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Ammonium nitrate is an important fertilizer with NPK rating 34-0-0 (34% nitrogen). [17] It is less concentrated than urea (46-0-0), giving ammonium nitrate a slight transportation disadvantage. Ammonium nitrate's advantage over urea is that it is more stable and does not rapidly lose nitrogen to the atmosphere.
Country Location Date Deaths AN (tonnes) Notes United States Gibbstown, New Jersey : 14 January 1916: 1 1.81 In an evaporating pan of the Repauno works, du Pont Co., 1,800 kilograms (4,000 lb) of ammonium nitrate exploded, possibly caused by a clogged air lance leading to overheating of the nitrate. 1 man was killed and 12 were injured.
On April 17, 2013, an ammonium nitrate explosion occurred at the West Fertilizer Company storage and distribution facility in West, Texas, United States (18 miles (29 km) north of Waco), while emergency services personnel were responding to a fire at the facility. [7]
Three hundred tonnes of ammonium nitrate was stored (the maximum capacity was 2,000 tonnes) in hangar 221 222. [1] The entire factory was destroyed, making a crater with a depth of about 7 metres (23 ft) and a diameter of 40 metres (130 ft). [2] Steel girders were found 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) away from the explosion site. [3]
The scale of the damage resembles other blasts involving the chemical compound commonly used as an agricultural fertilizer.
The use of ammonium nitrate in explosives is patented in Sweden. [13] 1875 Gelignite, the first plastic explosive, is invented by Alfred Nobel. [14] [13] 1884: Paul Marie Eugène Vieille creates Poudre B, the first practical smokeless powder. [6] 1891 The explosive properties of TNT are discovered by Carl Häussermann. [9] 1894
Grandcamp had a mixed cargo, containing chiefly ammonium nitrate, but also twine, peanuts, tobacco, some small arms ammunition, engineering equipment, and cotton. [2]: 1 The ammonium nitrate, needed either as fertilizer or an explosive, was manufactured in Nebraska and Iowa and shipped to Texas City by rail before being loaded onto Grandcamp. [4]
The Port Neal fertilizer plant explosion occurred on December 13, 1994 in the ammonium nitrate plant at the Terra International, Inc., Port Neal Complex, 16 mi (26 km) south of Sioux City, Iowa, United States. [1] Four workers at the plant were killed by the explosion, and eighteen others were injured. [3]