In 2007 a consortium of Japanese companies engaged ARI U.S. to conduct a 10-day operational demonstration of TCCT using a-then existing processing system located in Tacoma, Washington.

Commencing May 2007, ARI U.S. prepared the system for operations, secured the necessary permits and began the task of acquiring asbestos from local abatement contractors.

Two start-up demonstrations took place in July and September during which 6.1 tonnes of waste was processed. These brief operational periods revealed an opportunity to improve the efficiency of the system relating primarily to materials handling equipment and procedures. ARI U.S. made these improvements and moved forward with the demonstration.

At 1800 hours on 10 October 2007, ARI U.S. commenced feeding asbestos waste into the system. The demonstration continued without significant interruption until 1800 hours on 20 October 2007.

During this time, approximately 53 tonnes of asbestos waste was converted into a non-hazardous, asbestos-free aggregate. The asbestos that was processed, totalling 59.1 tonnes of waste including the July and September start-ups, included a wide variety of waste forms containing cement asbestos products and a variety of friable forms including pipe lagging, roofing paper, “popcorn ceiling”, insulating board and spray-on asbestos products, vinyl tile, contaminated soil and all of the other waste products associated with ACM (such as wire, electrical conduit, wood, plastic, glass windows, mastic, nails, etc). Processing rates ranged from 6.8 to 9.07 tonnes/day with minor interruptions for various maintenance activities.

ARI U.S. established a sampling and analytical protocol prior to beginning the demonstration which focused on asbestos analysis and chemical analysis for the treated product, wastewater, product cooling water, HEPA filters, feed material and any other secondary wastes produced by the process. In addition, the analytical procedures included a detailed evaluation of off-gas emissions at three locations in the off-gas processing system.

Results of this demonstration concluded:

• 100% of the treated product was asbestos-free. Analytical procedures included TEM (the most sensitive technology available for identifying asbestos fibres); optical and XRD techniques.
• The permissible exposure limit of 0.1 fibres/cm3 for asbestos workers was never exceeded during any of the operations. Thus, the waste feed process for TCCT is considered a very clean operation.
• Tests conducted on wastewater and HEPA filter fabric samples from the process showed non-detectable concentrations for asbestos.