NUCON Technology Vapor-abatement

NUCON Technology

Vapor-abatement

NUCON technology vapor-abatement unit pulls tank vapors into an internal combustion engine’s induction system where they are combusted and destroyed in the engine cylinders. The Engineering-scale test is underway (PNNL-SA-139959 Test Plan document link here).

NUCON Vapor Abatement Unit Performance on Hanford Tank Farm Chemicals of Potential Concern PNNL-27816 Report Summary Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) assessed the performance of the NUCON Vapor Abatement Unit (VAU) prototype for reducing Hanford tank farm vapors. The engineering-scale test was conducted from May to June 2018.

The VAU prototype was designed to duplicate the anticipated field operations of a full-sized unit, which will pull gas from the headspace of a single shell tank (SST) and treat it through sequential processes. Eleven chemicals of potential concern (COPCs) were chosen to represent 59 of the 61 identified COPCs in the testing process. Each of the eleven COPCs was selected either because

• i) it is found frequently or in significant concentrations in the SST vapor emissions, or
• ii) it can be used as a surrogate to represent a class of COPC compounds, or both. Although the VAU failed to meet all removal and purification criteria for formaldehyde, Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) and nitrous oxide, it significantly reduced concentrations of all test compounds.

The test results support the decision to continue to a pilot-scale demonstration on-site. Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has selected Tank BY-108 as the site for this demonstration because this tank has the highest concentrations of COPCs. To read the complete report click here.