Beware of Impurities, Stabilizers, or Substitute Chemicals

Early one Sunday morning an explosion occurred in a nonflammable solvents plant. The explosion created a hole about 7 ft. (2 m) in diameter and 3 ft. (1 m) deep in the soil. The explosive forces were created within a temporary vessel that was 15 inches (38 cm) in diameter and 6 ft. (1.8 m) high. 

The top and bottom of this temporary vessel were constructed of 24 inch (61 cm) diameter, 3/4 inch (1.9 cm) thick flat steel plate. Each flat head was attached using 16 bolts which were 1/2 inch (1.27 cm) in diameter. The explosive forces ripped apart the bolts and propelled the top-mounted heavy disk over 450 ft. (140 m) away. The bottom plate was found in the big hole in the ground. A fire occurred and was quickly extinguished. Fortunately the only injuries were a bruised knee and an eye irritation. 

On the previous Friday, a tank of an organic solvent product was found to be high in acidity and was out of spec in color. The solvent was a nonflammable cleaning fluid used to clean grease and soil from common metals. The solvent contained an inhibiting stabilizer (nitro-methane) that is added to keep the fluid from corroding metals. 

It was the practice to neutralize slight acidity in such solvents in a pressure vessel (called a neutralizer) that was filled with solid caustic soda flakes or beads. Such treatment was a common method to improve tainted inventories of solvent intermediates and products. The operating team was pleased to secure the equipment and caustic soda to improve this product. 

However, this particular product was a solvent treated with about 2 percent of nitro-methane stabilizer and not like the other intermediates or products. If any chemist from the control lab had been contacted, he would have opposed this neutralization scheme. 

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