PPEP Pre-production Initiative

The U.S. Navy has adopted a proactive and progressive position toward protecting the environment and complying with environmental laws and regulations. Rather than merely controlling and treating hazardous waste by end-of-the-pipe measures, the Navy has instituted a program for pollution prevention (P2) to reduce or eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste, air emissions, and effluent discharges.

This report provides an analysis of the procurement, installation, and operation of P2 equipment under the Preproduction Initiative.

You can read the FULL report here: (PDF)

This text below has been extracted from that report.

Current Cleaning Methods

Currently, the only cleaning product authorized by these manuals is a petroleum-distillate solvent, PD-680, Types II and III. The types of contaminants that must be removed following weapon firing are oils and grease, dirt, and carbon deposits from firing residue. The weapon piece is cleaned by applying solvent, then hand-wiping the piece to remove contaminants. In some cases, a brush or cleaning rod is required to remove contamination.

Depending on the size of the weapon, the cleaning operation (not including disassembly and assembly time) can take from one to four hours to complete.

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Small Caliber Weapons Cleaning Tests

In general, the time to clean the weapons using the aqueous products was reduced by about 50 percent compared to the current practice. Also, since the aqueous products removed the contaminants so completely, very few wipe rags – in most cases only one - were required to complete the cleaning and drying operations. This significantly reduced the amount of waste requiring disposal. In several cases, personnel performing the cleaning operations remarked that they had never seen weapon surfaces cleaned so completely.

Overall Performance

The performance of the aqueous products during the weapons cleaning efficiency demonstration tests was excellent. All aqueous cleaners tested effectively removed contaminants from the weapons while reducing the total volume of waste generated from cleaning operations. Personnel performing the weapons cleaning, as well as observers, were surprised by the effectiveness of the cleaning products and were surveyed to solicit comments to improve performance of the aqueous cleaning systems.

Personnel conducting the tests generally favored the microbial bioremediating cleaning system due to its ease of use and cleaning effectiveness.

However, this system ... had a number of features to aid the cleaning operations. Some of these features include: grids, baskets and platforms on which to set the weapon pieces during cleaning; a variety of brushes and hoses for cleaning different pieces; and, a compressed air hose for drying the piece after cleaning.

Recommendations

Based upon results of this PPEP Pre-production Initiative, NFESC offers the following recommendations:

Naval Air Systems Command approve and authorize use of aqueous products as replacements for P-D-680 for cleaning fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft machine guns of 20mm caliber and below.

Upon obtaining toxicological clearance for the cleaning solution from NEHC, NAWC Lakehurst modify their existing contract for the Navy Pollution Prevention Equipment Program to include procurement of the American Bio-Clean Armament cleaning system.

You can read the FULL report here: (PDF)