General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Group

9 October 2023

Destruction of Organic and PFAS Wastes using Supercritical Water Oxidation

Non-Combustion Technologies for the treatment of POPs: Challenges and

lessons learned from PCBs and perspectives for PFAS

Presented at the 5th Seminar POPs Columbia

John Follin, GA EMS Director of Strategic Development, Supercritical Water Oxidation

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 General Atomics
LOCATION: San Diego, California
FOUNDED: 1955
STATUS: Privately held corporation

John Follin
Director
Strategic Development / Business Development
Demilitarization and Chemical Waste Destruction

GA is a recognized world leader in high-technology research, design, and

production for industry and government in the U.S. and overseas in four
continents with over 15,000 employees

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 General Atomics Organization

General Atomics
La Jolla, California

Electromagnetics
Energy Aeronautics
Rancho Bernardo
La Jolla, California Poway, California
California

- Nuclear Fission - Predator - Electromagnetic Launching

- Inertial Confinement - Grey Eagle - Lasers
- Nuclear Fusion - Ground Services - Satellites
- Mission Related Activities - Railgun
- Radiation Monitoring
- Gulftronics
- Demil / iSCWO / Maglev

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 Over 30 Years and $250M Invested in iSCWO

iSCWO has been

1990s-2012
out of the lab and
Development & Select US Government Uses in the field since
2012. No R&D

2012-2014
First commercial sale, continued Government use

2015-Present
Commercial and Government sales with aftermarket support

December 2021
iSCWO PFAS Destruction Testing Begins

September 2022
EPA Evaluation Complete - Verifies 99.99% Destruction of PFAS

Now – Systems sales for organic and PFAS Waste Destruction

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 What is Supercritical Water?

5000

4500 Critical Point

for Water SUPERCRITICAL Typical GA iSCWO
4000
WATER Operating
Conditions of
3500
650°C and 3400
3206 psia
Pressure (psia)

psig (234 bar)

3000
(221 bar)
2500

2000

Liquid Water Steam

1500

1000

705°F (374°C)
500

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600

Temperature (°C)

Supercritical water is water that is heated and pressurized above its

thermodynamic critical point of 374oC and 221 bar
We operate at 650oC and 234 Bar to ensure complete oxidation of wastes
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 Breaking the PFAS Contamination Cycle for Good

iSCWO Process
• Perfect for onsite waste destruction
• Cost competitive with other onsite
destruction technologies
• No post-treatment required
• No high emissions to deal with
• No hazardous by-products to
store, transport, or dispose of
• Waste stream testing at GA

Unique reactor technology provides great

reliability and continuous destruction throughput
High Heat High Pressure Greater Than 99.99%
650˚ C 4,000 psi Destruction Efficiency

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 Why are our Customers Interested in iSCWO?

Rarely is there any motivation by waste generators or waste consolidators

to implement new technologies that enhance the environment (e.g., the
right thing to do)

The issues that generate interest in onsite waste treatment process such
as iSCWO are:

• Can’t ship the waste (legal or transportation issues)

• Can’t treat the waste after shipment (environmental or process issues)
• Shipping and/or treatment costs very high (and will get higher)
• Fines have or will be assessed by EPA (state or federal)
• Threats of incarceration due to known violations
• Lawsuits against continued waste generation or onsite waste storage
• Companies that don’t have the expertise to dispose of the waste

77 General Atomics Proprietary Information

iSCWO Release Streams Meet Environmental Requirements

Waste Feed Gas Release Liquid Release

Hydro Carbon O2 Organic-free water
CO2 Neutral pH
Nitrogen
Water vapor
Organic free
Halogens Some salts (depending on chemical feed)
Metallic oxides particles (depending on
Metals
chemical feed)
-ites, -ates Molecular oxygen can reduce the amount
O2 O3 of cfm needed by air compressor
All Liquid Releases Designed for Discharge Directly to a Public Owned Treatment Works (POTW)
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 iSCWO Operational Conditions
Destruction efficiency versus Particle Size Destruction efficiency versus % by Weight Static Versus Continuous Flow Tests

T=? T=2 s

Zero to 0.5mm to larger size particle Zero to 20% to high % by weight - Static test conditions encounter reformation issues
due to varying temp and pressure

System Operations - GA’s continuous 3gpm tests are at operating

temperature and pressure

• Autogenic conditions 2200 BTU/lbm (5117 KJ/kg or 1223 kcal/kg or 320 g/L COD)
• Maximum design rate of a 3gpm iSCWO system with a liquid waste feed at
autogenic conditions is 36,000 lbs per day or 16.4 metric tons/day
• Most waste slurry applications range between 20,000 lbs to 30,000 lbs per day
(9.1 MT/day to 13.7 MT/day)
• Pumping viscosity ranges from 0.3 to 8000 mPa-s or Centipoise (CP)

ABOVE DEPENDS ON MATERIAL, CONCENTRATION, and HEAT CONTENT

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 Scalable, Compact Footprint for Easy On-site Installation

• Available as fixed or transportable units

for convenient on-site waste destruction
without the need for additional
Transportable iSCWO system
infrastructure.

