The US military faces significant challenges in solid waste management. Some of these are in common with municipal practices, while some are unique due to the location and circumstances. For the most part, permanent military installations within the United States and developed countries follow local practices and regulations. Whereas, temporary installations in combat zones typically do not have access to the local economy and waste management services. Therefore, the military must either develop their own capability or rely on contractors. Burn pits, incinerators, and local hauling have all been employed, and each of these methods has serious shortcomings. To fix this problem, the DoD, and notably the SERDP/ESTCP program has funded the development of numerous waste to energy technologies, studies, and other means of waste diversion, with the goal of processing unsorted solid wastes with some energy recovery. Many of these technologies utilize dry gasification with the resultant syngas fueling an electric generator. Modified downdraft gasifiers have been tried, but they require significant pre-processing of waste, and that has proved difficult to accomplish. Turning to an updraft gasifier is an alternative, and there is currently under demonstration an inclined, rotating, updraft gasifier. This presentation will describe the composition and generation rates of military (chiefly Army) wastes, and showcase a few examples of technologies under development.
