# BOOOOM!! Big freaking red cloud!!



## Martijn (Mar 24, 2022)

We are getting a new big ships lock in terneuzen, near where I live, the old walls needed to be blown apart yesterday. The blast was way louder and bigger than promised haha. 
I just watched the video and really wanted to share this BFRC.
The wind that rarely comes from the north as it yesterday did blew the cloud straight to the construction site offices where the experts that caused this were hiding LOL. "hold your breath!!"
Is this normal for dynamite?

No fishing anytime soon over there. The algae will explode next I guess.

Drone filmt sloop van zeesluis in Terneuzen | NU.nl

imagine that coming your way!!


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## Yggdrasil (Mar 24, 2022)

Ammonia Nitrate and Fuel explosive I guess


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## Lou (Mar 24, 2022)

It's a sign of unused nitrate and bad fuel/oxidizer mix.


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## orvi (Mar 24, 2022)

Oh no  reminds me some very notorious videos from India or Middle East, how guys over there refine the stuff... Most notably that one where they dissolve processors in nitric acid on the top of the building 
Quite an incompetence, allow this to happen. Never seen this before, and I must admit that I played with this stuff while ago.


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## Stibnut (Mar 24, 2022)

Yeah, definitely a poorly made ANFO explosive. The enormous explosion in Beirut a couple years ago featured a huge red cloud, which was a sign that it wasn't intentional - there wasn't enough fuel for all the nitrate. Turned out it was a bad idea to toss thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate into a decrepit warehouse along with some sacks of illegal fireworks and then send some welders with no idea of the danger to make long-delayed repairs!


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## orvi (Mar 24, 2022)

Stibnut said:


> Yeah, definitely a poorly made ANFO explosive. The enormous explosion in Beirut a couple years ago featured a huge red cloud, which was a sign that it wasn't intentional - there wasn't enough fuel for all the nitrate. Turned out it was a bad idea to toss thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate into a decrepit warehouse along with some sacks of illegal fireworks and then send some welders with no idea of the danger to make long-delayed repairs!


Yup. With poor and incomplete understanding of chemistry and its consequences, it could end up in horrible disasters.

Ammonium nitrate has very annoying tendency to cake together, as it is very hygroscopic. When shipped by sea or rail, usually the whole bulk solidified to a rock-hard substance, which couldn´t be excavated nor shoveled. Then a bunch of "smart" people come up with idea to just loosen the whole cargo by few dynamite sticks  And as the wet ammonium nitrate is pretty tough to detonate, it worked somehow... But it did not last long, and first incidents come up, when whole railroad wagon exploded, killing everybody in 200 m radius etc...






List of ammonium nitrate disasters - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org





Very similar toppic is neglecting chemistry in recycling Li-Ion batteries. Most of the times, Li-metal oxide layer is deposited on thin aluminium carrier. Waste foils with oxide together with batteries or parts that did not pass QC were intended to be recycled. So big brain guys ordered a shredder, shoveled the material in and intended to separate aluminium from cobalt/nickel oxides gravitationally. Nobody expected that whole shredder would end up melted in a "pool of lava" after first 50 kilograms were put in  thankfuly, nobody was injured.
Thermite mixtures aren´t just iron oxide based  cobalt and nickel are more violent ones. Often, it just need some high friction to superheat some small grains of the material, causing the whole bulk just burn instantly.
Thankfully, Li-Ion batteries have electrolyte. In case when a full charged battery catch fire, electrolyte is instantly vaporized and burned = cooling the insides of the cell. Otherwise it would be more than close to the temperature needed to trigger thermite reaction... Scary to think about something like this happen somewhere in the road. Melting whole vehicle to one 2000°C pool of lava.


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## Alondro (Mar 24, 2022)

orvi said:


> Yup. With poor and incomplete understanding of chemistry and its consequences, it could end up in horrible disasters.
> 
> Ammonium nitrate has very annoying tendency to cake together, as it is very hygroscopic. When shipped by sea or rail, usually the whole bulk solidified to a rock-hard substance, which couldn´t be excavated nor shoveled. Then a bunch of "smart" people come up with idea to just loosen the whole cargo by few dynamite sticks  And as the wet ammonium nitrate is pretty tough to detonate, it worked somehow... But it did not last long, and first incidents come up, when whole railroad wagon exploded, killing everybody in 200 m radius etc...
> 
> ...


Ok, now I want to see this. Please tell me video exists somewhere.


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## goldshark (Mar 25, 2022)

Usually the excess NOX is caused by either the ANFO not going at a steady state velocity ( not enough pressure in booster), or moisture in ANFO column shrinking the critical diameter to go low order.


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## orvi (Mar 25, 2022)

Alondro said:


> Ok, now I want to see this. Please tell me video exists somewhere.


Unfortunately, I cannot provide you any video. But you can watch how nickel thermite burns, and scale the output for like 50 kilos  additionally, Li-Ion "thermite" was overstoichiometric with Al, there is more than 2x molar excess of Al, so the reaction is even more violent.



The race for lowering the costs and weight of the batteries is unhealthy. Typically, copper anode carrier foil was used, but with extra cost of copper and "needs" for lighter batteries forced industry to take hazardous shortcuts in exchange for some additional buck...


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## Alondro (Mar 25, 2022)

orvi said:


> Unfortunately, I cannot provide you any video. But you can watch how nickel thermite burns, and scale the output for like 50 kilos  additionally, Li-Ion "thermite" was overstoichiometric with Al, there is more than 2x molar excess of Al, so the reaction is even more violent.
> 
> 
> 
> The race for lowering the costs and weight of the batteries is unhealthy. Typically, copper anode carrier foil was used, but with extra cost of copper and "needs" for lighter batteries forced industry to take hazardous shortcuts in exchange for some additional buck...




And the authorities get suspicious if you buy a can of black powder, when you can melt through a bank vault door with stuff you can make from scrap electronics. lol


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