• Single or multiple iSCWO systems

operating in parallel can be configured to
support unique installation, waste, and
throughput requirements.

Fixed iSCWO system

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 iSCWO in Industrial Environments

iSCWO destroys the following:

• PFAS and other fluorinated organic • Petroleum, oils, lubricants and/or

compounds petrochemical waste
• Fire retardant materials • Sewage sludge/animal waste
products
• Expired or obsolete pesticides, fertilizers,
and fungicides • Pharmaceutical waste
• Contaminated water (wastewater • Plastic waste
cleanup) • Expired or obsolete paints
• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) • Expired or obsolete pesticides
• Organic cleaning solutions and • Materials not suitable for normal
antifreeze transportation or disposal
• Energetic Materials (explosives or
propellants)

iSCWO destroys 200+ types of hazardous and non-hazardous waste

EFFECTIVE
iSCWO destroys PFAS with co-contaminants simultaneously with equal efficiency

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 Micronized Feed for Slurry Feeding into iSCWO

Wood Carbon Mining Ore

Plastics/Rubber Resin Beads Slurry

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12 General Atomics Proprietary Information
 Multiple Options for iSCWO Waste Feed
• Liquid feed
• Generated by in-line process or liquids stored onsite
• Pumped directly into the iSCWO system

• Slurry Feed
• Powdered solids (e.g., pesticides or pharmaceuticals) in water
• Ground-up solids (resins or GAC) in water solution
• Size-reduced solids pumped directly into the iSCWO system

• Reverse Osmosis (RO)

• Large Amounts of Contaminated Water
• RO waste stream (stew) is pumped into the iSCWO system

• Thermal Desorption (TD)

• Contaminated Soil Cleanup (e.g., PCB)
• TD waste stream (scum) is pumped into the iSCWO system

• Gaseous Diffusion (GD)

• Contaminated Hardened Material
• GD waste stream is condensed and pumped into iSCWO

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 GA iSCWO Demonstration System – No R&D

iSCWO System used for different Dedicated iSCWO Test Facility

chemical waste treatment tests that customers can observe tests

No R&D – Just confirmatory tests for both process and environmental

regulatory permits

System arrangement allows for easy tests with data analysis

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 Some Slurry Organic Destruction Process Results*

Material Matrix Feed Throughput Quantity Destruction

Concentration (gallon/min) processed Efficiency
(gallons)
Mining ore with gold Slurry 10% solids 1.1 420 99%
Plastics Slurry 10% solids 1.1 950 99%
Food waste Slurry 10% solids 1.1 550 99%
Ground resin beads Liquid 15% solids 2.2 1060 99.9%
Whole resin beads Slurry 10% solids 1.5 120 99.9%
Tear Gas Slurry 10% Solids 1.6 425 99.99%
Leachate from Landfill Liquid Thick material 2.2 20 99.999%
Biosolids Slurry 10% solids 2 730 Test in Oct
*Note – the feed concentration, rates, and quantities were defined by the customer

Whole Resin Beads –

15 Effluent
 Some Halogenated Organic Destruction Process Results*

Material Matrix Feed Throughput Quantity Destruction

Concentration (gallon/min) processed Efficiency
(gallons)
CCl4 / CS2 Liquid 100% 0.052 107 99.999%
Tear Gas Slurry 10% solids 1.6 425 99.99%
1,4-Dioxane Liquid 0.4% 1.6 107 99.9%
Bromine-Polymer Liquid 1% 1.1 140 99.99%
Wash

*Note – the feed concentration, rates, and quantities were defined by the customer

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 Some Organic Destruction Process Results*

Material Matrix Feed Throughput Quantity Destruction

Concentratio (gallon/min) processed Efficiency
n (gallons)
Energetics Waste
Liquid 25% 2.5 1,060 99.99%
(NH4NO3)
Organics containing
Slurry 10% 1.2 950 99%
NaI and CsCL

EDTA with hydrazine Liquid 15% 3.9 1,075 99.99%

Corrosive Solvent
Liquid 15% 2.2 400 99.9%
Waste
Thick 1 – ntrlzd
Cresylate 20% 215 99.99%
Liquid 0.5 – nt ntrlzd
PBX-9502 (explosives) Slurry 20% 2 3,000 99.99%

*Note – the feed concentration, rates, and quantities were defined by the customer

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 PFAS iSCWO Test Analysis
CO2

