What is Ammonium Nitrate? Beirut Capital Destroyed!
📌On August 4th of 2020, an ammonium nitrate explosion yet again struck the Beirut capital, leaving 300,000 homeless people; several fatalities and injuries. In this video, we try to analyze the use of this chemical and the explosion stages that led to this catastrophe. Check my channel to watch interesting videos related to science and technology / @kuriouskoala
🕔Time Stamp:
0:00 Intro
0:47 Important Properties and Uses
3:44 Explosion Analysis
6:50 Investigation Conclusions
7:15 Previous Explosions
8:03 Looking for Alternatives
8:54 Outro
📝Script:
Ammonium nitrate is a salt commonly used as a fertilizer in agriculture to increase the nitrogen content in crops as it helps them grow. It is a chemical compound formed by the two ions of ammonium and nitrate; is considered relatively stable under most conditions, which means it does not rapidly lose nitrogen to the atmosphere
It is labeled as an oxidizing agent meaning its really rich in oxygen. Why is this important to know? Well It essentially means that it accelerates the burning of flammable materials even in the absence of air, because we know burning requires oxygen. Of course it HAS to come in contact with them but even then, unless it is contaminated in some sort of way, Ammonium Nitrate CAN NOT burn on its own. Thats why there are strict regulations for what should be stored beside ammonium nitrate and the conditions under where it should be stored.
When it's put in high enough temperatures, ammonium nitrate can violently decompose. This process creates gases including nitrogen oxides and water vapor. It is this rapid release of gases that unfortunately might lead to a violent explosion. It also tends to cake up under humid atmospheres which increases the threat and danger of the substance due to the high pressure conditions. Of course, the larger the quantity in one place, the higher the risk of detonation, so it should be stored in relatively small quantities and moved around frequently
Remember when I said it can violently explode under certain conditions? Well this property cant go unnoticed... Ammonium nitrate is actually used widely as a bulk industrial explosive for mining and construction OR... for actual harm, it can be mixed up with fuel oil ( a flammable material ) called AMFO and be turned into a bomb for warfare uses or actual terrorism. Fertilizer bombs as a result are quite common for terrorist attacks. Another example of this is Amotel, where ammonium nitrate is mixed with TNT to give the same result
All of these conditions, unfortunately, were not met in Lebanon, which has suffered recently from an ammonium nitrate explosion in its Beirut port. The explosion was met with tragic losses in the country and resulted in 300,000 homeless people. But lets rewind for a moment and explain what the explosion can tell us about its nature at each phase.
It's been reported that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were stored in the warehouse for six years without proper safety controls which might explain the contamination we just talked about. The 6 year period can additionally be another reason for how the chemical compound might have dissociated over time and became potentially dangerous.
So until now, according to this footage, we can only conclude that there were fumes from the fire + an initial trigger, along with mixed conditions of massively stored, pressurized and contaminated ammonium nitrate that made it combustable itself or combusted along with something else. But then notice, there is a massive blast wave in a shape of a white cloud spreading in all directions. This blast wave results from a pressurized and explosive core expanding supersonically outward. Notice that the explosion in Beirut occurred on the sea, which absorbed 50 to 70% of the damage it might have caused in the Lebanese capital, otherwise, if it were in the midst of the city, the city could've been completely destroyed.
Over history, several similar explosions have occurred, most notably In 2015, in the city of tianjin China, an explosion happened after flammable substances and ammonium nitrate were stored together in a chemical factory leading to 173 deaths. It's been reported that there were 800 tons of ammonium nitrate that lead to this explosion. Similar explosions have also happened in Texas back in 1947 tragically killing at least 580 people, and Toulouse as we mentioned, killing 37.
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