Chemical Treatment as a Pre- requisite for Effective Disposal of Tri Nitro Toluene (TNT)

Present methods for the disposal of old and rejected ammunition carry high risk and are not environment-friendly. Various processes such as wet air oxidation, molten salt oxidation, hydro thermal oxidation, incineration, electrochemical reduction, biodegradation and other methods have limited use for decontamination and are not suitable for disposal of large quantities of explosives. Thus there is dire need to develop alternate method for safe disposal of rejected explosives which will be eco-friendly. In this paper we have attempted to combine two methods i.e. chemical treatment followed by biological/microbiological treatment. For this purpose we have selected Tri Nitro Toluene (TNT) as a model compound, which is used extensively in many types of ammunition. As reported previously from our laboratory the presence of nitro group from TNT was toxic to bacterial growth. By chemical treatment, nitro groups from TNT were converted into amine and mixed in soil for biodegradation. Our results suggest that after converting 'nitro groups' to 'amine groups' were much preferred by bacteria and faster mineralization is observed. Thus combined treatment to TNT as discussed in this study, showed much less phyto-toxicity and may have great potential to scale up the process for large quantities of explosive such as TNT.