Biological treatability of trinitrotoluene manufacturing wastewater.

Abstract

The high explosive, tnt, was adopted by the U. S. Army as the primary, conven tional bursting charge explosive for the Department of Defense in 1904, and it still has that position today. Because of the great demand for this product during World War II and the fact that interest in environmental protection at the federal level had begun, the biodegradability and treatability of tnt wastewater was studied to a limited degree during this period. The results of this work, performed on both manufacturing and loading wastes, were not very encouraging, and the waste was concluded to be highly toxic, refractory, and resistant to biological waste treat ment.14