Safety Assessment of Materials used in Construction and Equipment for Ammonium Nitrate Production and Storage

Keywords: Ammonium nitrate, Fertiliser safety, Ammonium nitrate storage, Ammonium nitrate handling.

This paper considers various aspects of the selection and specification of safe materials for use in ammonium nitrate (AN) fertiliser plants and in storage areas with respect to their compatibility with ammonium nitrate. It briefly describes the relevant potential hazards of AN and its manufacturing process. It covers aspects of management systems required for effective control, with an example. It describes a range of simple AN compatibility tests suitable for evaluation of the likely behaviour of the material in an AN environment in process, handling and storage situations. All main areas of production and storage where various materials are generally used by the industry in construction, in equipment and in ancillary systems are described with examples.

The issues concerning the use in storage areas of bitumen-based flooring material, commonly referred to as ‘Tarmac’, has been described in more detail with description and findings of the recent medium and large-scale tests carried out at Billingham and at the Health & Safety Laboratory, Buxton, UK.

Kish D Shah MBE, Consultant, Stockton-on-Tees, UK.

23 Pages, 4 Figures, 4 Tables, 5 References.

ERRATUM NOTE: IFS PROCEEDINGS NO 516, PAGE 15:

Please replace the original printed text in the bullet point above Section 6.7.2 on page 15 with:

When solidified ammonium nitrate is peeled away from the ‘Tarmac’ surface at the end of test run it pulls with it a thin layer of the softened surface of the ‘Tarmac’. ‘Tarmac’ does not appear to mix with AN.