MINIATURE BUT MIGHTY
his team got to work and came up with a modularized system called the field deployable hydrolysis system (FDHS) that could be disassembled and fitted into stan- dard shipping containers. It was designed for ease of maintenance and came with a portable laboratory for testing batches to ensure complete agent destruction. Te rest is history. Te FDHS was placed inside a Maritime Administration Ready Reserve Fleet roll-on/roll-off ship and was used to destroy 600 metric tons of mustard agent and 130 metric tons of sarin precur- sor chemicals in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea in just 42 days.
MAKING HISTORY IS GOOD, MAKING IT SMALLER IS BETTER While that was a great triumph receiv- ing world recognition, it was only a start. Te scientists and engineers at DEVCOM CBC were intent on further miniaturizing chemical agent destruction technology so that it could be used by CBARR oper- ators and warfighters alike to destroy
caches of agent encountered in austere environments around the globe. Tey began this effort by shrinking the FDHS, which filled several 8-by-20-foot shipping containers for transport and took up over a 20,000-square-foot area once assembled.
DEVCOM CBC further miniaturized the FDHS with a system called the Compact Rapid Chemical Agent Neutralization System, or CRaCANS, for short. Its dimensions are 88 inches by 108 inches by 80 inches and it fits on a standard NATO military aircraft shipping pallet. It can also be placed on a small flatbed truck or suspended from a helicopter. It can destroy two tons of bulk agent or agent from more than 48 projectiles and mortars in 24 hours when paired with an access system. It contains its own genera- tor, compressor, heaters and waste storage. As a result, the CRaCANS only requires reagent plus diesel fuel to run.
A transportable laboratory that accom- panies it conf irms greater than
99.9% destruction as required by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chem- ical Weapons (OPCW) and greater than 99.99% destruction required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for each batch of agent. Te process renders the agent a conventional industrial waste that is stored in bulk containers for disposal at a commercial hazardous waste disposal facility.
CRaCANS development is funded by DTRA and DEVCOM CBC and has already proven its effectiveness with agent simulant testing. It is currently undergo- ing live agent testing and DEVCOM CBC plans to field it for CBARR, making it available to operate in austere environ- ments in 2025. It could be available to warfighters as early as 2026.
CRaCANS opens entirely new field response capabilities according to Michael Marinelli, DEVCOM CBC environmen- tal scientist and CBARR project manager. “Once the CRaCANS is ready to deploy with us in the field, we will be able to quickly go to locations around the world where chemical agents are found, arrive with all the equipment we need, set it up within hours, and within days have the threat eliminated and be gone.”
COMPACT DEPLOYABLE
The field-deployable hydrolysis system destroys chemical agent by mixing it with hot water and a caustic compound to render it a conventional industrial waste. It’s even compact enough to fit into tight spaces like the hold of a ship. (Photo by Jack Bunja, DEVCOM CBC)
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Army AL&T Magazine Winter 2025
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