Massive Blast in Lebanon

[Bob001]

Not to digress too far, but why is this extremely dangerous stuff routinely used as fertilizer? Even storing a bag in a shed has to be a threat to life and limb. Is there no useful material that doesn't blow things up?

 

[arthwollipot]

I'm gonna say that perhaps it's used because it works.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

It looks like the 21st Century version of the Oppau Explosion.

another case of unsafely stored explosive material caused massive injury and death - 99 years ago.

People should know better by now.

 

[Puppycow]

Not to digress too far, but why is this extremely dangerous stuff routinely used as fertilizer? Even storing a bag in a shed has to be a threat to life and limb. Is there no useful material that doesn't blow things up?

My understanding is that the world would not be able to feed itself without it.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process

Nearly 50% of the nitrogen found in human tissues originated from the Haber–Bosch process.[48] Thus, the Haber process serves as the "detonator of the population explosion", enabling the global population to increase from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 7.7 billion by November 2018.[49]

 

[Ziggurat]

Not to digress too far, but why is this extremely dangerous stuff routinely used as fertilizer? Even storing a bag in a shed has to be a threat to life and limb. Is there no useful material that doesn't blow things up?

It’s all about the nitrogen. Nitrogen is vital to all life, but plants cannot use nitrogen from the air. They need it bonded in a solid, not as N₂. But solid nitrogen compounds are often very energetic (that’s why plants can’t make it themselves). And... that’s what makes things go boom. Look up them chemical formula for different explosives, you will find a lot of them contain nitrogen.

Typical lawn fertilizer contains enough other stuff to dilute its explosive potential.

 

[Checkmite]

Because people don't learn from history.

Right away I thought of this one in TX in 1947. Ammonium Nitrate was the source: History: Fertilizer explosion kills 581 in Texas

I thought it was 1500 dead but my memory doesn't match the article. And I know it was a ship being loaded on the docks so this is the one I was thinking of.

So fire starts, isn't controlled then kablooie. The death toll is going to be well into the 100s.

My first thought was this incident, also from Texas but in 2013, and also an ammonium nitrate incident:



This incident killed "only" 15 people and injured 200 more, owing mostly to the fact this happened in a very small town. The 15 dead were 10 volunteer firefighters and a few other civilians who were helping them fight the fire at the time of detonation.

I've already mentioned the Tianjin incident, which was a series of nitrate explosions:

(Warning, language - one of the videos is narrated by a drunk foul-mouthed American tourist)



Subjectively, the Tianjin major explosions both, but especially the second, larger one, looked larger than the Beirut explosion, although the Tianjin incident taking place at night makes a 1-to-1 comparison difficult.

 

[Lukraak_Sisser]

It’s all about the nitrogen. Nitrogen is vital to all life, but plants cannot use nitrogen from the air. They need it bonded in a solid, not as N₂. But solid nitrogen compounds are often very energetic (that’s why plants can’t make it themselves). And... that’s what makes things go boom. Look up them chemical formula for different explosives, you will find a lot of them contain nitrogen.

Typical lawn fertilizer contains enough other stuff to dilute its explosive potential.

In addition to this, it's not dangerous if properly handled and stored.
But that costs money and humans tend to go for the 'eh, it'll be all right' if that is cheaper.

 

[Delvo]

Not to digress too far, but why is this extremely dangerous stuff routinely used as fertilizer? Even storing a bag in a shed has to be a threat to life and limb. Is there no useful material that doesn't blow things up?

This is the form in which plants' roots can absorb nitrogen. They can't get it from the air or in other nitrogen compounds. Once the plants have it, of course, they can take it apart and shuffle its atoms around into lots of other nifty arrangements, but this is the only one that can move from outside the plant to inside it. (You might recall something about gas exchange happening between the air and the leaves, but that's just for O₂, CO₂, and H₂O. N₂ can physically flow into & out of the same openings, but it does so untouched, like an inert element; the leaf cells can't bring it in & use it.)

