Courtesy Photo | The natural gas-fired steam plant at the Holston Army Ammunition Plant replaced the...... read more read more
The Army is currently engaged in a 15-year plan aimed at modernizing the Organic Industrial Base, which encompasses upgrades to facilities, processes, and workforce capabilities throughout depots, arsenals, and ammunition plants.
Updating World War II-era facilities is essential for enhancing readiness, ensuring operator safety, increasing production capacity, and minimizing the environmental impact of each facility.
Several modernization efforts have been completed, are taking place, or are planned at the Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Kingsport, Tennessee. They are the natural gas-fired steam plant, the fluid energy mill building, and the Weak Acetic Acid Recovery Plant.
Natural gas-fired steam plant
Completed in 2021, the natural gas-fired steam plant is an essential project at HSAAP. The facility replaced the coal-fired steam plant and has significantly reduced HSAAP’s carbon footprint. The plant primarily utilizes natural gas. However, it has the capability to switch to fuel oil, which can be delivered by tanker truck or railcar.
The main building at the natural gas-fired steam plant spans approximately 50,000 square feet and houses several boilers capable of generating 250,000 pounds of steam per hour. The system's maximum effective output is one million pounds of steam per hour.
The design of the natural gas-fired steam plant allows for a boiler to be kept in reserve during regular steam production, ensuring operational continuity across HSAAP during maintenance or disruptions. There is an emergency backup generator available. Furthermore, additional fuel oil tanks are present on-site, which provide enough fuel to power the boilers for several days. In case of a natural gas issue, the system can swiftly switch to fuel oil, with an estimated transition time of less than 30 minutes.
“Recent calculations have shown an approximate 45% reduction in CO2 emissions due to the new gas-fired steam facility coming online,” said Lt. Col. Joel Calo, HSAAP’s commander. “This modernized project has positively impacted the site, environment, and surrounding communities.”
Fluid energy mill
The fluid energy mill building updates involve the construction of two production trains, and enhance HSAAP’s capability to produce FEM RDX, and provides additional RDX FEM milling capacity.
The facility’s purpose is to produce FEM, or finely ground RDX, a key component in explosives formulations supporting U.S. Air Force bomb munitions and other armaments. Specifically, fluid energy mill technology uses compressed air to grind down particles, a process that reduces RDX particle size to a specified nominal diameter that can be incorporated into other formulations for manufacturing munitions.
“The facility contains four levels for managing the manufacturing of FEM, each with its own distinctive procedure contributing to the overall production,” said Jeffrey Worley, HSAAP’s deputy to the commander. “Once the new trains are finished, we will have the capability to produce up to approximately four million pounds of material at any given time.”
WAARP
The Weak Acetic Acid Recovery Plant, also known as WAARP, was constructed in 1943 and is 10,769 square feet. The purpose of this facility is to concentrate weak acetic acid by separating weak acetic acid from RDX, HMX, ammonium nitrate solution, and water.
WAARP continually removes ammonium nitrate and other impurities, including explosives, from weak acetic acid for use in the acetic acid refining operations. After removal of the impurities, the acetic acid is concentrated to approximately 55% by weight.
There are two building at HSAAP that are dedicated to WAARP, and one serves as a backup to the other. The facilities share a tank farm, and only one system operates at a time. An adjacent building is where WAARP efforts will take place in the future, and the facility will include a fully modernized two production train facility along with an associated tank farm.
“Continued modernization endeavors will ensure that HSAAP, which has been providing mission critical capabilities for over 80 years, fulfills its duty of producing explosives for the Warfighter and bolstering readiness for the United States and its allies,” Calo said.
Video: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/550633/acetic-acid-and-acetic-anhydride-facility-holston-army-ammunition-plant
| Date Taken: | 04.23.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 04.23.2024 08:05 |
| Story ID: | 469208 |
| Location: | HOLSTON ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT, TN, US |
| Web Views: | 58 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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