NCD980602163_19801009_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Industrial Progress article - EPA Witnesses New Commercial Destruction Process for PCBs-OCR

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EPA Witnesses New Commercial Destruction Process -' for
Polychlorinated Biphenyls
A ready-to-go portable process to
destroy highly toxic polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCB 's) contained in
electrical transformer and capacitor
fluid s has been announced by
Sunohio, in Canton, Ohio, An-
nouncement was made by Norman
E. Jackson, Sunohio's chairman,
"The first commercial-scale
PCBX * unit has now been com-
pleted and tested. This is the
prototype for a proposed 0cet of
similar vehicles to clean up PCB's
nationwide," Jackson said, The unit
was used for a fiel d demonstration at
\lasillon, Ohio, on October 2nd,
The demonstration was witnessed
by a team of some eighteen federal
Em·ironmcntal Protection /\gcncy
officials, Similar presentations of the
apparatus at work in actual field ap-
p li cation were to be given in subse-
quent weeks for the media and in-
dustrial representatives,
T he new process, called" PCBX,"
was full y disclosed to the EPA in
Washington, D, C,, earlier, On June
5, 1980, a team of seven represen-
tatives of Sunohio presented the new
process in full detail to fourteen EPA
officials, as well as to congressional
representat ion, As a result of this
presentation, Steven D, J ellinek, As-
sistant Administrator of EPA, ex-
pressed the belief that the PCBX
process represented a potentially
significant breakthrough to the vex-
ing PCB disposal problem, He re-
quested a full field demonstration by
Sunohio a nd appointed an EPA task
force. headed by William Gunter, to
expedite evaluation and approval,
W hile the EPA has been asked to
*l'(:B:-.: is a service mark of Su,
treat as confide n tia l certain
proprietary aspects of the process.
PCBX is basically a chemical dis-
posal method that breaks apart the
very stable and toxic PCB molecule,
rearranging it to form o ther
chemical compounds that are either
known or believed to be harmless
and environmentally safe.
According to J ackson, the PCBX
process has important advantages
over other kn own alternate methods
of disposal, "Compared to incinera-
tion, PCBX is safer environmentally,
since it is performed in a total ly
enclosed li quid system at very low
temperature and pressure, Also,
valuable transformer oils, con-
tamina ted with PCB's, a re not
burned up and wasted, but rather
are cleaned up and restored to new
condition for reuse, completely free
of PCB 's, Compared to another
rece ntly announced che mical
method, PCBX is less complex,
works faster and more completely,
and will be more practical, con-
venient, and economical in actual
appli cations. PCB chemistry was
disclosed by the J apanese in a
technical journal in 1978, but we re-
,iected this approach as being too
complex for practical and economic
application," Jackson said,
Perhaps the most importan t
feature of the new technique is that it
is the only method that does not re-
quire transportation or further un-
necessary handling of dangerous
PC B 's. The entire process from the
start was designed to be portahle, It
is full y sclf-cqntained a nd mounted
on a standa rd 40-foot tractor-trailer
that can he moved directly to con-
taminated transformers, capacitors,
PCB storage areas, or anywhere
PCB's are already located,
The process can handle both
Sunohio's mobile PCBX unit is self-contained in this tractor trailer, first of a proposed fleet of
similar vehicles to remove and destroy PCBs contained in transformer fluids.
OCTOBER 9, 1980-PYGUC ·ORTNIGHTL Y 101
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highly concentrated as well as very
dilute amounts of PCB's. Tests of
the concentration of PCB 's in
processed fluids are done by sen-
sitive gas chromatography scans and
show that there a re very low to no
detectable PCB 's whatsoever in
fluids treated by the PCBX process.
These results have been repeated on
all kinds of PCB-contaminated oils
as typicall y encountered in the fi eld .
.Jackson further stated that
Sunohio's policy was to withhold
public ;rnnouncement until EPJ\ ap-
pro\',tl seemed imminent. "No real
purpose would be served by an-
nouncing a solution to an importa nt
problem if we could not offer it to
our customers for awhile. It is timely
to announce our discovery and ac-
complishments at this time, not only
because other process announce-
ments have been made recently, but
also because our demonstration for
EPA is now imminent and, hopeful-
ly, its approval will be forthcoming
in the very near fu ture."
:\ late start in the regulation of
PCB's (in the mid-1970's) has
created a serious environmental and
possible health problem, not only in
the U nited States but also
throughout the world. Before PCB's
were considered harmful, they were
often discarded, or spilled, or
carelessly released to the soil , a ir,
and water in many ways. Now these
materials are widely distributed,
and, since they arc not readily
destroyed by natural forces, it ap-
pears the problem will exist for a
very long time. It is, therefore,
imperative that PCB's be identified,
rn111 ai11cd , and safely disposed of to
keep them from adding to the
prnlilcm.
The overall PCBX process
employs a commercially ava ilable
reage nt which strips chlorine atoms
from the PCB nucleus a nd generates
harmless compounds and residues.
The chemical reactions are carried
out under carefully controlled condi-
tions of reagent amount s ,
temperature, and process time, fol-
lowed b y selecti ve filtr a ti on,
dehydration, and degassing. In this
manner, insulating oils can be
removed, quickly processed, and
returned to the equipment. With
more field experience, it may even be
possible to perform the entire opera-
102
tion under "energized" conditions so
transformers need not be taken out
of service to be decontaminated.
Sunohio serves the industrial and
utility industries by performing
specialized maintenance and repairs
on electrical substations and
reclaiming electrical fluids on site for
reuse. Sunohio is a partnership joint-
ly owned by subsidiaries of Ohio
BEFORE PCBX PROCESS
Tra nsformer Corporation, Louis-
ville, Ohio, and Sun Company, Rad-
nor, Pennsylvania. The PCBX
process was researched by Dr. O scar
L. Norman of Sun, developed to a
fully po rtable, commercial-scale
operation by Ohio Transformer un-
der the direction of Otis D. Jordan,
and will be operated and licensed
commercially by Sunohio.
Two PCB molecules in a typical askarel used in electrical equipment.
AFTER PCBX PROCESS
A segment of the product produced in the process.
PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY-OCTOBER 9, 1980
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