Analysis of technologies for lewisite destruction

Abstract

In Kambarka (Udmurt Republic, Russia) there is the world's largest arsenal of arsenical poisoning substance - lewisite. The total amount of lewisite is about 6,400 tons. At the present time, from the all existing technologies for lewisite destruction only two have been chosen as the main ones. The first one is alkaline hydrolysis of lewisite, followed by the electrolysis of the reaction masses and high temperature ammonolysis of lewisite. The final product of both technologies is metallic arsenic of high purity for electronic engineering. However, the subject analysis of the given technologies for lewisite destruction shows a number of essential technical difficulties, which can affect the safety of processes under the condition of large scale performance. In this connection, it seems more reasonable to use less complicated and more efficient technologies, which do not yield metallic arsenic, but at the same time they do not form any highly toxic intermediate and final products. The technology that produces arsenic sulphide can be considered the more suitable one. © 2006 Springer.