H2O
I
S
C N2
W
O
O2 NaOH NaF

Neutralize
HF
• With a typical feed of PFAS, iSCWO breaks the PFAS into
 Carbon which combines with oxygen to make CO2
 Fluorine which is stripped off of the PFAS molecule and
combines with hydrogen to make HF
 Oxygen which combines with carbon, be consumed by the fuel
and generates H2O and/or CO2, or emitted as excess oxygen

• Immediately at the reactor exit, the hot liquid will be quenched with
sodium hydroxide (a base) which neutralizes the HF (an acid) to make
a salt which is sodium fluoride (NaF).
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 PFAS Test Results
Destruction of PFAS efficiency: >99.99% for multiple tests
Materials Tested for DRE Calculations Include:
 Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam (AFFF)
 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonic acid (6:2 FTS)
 Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS)
 Integrated Derived Waste (IDW)
Published Reports Recorded Data

Test Total Dilution of PFAS Feed Source of Material Destruction

Processed Waste Efficiency
Test 1 AFFF 253 gal 1000x ~30 ppm Lightwater 99.9996%

Test 2 AFFF 252 gal 1000x ~30 ppm Lightwater 99.9996%

6:2 FTS 350 gal 0x 210 ppb Fire pit wash 99.9929%

PFOS 350 gal 0x 1700 ppt IDW Non-detect

Test 1 AFFF 310 gal 159x ~194 ppm Aer-O-Water ~99.999%

Test 2 AFFF 302 gal 152x ~199 ppm Aer-O-Water ~99.999%

Test 3 AFFF 310 gal 34x ~974 ppm Aer-O-Water ~99.999%

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Targeted PFAS Summary with Fluoride Concentration Analysis

PFAS average Influent Sum of Effluent Sum of

%DRE Targeted
Influent Effluent
Theoretical
fluoride from
Theoretical
PFAS from
Test Targeted PFAS Targeted PFAS Fluoride⁑ Fluoride⁑
DRE > 99.99% (ppt) (ppt)
PFAS
(ppm) (ppm)
targeted PFAS*
(ppm)
Fluoride*
(ppm)

Test C (highest A 3,128,300 51.56 99.9984 0.81 173.61 1.86 289.35

influent conc.) B 3,294,600 82.03 99.9975 0.78 235.29 1.96 392.16
DRE > 99.999% C 13,640,000 30.32 99.9998 1.5 482.21 8.07 803.68

• Targeted 21 PFAS
Average DRE: 99.9985
in AFFF waste feed
• DRE does not fully
reflect iSCWO’s PFAS remaining - PFBA, 6:2 FTS, and sulfonates (C4-8) - undetermined whether from water or system

capabilities Effluent values include dilution factor of about 1.5 due to higher liquid flow from separator (~12 Lpm out vs ~8 Lpm in)

– Non-detect PFAS amounts Effluent values from 120 minutes sampled

default to method limits
– PFAS present in San Diego * Assumes 60% Fluorine content in associated targeted PFAS
tap water used to quench ⁑ ~0.8 ppm fluoride typical in SD tap water
liquid effluent

Air emissions from the iSCWO system VOCs detected are

would be considered clean not fluorinated
Most SCWO system and incinerator gas emissions have not been tested for
PFAS release – GA’s iSCWO has
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Ongoing iSCWO Test Programs for CY 2023

• US Army Engineer Research and Development Center

(ERDC) Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) PFAS and AFFF Tests
• Two-year project
• PFAS destruction tests at GA
• Deploy a system at a Government site for PFAS destruction

• Defense Innovation Unit for PFAS and AFF Destruction

• Two-year project
• Deploy a system at a Clean Earth facility

• Navy GAC project

• Air Force RO project

• Incentive energetics destruction project

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 Conclusions

• Simple to operate, automated and maintain

• iSCWO is an excellent waste destruction process suitable for onsite
treatment of organic wastes at an affordable cost
• iSCWO is fully capable of destroying a wide range of pumpable
hazardous waste including AFFF / PFAS to strict environmental
standards
– Pure PFAS streams / diluted PFAS streams
– Leachates
– Biosolids
– Soils after proper preparation
– GAC, resin and filtration medias
• Mobility for multi-site waste destruction – System easy to setup
• iSCWO systems use air rather than liquid oxygen which makes the
processing site easier to permit and eliminates a number of safety
issues related to LOX systems
• No pollution abatement system necessary to meet environmental
regulations
• GA has 35 years experience with SCWO systems – no R&D

• GA provides testing capability – know before you buy

22 General Atomics Proprietary Information
Contact Information

Thank you very much for your time!

John Follin
Director, Strategic Development / Business Development
Demilitarization and Chemical Waste Destruction
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems Group
1 858 964 6805 (office)
[email protected]

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