Thermal stability and compatibility of ammonium nitrate explosives on a small and large scale

A tale of two plants: Using LOPA for SIL assignment

“…Therefore, maintaining the pH of AN solution above the neutral point is of critical importance, particularly when handling contaminated AN. Organic contaminants act as a fuel source to the oxidizing properties of AN and greatly energize the decomposition process [16]. The overall effect of contaminants is to sensitize AN by lowering the “onset temperature,” or the temperature at which self‐sustained decomposition (SSD) can occur.…”

Ammonium nitrate thermal decomposition with additives

“…The melting point of AN is around 170 C and it decomposes above 210 C (HSE, 1996). Previous studies (MacNeil et al, 1997;Oxley et al, 1992) have reported that at 200 C, slow decomposition can occur. Adiabatic calorimetry tests of large samples of 100 g, indicate that AN may decompose as early as 190 C (Turcotte et al, 2003).…”

“…Promoters include explosive substances (Texas, 1947), such as nitrocellulose, aromatic nitro compounds; non-explosive combustible substances (Texas, 1947), such as sulfur, charcoal, flour, sugar, or oil; incombustible substances (Texas, 1947) such as pyrite (Gunawan and Zhang, 2009), zinc, cadmium, and copper; chloride salts (Li and Koseki, 2005b), such as ammonium chloride, barium chloride, calcium chloride, sodium chloride and potassium chloride; cations of chromium, iron and aluminum (Oxley et al, 1992); carbonaceous materials; hydrocarbon waxes (Cook and Talbot, 1951); inorganic acid, like sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid (Sun et al, 2005); common organic contaminants (Marlair and Kordek, 2005), such as animal fats, baled cotton, baled rags, baled scrap paper, bleaching powder, burlap of cotton bags, caustic soda, coke, charcoal, coal, cork, camphor, excelsior, fibers of any sort, fish oil, fish meal, foam rubber, hay, lubricating oil, fish meal, linseed oil or drying oils, naphthalene, oakum, oiled clothing, oiled paper, oiled textiles, paint, straw, sawdust, wood shavings and vegetable oil. The promoting effect of the above mentioned materials can be a result of their chemical affinity with ammonium nitrate; or they can affect the mass and heat transfer when the reaction occurs; or due to a constant supply of high temperature, because of the heat generated by the flammable compounds, etc.…”

Explosion Performance of High‐Temperature Degraded Emulsion Explosives

“…Xu et al analyzed the thermal decomposition process of emulsion explosives (ammonium nitrate) with pyrite using techniques of TG-DTG-DTA and TG-DSC-MS, the results showed that the presence of pyrite reduced the decomposition temperature and accelerated the rate of decomposition of ammonium nitrate and emulsion explosives [10]. Besides, the influence of oil phase, water content, dynamic pressure, chromium ion, chloride ion and iron ion [11][12][13][14][15][16] on emulsion explosives thermal stability has also been studied. However, the effect of hot water bath on explosion performance of EE sensitized by different sensitizers is unclear.…”