Thermochemical Conversion Process Could Eliminate Asbestos Risks

In Ambler, Pennsylvania, where the legacy of asbestos contamination stemming from asbestos manufacture (1881 to 1962) remains a real and visible threat, one innovation has been put forward to remediate the danger.

According to Dale Timmons of ARI Technologies, the process of thermochemical conversion could convert asbestos-laden materials into "volcanic" minerals, which can then be safely used as aggregate in cement to make concrete.

Thermochemical conversion, which uses chemicals and heat in combination with a rotary hearth, converts asbestos materials to inorganic wastes inside an airtight structure to prevent further contamination, and is an approved method of asbestos decontamination recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), though the EPA has not yet endorsed its use in Ambler or adjacent Whitpain and Upper Dublin - two other Penn. towns impacted by the former asbestos operation.

If allowed to occupy the Ambler site, Timmons has promised the company will conduct extensive and timely air quality tests during the process, and would also sample the air and soil after conversion. The costs associated with the technology are about $135 per ton, and Timmons says that funding for the project will likely come from the federal government. The operation could convert between 150 and 300 tons of soil or matter each day, and the operation would necessarily have to run 24 hours a day. Processing the roughly million tons of soil in the area would take about 10 years, according to Timmons.

The other plan, which has the EPA covering and capping contaminated areas, has residents worried that the sequestration won't be effective. As Councilwoman Judy Baigis notes:

"ARI's technology is the first believable process." A view shared by many Ambler residents, who feel the EPA's covering of the stream banks on the Whitpain Park parcel is a stopgap measure at best.

ARI's conversion process, besides removing asbestos, could create about 20 new area jobs - another incentive to the small town of Ambler, which lost most of its industry when the asbestos plant closed in 1962. In addition, ARI's permit stipulates that the treated product won't contain any measurable quantity of asbestos.

Although Timmons noted that ARI could have a thermochemical conversion machine onsite within two years, the funding would likely take longer, as would permitting issues. This pits ARI in a race against the EPA, which declared Ambler and its environs a Superfund Site with NPL (National Priorities List) listing in 1986, and supposedly finished cleanup and removed the NPL designation in 1996. A further, CERCLA-mandated (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act) five-year review was completed in 2007.

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