Ammonia Explosion and The West Fertilizer Company

West Texas is a small town in McLennan County, central Texas. The population is about 2,800. On the evening of Wednesday, April 17, 2013, a massive explosion occurred in the town. The Western Fertilizer Company owned by Adair Grain Inc., which stores anhydrous ammonia and ammonium nitrate in other agricultural products, is the cause of the explosion. This was not the first such explosion in Texas; in 1947, the explosion in Texas, Texas caused nearly 600 deaths, of which ammonia was an important part of the explosion (Jonsson, 2013).

"Ammonia is used to make explosives and chemical fertilizers, it dissolves in the moisture of the soil (converted to ammonia if the soil is acidic) and goes into the nitrogen cycle which is converted into nitrate ion by soil bacteria. Root ions are absorbed by plants through the roots and used in proteins, chlorophylls, nucleic acids 1. N 2 (g) - This increases the concentration of reactants, so the system is balanced by making more product (G) When removing N 2 (g), the system tries to keep balance by adding more reactants from the product, so the ammonia produced is reduced.

As mentioned above, nitrogen combines with hydrogen to form ammonia for use in fertilizers and cleaning agents. Ammonium nitrate, which is mainly used as a fertilizer, is also a dangerous explosive, like the fear effect of the bombing of the Alfred P. Mula Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995 - this tragedy is a dangerous explosive - 168 He took his life. Ammonium nitrate is also not the only nitrogen-based explosive. Nitric acid is used for the manufacture of trinitrotoluene (TNT), nitroglycerin and explosives, as well as explosives and smokeless powders.

Technological development had a major impact on changes in agriculture. Ammonia, built to make explosives during World War II, can be used to make fertilizer, so that the price of real fertilizer drops permanently. Since the remaining few horses and donkeys were abolished, in the early 1950s it was the peak of US tractor sales. The processing capacity of agricultural machines expanded dramatically. In 1949, we succeeded in introducing cotton picking machine. Plant breeding research has produced edible crop varieties that can increase yields by introducing large amounts of fertilizer. This brought about a green revolution that began in the 1940 's.

As early as 1908, the harbor found a way to make ammonia in the laboratory for use as fertilizer. This is a very important finding. Fertilizer significantly increases the yield of crops but by that time ammonia can only be harvested from limited natural sources such as bird feces. Harbor is scheduled to receive the Nobel laureate chemosynthesis chemistry prize in 1918 and is still considered the most important innovation in the 20th century. It helps save billions of people from starvation and helps to feed about half of the world's population today.