Posted by Paul on April 18, 2013 at 08:59:25 from (66.44.133.46):
In Reply to: Re: west, tx posted by wilson ind on April 18, 2013 at 08:17:51:
There are very many types of nitrogen fertilizer.
Ammonium nitrate is one type, it is actually gotten to be very rare around my location, but understand it is still used in some places. This is the stuff that, mixed with diesel fuel, is a big explosive. As well, when mixed with water and heat, it can also be an explosive. If this fertilizer company had AN stored there, and if that AN got hot and got wet in the right amounts, or If petroliums products from fuel tanks, shingles, etc got mixed in, it would be the most likely cause of such a big explosion.
AN is the stuff used to make explosive devices, it is fairly safe, but makes a tremendous boom.
The anhydrous ammonia tanks, also known as NH3, can blow up if they are heated and don't vent. Also there are very rare, very hard to create conditions that can cause it to become explosive, but that is very hard to do, and the explosions are not as violent from NH3. This fertilizer is a gas at normal pressures, and aggressively seeks out water. Once it gets its water, it is very stable and not a danger at all. Just basic elements in our air. But the tank of it, being heated by a fire, poses a big danger as the stuff is deadly to breath when it is 'fresh' and still seeking water.
The media and officials are terribly confused as to which product we are talking about. They are using the 2 different product interchangeably.
They are very, very different products.
The media has so butchered their description of this, we don't really know what products were there.
A most likely situation is they had some AN in a pile in the fert building, and it got wet and heated in efforts to put out the building fire. And this is what blew up.
The anhydrous tanks were likely venting from getting hot and causing a short term breathing hazard, and it is possible a tank ruptured from the heat or from the AN explosion, but it would be very unusual for the tank of anhydrous to be the main cause of any explosion. Not impossible, but very unlikely.
All of this is speculation, I can be proven wrong. But this is the best odds of what happened, the mishmash of stuff the media is saying is just terribly wrong and mis informed.
We farmers use a lot more urea fertilizer, which is a third type of nitrogen, and again is little pellets, very stable, not explosive, not very dangerous.
As the media is reporting things, it would appear to the public at large that all fertilizer any farmer used is terribly dangerous, very explosive, and should be banned forever!
And that is sad, as that is farthest from the truth.
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