Feasibility of New Technology to Comprehensively Characterize Air Emissions from Full Scale Open Burning and Open Detonation

For many decades, Open Burning/Open Detonation (OB/OD) has been used as a safe and economic munitions demilitarization for energetic material disposal. Field OB/OD air emissions have been very difficult to characterize because of rapid dispersion, short event duration, heterogeneous emission concentrations, large plume lift, soil entrainment, and explosion safety restrictions. In response to a 2009 SERDP Statement of Need, this project was designed to develop a new emission measurement system for comprehensive air emission characterization for full-scale OB/OD operations. The project team developed a field campaign plan and conducted the field campaign at Tooele Army Depot, Utah, in March 2010. Emissions from OB of M1 propellant and OD of TNT were sampled over a three week period. This report describes the execution and results of the field campaign and discusses the feasibility of the emission measurement system to characterize air emissions from full-scale OB/OD. Close coordination with the DoD demilitarization community enabled the research team to produce useful data for demilitarization-related compliance issues and operations. The feasibility study consisted of in situ and optical remote sensing (ORS) sampling, analysis and monitoring. The in situ sampling configuration included fixed position samplers, and airborne sampling. The aerial platform used a balloon-lofted instrument package called the Flyer. The instrument pack was lofted with a He-filled balloon and maneuvered by two tethers connected to two all-terrain-vehicles (ATVs). Continuous measurements of CO2 and co-sampled PM-10, volatile organic compounds, and semi-volatile organic compounds allowed determination of emission factors. The ORS system included active and passive open-path Fourier Transform Infrared (OP-FTIR) spectrometers, Ultraviolet Differential Absorption Spectrometers (UV-DOAS), and a Micropulse LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) (MPL). The ORS samplers were complemented with Tapered