The safe destruction of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and organic precursors is a timely, costly, and significant challenge for the international community. Today, for example, there are no approaches that exploit chemistries that are truly agnostic in terms of the agents that can be processed. Additionally, current approaches require transport of agents from the storage site to a neutralization site, which can add significant cost and time to the destruction process.
DARPA’s ACDC program explored new technologies for neutralization of bulk stores of CWAs and organic precursors at or near the site of storage. ACDC developed and demonstrated the technologies needed to construct a transportable, prototype system that converts organic compounds into constitutive carbon/nitrogen/phosphorous/sulfur oxides and stable alkali or alkaline earth metal salts. The ACDC system featured chemistries for agent destruction and sequestration of halogens and other components using locally available or easily transportable resources. This webinar describes the DARPA ACDC program and its exploration of neutralization of bulk stores of CWAs and organic precursors at or near the site of storage.