
disarmed projectiles can be disposed of in an environmentally acceptable 
manner, but the fact that non-disarmed projectiles may accidentally also 
be delivered for disposal must be taken into account. 
According to the invention, a device for disposing of solid and/or liquid 
toxic substances, particularly projectiles filled with chemical warfare 
agents is provided in the form of a special waste incinerator plant. The 
plant includes a rotary tubular kiln, an afterburning chamber, a waste 
heat boiler, a flue gas scrubber, an induced draft ventilator and a waste 
gas flue. The rotary tubular furnace, the afterburner chamber and the 
waste heat boiler are designed as a rotatable unit. The unit is designed 
such that it withstands an internal pressure of 40 bar. A pressure lock is 
provided with a feeding device integrated in it and a compressor is 
provided for generating the necessary operating pressure. The pressure 
lock and the compressor are arranged upstream of the rotary tubular kiln. 
A sealing system is provided arranged between the rotatable waste heat 
boiler and the stationary flue gas collection tank. 
A slide collection chamber is arranged in the transition area between the 
rotary tubular kiln and the afterburning chamber. The waste heat boiler 
has a co-rotating steam entrainment means connected to the housing wall. A 
stationary steam exhaust means is arranged centrally with respect to an 
axial direction. The feed water feed and the steam feed lines are led 
through a sealing system at the flue gas collection tank and communicate 
with the waste heat boiler. An expander and a flue gas scrubber are 
arranged downstream of the outlet pipe connection of the flue gas 
collection tank. 
To dispose of the projectiles, which are usually disarmed and whose casing 
was made of steel, brass, aluminum, plastics or other materials, and in 
which toxic chemical substances are contained, a special waste incinerator 
plant of the type described in the introductory part is proposed, which is 
characterized in that the components of the high-temperature incineration 
part and of the cooling and purification stages following it are 
constructed, in terms of design and the materials used, for minimum 
operating pressure of 40 bar, and that the necessary sealing of the 
rotating part of the plant against the atmosphere is guaranteed. 
The parts of the plant must withstand an operating pressure of 40 bar, 
because non-disarmed projectiles and highly explosive substances, which 
may explode in the rotary tubular kiln or in the afterburning chamber 
during the incineration at temperatures of up to and exceeding 
1,200.degree. C., and generate a correspondingly high blast wave within 
the entire system, may also be charged into the rotary tubular kiln. 
Because of such blast waves, the rotating parts of the plant must be 
constructed, in terms of the materials to be used and their design, for 
pressures of at least 40 bar, and it must be borne in mind that the actual 
pressure may be slightly lower or slightly higher than the pressure 
indicated, depending on the type of the ammunition to be destroyed. The 
plant parts should therefore be dimensioned correspondingly. 
This is achieved by designing the high-temperature incineration part and 
the cooling and purification part as an integrated, rotating device. 
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are 
pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part 
of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its 
operating advantages and specific objects attained by its uses, reference 
is made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which a 
preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The incinerator plant represented in FIG. 1 is composed of the rotatable 
unit 3, 6, 9 and 11, which is rotatably mounted on roller bearings 23 and 
in running rings 19, and of the stationary plant parts, which are located 
upstream and downstream of the rotatable unit 3, 6, 9 and 11 and are 
sealed by sealing systems on both sides, namely a pressure lock 12 and 
sealing system means 12.1. 
The rotatable unit designed for an operating pressure of at least 40 bar 
includes the rotary tubular kiln 3, the afterburning chamber 6, and the 
waste heat boiler 9. 
This plant must be designed for high operating pressures for safety's sake, 
because warfare ammunition not disarmed in advance may also be expected to 
be accidentally charged into the rotary tubular kiln. 
The non-incinerated metallic parts of the ammunition are collected in the 
slag collection chamber 5 arranged between the rotary tubular kiln 3 and 
the afterburning chamber 6. These remnants can be removed via a removal 
opening after the plant operations have been stopped. 
The rotary tubular kiln 3 and the afterburning chamber 6 are lined with a 
refractory and abrasion-resistant lining 7. The slag collection chamber 5 
may be spray-coated with a refractory composition if needed. 
The flue gases are cooled in the rotatable waste heat boiler 9. The hot 
flue gases flow through cooling tubes 10 and release their heat to the 
feed water fed in via a feed line 17. 
The water-steam mixture leaves the waste heat boiler 9 via the steam 
discharge lines 16 arranged centrally around the feed water feed line 17. 
The cooled flue gas, which is, however, still under a high operating 
pressure, is collected in a stationary flue gas collection tank 15 before 
it is fed into an expander 18 with the flue gas scrubber 14 arranged 
downstream of it. 
The flue gas collection tank 15 is sealed against the atmosphere by a 
sealing system 13 in the area of the pipelines 16, 17. 
The pressure lock 12 in the form of a double chamber, within which the 
charging device 1 for the ammunition to be incinerated is integrated, is 
arranged on the charging side of the rotary tubular kiln 3. 
The rotary tubular kiln 3 is heated by a lance-like gas or oil-oxygen 
burner 2. Burners (not shown here) are also arranged on the afterburning 
chamber 6. 
A compressor 20, which is connected to the pressure lock 12 via 
high-pressure lines, is provided for generating the necessary operating 
pressure of at least 40 bar. 
In a cross section corresponding to the intersection line A-B in FIG. 1, 
FIG. 2 shows the interior of the waste heat boiler 9. The cooling tubes 
10, the steam entrainment means 21, and the stationary steam exhaust means 
22 in the center of the waste heat boiler 9 are seen. This arrangement is 
necessary for collecting the steam rising upward within the rotating waste 
heat boiler 9 and for drawing it off via the steam exhaust means 22 and 
the steam discharge lines 16. 
While a specific embodiment of the invention has been shown and described 
in detail to illustrate the application of the principles of the 
invention, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied 
otherwise without departing from such principles.