Measurements and models for hazardous chemical and mixed wastes. 1998 annual progress report

'Aqueous waste of various chemical compositions constitutes a significant fraction of the total waste produced by industry in the US. A large quantity of the waste generated by the US chemical process industry is waste water. In addition, the majority of the waste inventory at DoE sites previously used for nuclear weapons production is aqueous waste. Large quantities of additional aqueous waste are expected to be generated during the clean-up of those sites. In order to effectively treat, safely handle, and properly dispose of these wastes, accurate and comprehensive knowledge of basic thermophysical property information is paramount. This knowledge will lead to huge savings by aiding in the design and optimization of treatment and disposal processes. The main objectives of this project are: Develop and validate models that accurately predict the phase equilibria and thermodynamic properties of hazardous aqueous systems necessary for the safe handling and successful design of separation and treatment processes for hazardous chemical and mixed wastes. Accurately measure the phase equilibria and thermodynamic properties of a representative system (water + acetone + isopropyl alcohol + sodium nitrate) over the applicable ranges of temperature, pressure, and composition to provide the pure component, binary, ternary, and quaternary experimental data required for model development. As of May, 1998, nine months into the first year of a three year project, the authors have made significant progress in the database development, have begun testing the models, and have been performance testing the apparatus on the pure components.