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Author: Subject: What all can I do with this big bag of fertilizer?
woelen
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[*] posted on 1-11-2006 at 13:12


Sad that things have developed like that in the US. Over here we still can buy so-called KAS (80% ammonium nitrate, rest is chalk) in 25 kg bags. Very easy to purify, simply dissolve in water, let the chalk settle, use that as fertilizer and evaporate the clear solution. With some more effort we also can find 34-0-0 fertilizer.
Also very easy to obtain is so-called chili-saltpeter in 25 kg bags, which is 99+% NaNO3 with 0.1% added borate as trace element. This can be used as such, together with BBQ-bricks and a small amount of Al-filings as a great and very bright piece of firework.
For some peculiar reason, KNO3 cannot be found anywhere in pure form, where I live. At least, I have never seen it being sold in farmer's places.




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[*] posted on 2-11-2006 at 12:24


"NH4NO3 will not detonate from simple heating. I still don't understand why people think that it does. It will decompose long before it detonates"
I guess some people think it detonates because of things like this.

http://www.uneptie.org/pc/apell/disasters/toulouse/home.html

I can't say I blame them for thinking AN is prone to detonation given that it, err, detonates.
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[*] posted on 2-11-2006 at 12:47


A sufficiently large exotherm (tons, say) would tend to burn, deflegrate and finally explode, no? Not a high-yielding explosion of course, as AN is prone to do (in many industrial AN explosions, much bulk material is thrown out of the blast, unexploded).

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[*] posted on 2-11-2006 at 16:19


Just buy two bags of fertilizer. One containing Ammonium Ions and the other containing Nitrate ions. If you know a thing or two about chemistry you will make sure that one of your products is an insoluble salt.
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[*] posted on 27-9-2007 at 20:12


Bump!
I have a question regarding ammonium nitrate fertilizer that doesn really need its own thread.

I found a store in France called Weldom that carries lots of interesting things, e.g. all the NaClO3 I will need in a lifetime, and AN fertilizer that is much purer than our 80% AN/20% chalk stuff (fertilizer containing more than 80% AN is banned in Germany).

This fertilizer calls itself ammonium nitrate on the bag, but lists the nitrogen content as 33,5%. Pure technical grade ammonium nitrate does however have a N content of 34,5% as stated in Ullmann.
In Ullmann it is further said that AN fertilizer is manufactured to two specifications: one to 34,5% N and one to 33,5% N.
But it doesnt say what is added to the 33,5% stuff to reduce its N content like that!
By what I found out by googling, the 33,5% N AN contains some stabilizers to reduce the grain disintegration due to the phase transition at 32°C.

Can someone who has knowledge about AN fertilizers tell me what exactly those stabilizers are, and what exact AN content the 33,5%N fertilizer has?





[Edited on 28-9-2007 by garage chemist]




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