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Fireworks/Munitions Factory in the port of Beirut explodes

 
 
 
Isaac Asimov started an essay about physical conservation laws by noting that his father would spend lots of time checking his candy store's accounting books and trying to resolve discrepancies. "The books gotta balance", he would say.

Let's see about ammonium nitrate. It is composed of ions NH4+ and NO3-, and it has formula NH4NO3. When it explodes, it makes N2, H2O, and O2 --

NH4NO3 -> N2 + 2H2O + (1/2)*O2

ANFO is AN + fuel oil, a mixture of hydrocarbons CxHy. I'll use (CH2) for the fuel-oil part, because that is approximately correct for saturated hydrocarbons.

CH2 + (3/2)*O2 -> CO2 + H2O

NH4NO3 + (1/3)*CH2 -> N2 + (1/3)*CO2 + (7/3)*H2O

1 mole of NH4NO3 = 80 grams
1 mole of CH2 = 14 grams
So by weight, one needs 20 parts of AN and 7 parts of FO
 
lpetrich said:
Isaac Asimov started an essay about physical conservation laws by noting that his father would spend lots of time checking his candy store's accounting books and trying to resolve discrepancies. "The books gotta balance", he would say.

Let's see about ammonium nitrate. It is composed of ions NH4+ and NO3-, and it has formula NH4NO3. When it explodes, it makes N2, H2O, and O2 --

NH4NO3 -> N2 + 2H2O + (1/2)*O2

ANFO is AN + fuel oil, a mixture of hydrocarbons CxHy. I'll use (CH2) for the fuel-oil part, because that is approximately correct for saturated hydrocarbons.

CH2 + (3/2)*O2 -> CO2 + H2O

NH4NO3 + (1/3)*CH2 -> N2 + (1/3)*CO2 + (7/3)*H2O

1 mole of NH4NO3 = 80 grams
1 mole of CH2 = 14 grams
So by weight, one needs 20 parts of AN and 7 parts of FO
Click to expand...

I'm surprised, I always thought the fuel oil component was smaller.
 
Loren Pechtel said:
lpetrich said:
Isaac Asimov started an essay about physical conservation laws by noting that his father would spend lots of time checking his candy store's accounting books and trying to resolve discrepancies. "The books gotta balance", he would say.

Let's see about ammonium nitrate. It is composed of ions NH4+ and NO3-, and it has formula NH4NO3. When it explodes, it makes N2, H2O, and O2 --

NH4NO3 -> N2 + 2H2O + (1/2)*O2

ANFO is AN + fuel oil, a mixture of hydrocarbons CxHy. I'll use (CH2) for the fuel-oil part, because that is approximately correct for saturated hydrocarbons.

CH2 + (3/2)*O2 -> CO2 + H2O

NH4NO3 + (1/3)*CH2 -> N2 + (1/3)*CO2 + (7/3)*H2O

1 mole of NH4NO3 = 80 grams
1 mole of CH2 = 14 grams
So by weight, one needs 20 parts of AN and 7 parts of FO
Click to expand...

I'm surprised, I always thought the fuel oil component was smaller.
Click to expand...

It usually is.

If you were going for maximum burnup, those numbers would be right. But miners don't want maximum burnup, they want maximum explosive force, which is much more complicated to calculate. Bearing in mind that you get much the same volume from a molecule of O2 as you do from a molecule of CO2, and that the change in volume is dependent on both temperature and pressure, and both of those are dependent on the rate of reaction.

The maximum efficiency is achieved at a lower FO:AN ratio, and the maximum sensitivity - the ease with which an explosion can be initiated - at an even lower ratio.

The Oklahoma City bomb used 47:1 AN:FO, which is far from ideal for burnup, efficiency, or sensitivity. But it still made a huge bang.
 
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/201...bama-era-chemical-safety-rules/1291574367255/

...
The Obama administration introduced the rule after 12 first responders died in the 2013 explosion in Texas. Firefighters were attempting to put out a blaze at the fertilizer plant when more than 80,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate exploded, creating a blast that also injured more than 160 people and damaged or destroyed dozens of buildings.
The Trump administration said it's rescinding the rule since arson was ultimately to blame for the explosion -- not the unsafe storage of chemicals -- and because of the burden of the regulation of U.S. businesses. Additionally, the EPA said it received complaints that having open access to information about chemical storage made such sites vulnerable to terror attacks.


"Under the Trump Administration, EPA is listening to our first responders and homeland security experts. Today's final action addresses emergency responders' longstanding concerns and maintains important public safety measures while saving Americans roughly $88 million per year," EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said.
...
In addition to removing the rule requiring companies to provide information about chemical storage, the EPA's actions Thursday reduce measures companies must take to prevent accidents.
....

Move over Lebanon.
 
Cheerful Charlie said:
"Under the Trump Administration, EPA is listening to our first responders and homeland security experts. Today's final action addresses emergency responders' longstanding concerns and maintains important public safety measures while saving Americans roughly $88 million per year," EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said.
...
In addition to removing the rule requiring companies to provide information about chemical storage, the EPA's actions Thursday reduce measures companies must take to prevent accidents.
....

Move over Lebanon.
Click to expand...

Wheeler, just like every other Trump crony is entirely full of shit. What he is really saying above is "We used to listen to first responders and experts in related fields, but who needs experts when you have jackbooted thugs. At least we are still pretending to listen to the first responders, so shut the fuck up about it and bend over."
 
I find the death toll of only a couple of hundred astonishing. An explosion of that size, in a densely populated city, I would expect a toll one or two orders of magnitude greater.

Is this just an artefact of the difficulty in confirming how many are dead or missing? I imagine that the bodies of anyone close to the blast would be difficult to find, much less identify.
 
bilby said:
I find the death toll of only a couple of hundred astonishing. An explosion of that size, in a densely populated city, I would expect a toll one or two orders of magnitude greater.

Is this just an artefact of the difficulty in confirming how many are dead or missing? I imagine that the bodies of anyone close to the blast would be difficult to find, much less identify.
Click to expand...
The explosion was in an industrial sort of area, and such areas don't have much population in them -- mostly their workers.
 
lpetrich said:
bilby said:
I find the death toll of only a couple of hundred astonishing. An explosion of that size, in a densely populated city, I would expect a toll one or two orders of magnitude greater.

Is this just an artefact of the difficulty in confirming how many are dead or missing? I imagine that the bodies of anyone close to the blast would be difficult to find, much less identify.
Click to expand...
The explosion was in an industrial sort of area, and such areas don't have much population in them -- mostly their workers.
Click to expand...

And that grain elevator sheltered a fair area from the worst of it.
 
Loren Pechtel said:
lpetrich said:
bilby said:
I find the death toll of only a couple of hundred astonishing. An explosion of that size, in a densely populated city, I would expect a toll one or two orders of magnitude greater.

Is this just an artefact of the difficulty in confirming how many are dead or missing? I imagine that the bodies of anyone close to the blast would be difficult to find, much less identify.
Click to expand...
The explosion was in an industrial sort of area, and such areas don't have much population in them -- mostly their workers.
Click to expand...

And that grain elevator sheltered a fair area from the worst of it.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing.
 
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