In a natural environment, nobody needs to add fertilizer because bacteria in the soil produce this stuff using N₂ from the air. But the bacteria don't concentrate it for shipping; it stays at relatively low levels, dissolved in water either inside living cells or stuck to the surfaces of grains of soil, and doesn't sit for long before the plants take it. (Bacteria get some other nutrients from the plants in trade.)

What makes it necessary for farming is the fact that harvesting plant parts means taking away the nitrogen that's built in to those plant parts, which is a substantial fraction of the mass of any organism or food, so the total amount of nitrogen being taken away from the land per year would be more than what the soil bacteria can keep up with.

I don't know why it's not used in Lebanon. My first guess would be that the soil there is so unproductive that it wouldn't lose nitrogen too fast anyway because you just can't harvest much mass from it and nobody really even tries. (Its main agricultural products are tree fruits, not grains.) Or they might primarily farm plants that need less of it or are even net producers of it because they're associated with soil bacteria producing more of it than the plants need. (Legumes are famous for this, but they're not alone.)

 

[Travis]

I have to think that keeping 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate in the middle of a city is not a recommended practice and that someone is going to be in huge trouble with this.


Also, I'm seeing that Lebanon was apparently in the middle of a financial crisis that I hadn't heard of. What is the deal on that? Will the combination of these two events lead to a fall of their government? I sure hope this doesn't end up being the 80s all over again.

 

[Andy_Ross]

It was a cargo from a ship impounded by port authorities because of it's unsafe condition.
It was then abandoned by the owners and crew and the cargo put in to a warehouse in 2013

The 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that detonated on Tuesday can be traced back to the Rhosus, which called into the Port of Beirut on September 23, 2013 after experiencing technical difficulties. The ship, sailing under a Moldovan flag, was en route from Georgia to Mozambique. Once in port, the Rhosus underwent an inspection by Port State Control technicians who found significant deficiencies and banned it from resuming operations.

The majority of the ship's crew were repatriated, but the captain and three of the crew members were forced to stay aboard. Unfortunately, their situation would continue to deteriorate as all attempts to contact the owner of the ship failed to elicit a response. Further complicating matters were immigration regulations that prevented the crew from even deboarding the ship.

With the crew unable to deboard, and with no incoming supplies or provisions, the situation aboard the Rhosus quickly became a humanitarian issue which even diplomatic efforts failed to resolve. Eventually, the crew contacted legal professionals who successfully argued that the crews’ lives were threatened not only by their stranding, but also due to the dangerous nature of the cargo. The crew received an emergency injunction from the judge, and shortly thereafter left Beirut.

After the departure of the Rhosus’ crew, and the continued silence of its owner, the Port Authority was left with responsibility over the highly explosive contents of the ship. Although currently unsubstantiated, it is possible that legal claims prevented the auctioning of the ammonium nitrates which were left on land storage as the only avenue for the safekeeping of the material. At some point between July 2014 and October 2015, the ammonium nitrate was moved to a warehouse where, ostensibly, it remained until the catastrophic explosion.

https://stableseas.org/maritime-terrorism/explosion-beirut-seafarer-rights

 

[Andy_Ross]

Something similar happened to tanker on the Tees a few years ago. It was stopped from sailing after an inspection as the crew conditions were below standard and the general condition of the ship was dangerous. It sat on the Tees for about 18 months.
Also a ship was stuck in Great Yarmouth for nearly 2 years after the owners went bust.
In that case the captain stayed aboard alone to stop anyone claiming 'salvage' on it while ownership was worked out.

It's not all that rare and is becoming more common.
International Maritime Organization and the International Labor Organization reports nearly 5,000 seafarers were abandoned on their vessels in nearly 400 separate incidents between 2004 and 2018.

 

[wobs]

It looks like the 21st Century version of the Oppau Explosion.

another case of unsafely stored explosive material caused massive injury and death - 99 years ago.

People should know better by now.

