| Contents Notes |
"Under the authority of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suspended and cancelled the registrations and prohibited the further use, sale, and distribution of ethylene dibromide (EDB) pesticide formulations. As a part of this ban, EPA also assumed the responsibility for destroying/ disposing of existing EDB stocks. The project covered by this report involved an engineering evaluation of the suitability of various available technologies for the destruction of ethylene dibromide pesticides. The purpose of the study was to highlight the technical merits and short-comings, safety, cost, and total time requirement for each of the alternatives considered. Both thermal and chemical destruction options were considered. Evaluation criteria were developed so that the different options could be compared on a common basis. Information was collected on each candidate process through a literature search and discussions with industry experts. Concurrent with these efforts, bench-scale tests of the chemical methods were conducted. Also, a test burn was made at a commercial facility to determine the effectiveness of one of the incineration options. The results of these tests were factored into this report. Because the chemical processes are still in the conceptual stages, only preliminary process calculations and cost estimates were developed for these processes. Based on the results of this study, incineration in the presence of sulfur dioxide appears to be the best alternative for the safe, effective, rapid, and economical destruction of the ethylene dibromide pesticides." |
