TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RISK MITIGATION PRINCIPAL CENTER

Welcome to the Technology Evaluation for Environmental Risk Mitigation (TEERM) Principal Center

NEWS

May 2013

GSDO Program Alternative to Nitric Acid Passivation Project to be Presented at DoD Corrosion Conference
The NASA Technology Evaluation for Environmental Risk Mitigation Principal Center (TEERM) is working with the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program (GSDOP), Kennedy Space Center (KSC), other NASA Centers and the Department of Defense (DoD) to qualify citric acid as an environmentally preferable alternative to nitric acid for passivation of stainless steel alloys. An abstract, prepared by NASA TEERM, was accepted by the DoD Corrosion Conference 2013 to be held September 16-17 via webinar. NASA TEERM is working with the NASA Corrosion Technology Laboratory to prepare a manuscript and presentation giving an overview of the project and results to date. Passivation is used to make a surface more "passive" so it is not as affected by corrosion and other environmental factors. While nitric acid results in excellent corrosion resistance, there are a number of environmental, safety, and operational issues. Citric acid offers a variety of benefits, including being bio-degradable, non-hazardous, and less aggressive.

March 2013

NASA Remedial Project Manager Workshop - The 2013 NASA Remedial Project Manager (RPM) Workshop was held February 25-28, 2013 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This biennial event provided an excellent forum for RPMs to present their program updates and to engage with RPMs from other Centers and Component Facilities, as well as their Advocates at NASA HQ Environmental Management Division. TEERM’s contribution to this year’s workshop was successful in identifying and inviting guest speakers who could present on topics of significant interest. These speakers and their presentations were well received and generated several side discussions afterwards with potential for collaborative projects in the near future.

February 2013

Reuse of Non-Hazardous Spent Blast Media in Concrete Being Demonstrated at KSC – A joint Technology Evaluation for Environmental Risk Mitigation (TEERM) project with Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Construction of Facilities and KSC’s Environmental Management System is set to begin construction at the Propellants North area of KSC in March 2013. The objective of this project is to validate a process that utilizes spent blast media as an alternative aggregate in specific concrete mixes. At times, spent blast media has been one of KSC’s largest waste streams. This diversion of non-hazardous spent blast media from the current method of disposal as solid waste may help NASA meet the requirements of Executive Order 31514 as well as avoid costs. The 2012 KSC Sustainability Plan stipulates that future contract language include provisions to implement the blast media in concrete process. A pre-work meeting with NASA representatives and the construction contractor was recently held.

January 2013

Early Testing Complete on Hexavalent Chrome-free Coatings for Electronics - Technology Evaluation for Environmental Risk Mitigation (TEERM) initial testing of hexavalent chromium-free pretreatments has been completed, including testing of several pretreatments provided by the European Space Agency (ESA). Results from initial testing have brought panel preparation procedures into question. The hexavalent chrome control pretreatment unexpectedly failed during corrosion testing. There were also unexpected failures for some of the hexavalent chromium-free pretreatments. However, several lower TRL materials performed well during initial salt spray testing. The next phase of the project will focus on panel preparation procedures for selected hexavalent chromium-free pretreatments and the hexavalent chrome control pretreatment. Test panels with hexavalent chromium-free pretreatments will be submitted by ESA. Vendors will be supplying test panels with newly developed hexavalent chromium-free pretreatments as well.

December 2012

NASA TEERM helped execute an International Workshop on Environment and Alternative Energy on December 4-7, 2012 at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The event was supported by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Portuguese Center for Pollution Prevention (C3P). TEERM also helped with the event’s planning and coordination. The theme of the workshop was "Enabling Sustainable Space Exploration".

More than 100 individuals from eight countries attended the workshop. Thirteen students from around the globe gave either oral or poster presentations during the technical or student sessions on the latest technologies during the environmental and alternative energy workshop. Judges from NASA, C3P and ESA awarded certificates to the top three students.

In addition to the students, 36 U.S. and international subject matter experts presented on the following general environmental-related topics:

• Quantification of Green Roofs’ Contributions to Building and Community Performance
• Environmentally-Driven Changes to Aerospace Materials and Processes
• Facility Energy Supply Solutions for Critical Applications including Energy Security
• Use of Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) in Aerospace Applications

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