And like Oppau, it was fairly close to other activities/people, which has been a major part of the problem.

Perhaps its time to start regulating this quantity of ammonia in a more global way.

 

[Andy_Ross]

One of the largest ever non-nuclear explosions was at RAF Fauld in WW2 when an underground bomb store exploded. 4000 tons of HE went up There is still a huge crater 91 m deep and 230 m across.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Fauld_explosion

 

[wobs]

One of the largest ever non-nuclear explosions was at RAF Fauld in WW2 when an underground bomb store exploded. 4000 tons of HE went up There is still a huge crater 91 m deep and 230 m across.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Fauld_explosion

By coincidence I watched a youtube vid on that yesterday. Tom Scott on youtube has some really interesting short films.

Like most of these accidents, its a number of factors that come together to cause the incident. In the case of the bomb store, the causes included multiple senior personnel being on leave at the same time, meaning a lack of leadership, and the store not being designed to cope with that quantity of explosives.

 

[Crazy Chainsaw]

Not to digress too far, but why is this extremely dangerous stuff routinely used as fertilizer? Even storing a bag in a shed has to be a threat to life and limb. Is there no useful material that doesn't blow things up?

I have used it, it's basically safe as long as stored away from metals Fire, and water, wasn't this wearhouse next to a fireworks factory? Ps. You can no longer get explosive Grade without a blasters licence. Application to North Carolina Giant water melon vines, explosives grade AN gave me 180 pound water melons that were thieft proof.
No one ever stole one of them, but the small seedless Sugar babies were stripped clean one night.

 

[theprestige]

Not to digress too far, but why is this extremely dangerous stuff routinely used as fertilizer? Even storing a bag in a shed has to be a threat to life and limb. Is there no useful material that doesn't blow things up?

The same chemistry that makes it fertilizer makes it energetic. You're basically asking the chemistry version of "is there any kind of nuclear reactor fuel that isn't radioactive?" Or the chemistry version of "is there any way to run a marathon without burning calories and getting tired?"

 

[catsmate]

Certainly not in yield, though.

Perhaps a quarter to a sixth.

Uhhhhh no. Translated:

'It appears that there is a warehouse containing material that was confiscated years ago, and it appears that it was highly explosive material."

AN is not 'highly explosive'.
Even in a well made mix with a suitable fuel (such as the classic ANFO mix with diesel) maxes out at 50% of the energy, and far lower brisance, of TNT
It's fairly inert as an explosive, difficult to detonate and low density.

The problem with an is a mix of ubiquity and complacence. It's produced on a vast scale, around 20-25 million tonnes pa and shipped on a similar scale.
Unlike hydrogen (which is produced on a far larger scale but not shipped as much), sulphuric acid (the most produced industrial chemical worldwide) et cetera AN is a white powder that's quite safe in general. Hence people get complacent, ignore or postpone adherence to safety regs and you see incidents like this (and many others over the decades).

 

[theprestige]

I have to think that keeping 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate in the middle of a city is not a recommended practice and that someone is going to be in huge trouble with this.

I doubt it. I think it's more likely that everyone involved in the decision knew the risks and chose the least available evil out of necessity. The Lebanese government may end up scapegoating somebody, but I think that would be unfortunate.

 

[Belz...]

The same chemistry that makes it fertilizer makes it energetic. You're basically asking the chemistry version of "is there any kind of nuclear reactor fuel that isn't radioactive?" Or the chemistry version of "is there any way to run a marathon without burning calories and getting tired?"

Or "can we do any activity that doesn't present risk?"

 

[catsmate]

I think I'm right in saying that when these sorts of nitrate-to-free-oxygen explosions have previously occurred, they've almost always tended to happen in rural environments with low population density -

Port of Texas, Oppau, Nixon, Brest; all large AN detonations, all happened in factory or port settings.
In general storage on dedicated sites is safe. Moving the stuff in bulk and problems with cargo handling are where the trouble usually lies.
In fact port accidents are moderately common.